Cid swore. Cloud ran a hand through his hair and slumped onto the rim of the bathtub. Vincent just smiled softly at Cloud, telling him in that silent way not to worry. Cid swore again.

"Shit you two, you got to stop doing that silent 'I know what you're saying' bullshit with each other. It drives me, and other people too I suspect, crazy!" He glared at them and stormed out of the room with out a pause to look back.

"I'll be on the bridge" He mumbled as he left, lighting a cigarette on his way. Vincent stared at the door after he left, for a moment.

"Aren't you worried?" Cloud said calmly, his voice sounding a little upset anyway.

"Things will happen the way they will happen. It's something that took me almost a lifetime to learn, but I understand that now." Vincent said in reply. Cloud nodded, pretending to understand, and almost doing so to some extent, but for the most part he was almost entirely confused. Vincent smiled at him sincerely.

"Cloud, I think, from now, you'll never have to feel lonely again." Cloud blinked at Vincent, now completely lost. Where the hell had that comment come from?

~*****~

Sephiroth stood on the small alcove deck that was really small only in comparison the the rest of the ship. The sun was just starting to set, and if he stood near the edge of the deck, one might almost imagine that there was nothing around but empty sky. It was a refreshing feeling, the wind wrapping around his body, and sending his hair snapping haphazardly through the air. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine fingers running through it.

Sephiroth frowned. He was not even remotely content at the moment, despite the peacefulness of the scenery. He was notably frustrated at being left out, or at being what he considered left out. How long had he and Cloud been traveling together? Had it been almost a year now?

Well, it had at least been long enough for him to have gotten to know Cloud better, and it had bothered him greatly to realize he knew nothing about the man more than what he himself had seen wandering through Clouds mind.

And he had seen nothing of these people aboard the ship.

Had Cloud hidden things from him? Was it more than just a coincidence that he'd only witnessed memories of Cloud being alone, or with him or Zack?

He wondered about the woman, but only out of curiosity, he didn't feel at all threatened by her presence as he did about the black haired man. 'Vincent.' It was hard to be threatened by someone that Cloud had nearly killed for touching him. There had once been something more between them, it seemed.

Sephiroth reached for his coat pocket, searching for a cigarette, then he sighed remembering that he'd quit long before his life had gone to hell. About a year before the Nebelheim mission. He must be really stressed out to have forgotten that.

He only did that when he was feeling a little violent.

A hand next to him held a cigarette out. He eyed it and then looked at the man holding it. The pilot. He'd known of him when he was with Shinra. He took the cigarette and let the Captain light it.

"Did you ever make it into space?" He asked softly. Cid winced.

"Barely. No thanks to those Shinra bastards." Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, but didn't inquire any further. He looked back over the deck into the brilliant hues of the setting sun.

"They're not like that, you know" Cid said as he lit his own cigarette. Sephiroth resisted reacting, the feel of the cigarette calming down his nerves a bit. It was surprising how soothing bad habits could be.

"You seem to be quite a perceptive man." Sephiroth said nonchalantly. "Why do you think it's important?"

"Because it would bother me if they were. And I thought that they were because they seem to have some close bond together. I only found out different recently." Cid sighed. "And think me strange all you want, but I figured you might have the same worry since you didn't seem to even want to listen to what they trying to say."

Sephiroth blew out a smoke ring just to see if he still could. He turned around and leaned against the railing, resting his elbows on either side of him.

"Well you're correct in your assumption that I didn't want to listen to them. Or you for that matter. You all seem so chummy I didn't want to intrude" Sephiroth said sardonically. He was probably giving away a lot more than he wanted to by not maintaining his usual cool attitude, but He didn't think it would get him anywhere in this situation. Cid scratched the back of his head in slight discomfort.

"Yeah well we've been through a lot." Cid replied. He looked up at Sephiroth and met his glare straight on. "But you may be unaware that, no matter what he may have been through with us, or how close we've become, e never told us anything about himself."

"It seems to be a habit of his" Cid said as he leaned on the railing, facing outward. Sephiroth turned his head towards him. Cid frowned.

"Well that's not entirely true. He told us about you. But sometimes he seemed to have trouble keeping his facts straight. He once told Vincent that he wasn't who we thought he was, but didn't elaborate much on that. Knowing Vincent, the damn corpse didn't even bother to ask. He's entirely to sensitive towards the feelings of others." Cid said with frustration, running a hand through his hair and grabbing another cigarette from the pack he stuck in his goggles. He lit it with a heavy sigh.

"They're really quite alike you know, those two, which I suppose is why they seem so close."

"Aren't they?" Sephiroth said, sounding slightly amused. It was an illusion, and Cid probably knew that as much as he did.

"Well, they tell each other secrets like girls." He paused " Well, not quite that bad, they more share things silently. You can feel the connection between them." He looked at Sephiroth for a long minute. Sephiroth looked back, wondering what the 'old man' was thinking. 'Don't think too hard' Sephiroth thought at him 'I've experienced more than you ever will' He didn't know quite why Cid's appraising stare was bothering him quite so much.

"Now that I think about it" Cid said suddenly, causing Sephiroth to start slightly, he covered it by shifting his weight. "You're probably the reason they have such a connection. They both feel they have something to make up to you." Sephiroth frowned in confusion.

"What do you mean by that? Why Vincent?" He asked, frowning, waiting for an explanation. Cid looked at him surprised, cigarette hovering shortly from his mouth as his hand stopped in front of it.

"You mean you haven't realized it yet?" Cid said a bit incredulous. "Vincent blames himself because he's the one responsible for giving you life." Understanding dawned across Sephiroth's face after a moment of absorbing the comment.

"And he regrets that." Sephiroth said. Cid dropped his cigarette, then fumbled to catch it, giving up as it burned his hand. He shook it off as he gave Sephiroth a sideways glance.

"You don't have much faith in mankind do you." Cid accused. He sighed. "No Vincent doesn't regret giving you life, he regrets not being able to stop Hojo from taking it." Sephiroth frowned at this.

"We found him in the cellar of the Shinra mansion. In a crypt no less, He only agreed to go along with us in the first place because Cloud mentioned your name."

"I often wonder, if even then, he knew that Cloud had gone through the same experience as him."

"Same experience?" Sephiroth asked, already somewhat knowing what to expect as a grimace crossed his face.

"Yeah, Vincent had been a human, and a Turk before you were born. Lucrecia was a scientist working under Hojo. I don't know what he did to her, that Hojo, but she left Vincent for science, for an experiment that would cost her life. Vincent tried to stop her, Hojo.. objected. And Vincent hasn't aged a day since. He's constantly plagued by nightmares, and has to fight of the demons that now possess his body." Cid sighed again.

"And this he had to deal with all because he came with us. Up until that point he was locked behind that door, unknowingly only steps away from the 'secret' laboratory both he, and Cloud had been subjected to." Sephiroth frowned, knowing exactly the place he was talking about.

"I would suggest you not look at the notes. Cloud got the worse of it then he was there with Zack. Nothing seemed to effect the Soldier, but Cloud, Hojo made sure to write down his every scream. He was dying when Zack pulled him out of there. I wouldn't even have known about any of it had Vincent not told me, when he was trying to convince me to go after you and Cloud." Cid frowned and mumbled "Of course we didn't know for sure it was more than just Cloud we were going after at first. Or at least I didn't Vincent always knows more than he says, the bastard."

Sephiroth was silent for a long time. Just looking at Cid. Cid seemed to get uncomfortable after a while. He ground out his third cigarette that he'd lit sometime when Sephiroth hadn't been paying attention and turned to walk away.

"Anyway, that's the way it is. Take it however you want." Cid shrugged "Don't bother to worry too much about my babbling, it wouldn't me good if you brought it up to either of those two. I only told you for your own understanding. I don't want to be the one that betrayed their trust, so don't apprise them of the fact." Cid waked off, closing the heavy door behind him with a loud clunk. Sephiroth stared after him, wondering what he should say when he saw Cloud next.

Wondering what to think when he saw his 'father' for the 'first' time.

~*****~

Cid sat on the bridge, arms crossed over his chest, one leg flung haphazardly over the other, and a frown worn comfortably on s face. It had only been fifteen minutes since he left the one time General on the deck. He found himself wondering if the pale haired man was still there. He shook the thought out of his head. He'd decided not to interfere.

Of course it was always when he was trying to get one problem off of his mind that someone came to him with another problem. Why the hell did they always pick him. Just because of that one short while he'd led the whole damn team while Cloud was out of it.

As for the problem, well that was the asshole standing right in front of him. Professor L. as he had decided to refer to him in his mind. Mostly because the dip-shit had asked not to be called professor. What did he want now , Cid wondered. So he asked.

"What the fuck do you want now." Damn he was surly. Well he didn't care. Vincent wasn't around to give him that 'be nice' look. Louis didn't look even the least bit surprised. In fact he was getting a 'well I don't like you much either' look back from him, which made the corners of Cid's lips turn up a bit sadistically. It was nice to be hated sometimes.

"Well," Louis said blandly "I thought you might want to know that we may have a problem on our hands soon."

"Problem?"

"Yes, a problem, you know something that complicates things and makes life generally less enjoyable?"

"Save the sarcasm and spit it out, Asshole"

"Asshole, what an intelligen-" Louis paused at the glare he got from Cid. He cleared his throat. "There's been some unusual mako movements across the planet."

"And this means what to me?" Cid said, slouching a little further into his chair, trying to look as dark and foreboding as possible. This was the last person he wanted to have what would likely be a long and complicated conversation with.

"Just listen for a minute" Louis said starting to get a little frustrated "I haven't even gotten there yet."

"Well get there already, Don't waste my time telling me you've got more to say." Cid said, knowing that by acting like this it was likely dragging out this conversation even longer. At the moment he didn't care. He was somewhat jealous of the attention Sephiroth got from the 'moody twins.' He didn't hate the man, or envy him. He was just being jealous.

Kind of strange how alike those two were, one having long straight dark hair, pale skin, the other with fluffy short blond hair and tan skin. Cid's eyes widened as he realized that he had completely missed what Louis had been saying for the last few minutes.

Louis was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. Cid coughed.

"Uh, could you repeat that? I wasn't listening." Cid said, trying to avoid sounding too embarrassed.

"I noticed" Came a dry reply. Louis sighed "As I was saying, If you had been paying attention to recent news, reports of supernatural homicides have gone up greatly." Cid adjusted himself so he was sitting up strait once again. He leaned forward a bit, chewing on the end of a match.

"What kind of supernatural" Cid asked, seriously. It was probably no time to let his prejudice ignore the importance of what Louis had to say. The man was far from stupid, he wouldn't bring this up if it wasn't important.

"That's the thing" Louis said "There haven't been any real witnesses. Only the mess of the body is really left. The only thing that's been determined is that it's likely not human, and whatever it is, if it doesn't slaughter the victim right off, they die before help gets there due to massive mako poisoning."

"Hmmm" Cid said. "And where is this happening?"

"That's the thing. It's almost worldwide, though most notably in Old Midgar, and one other place." Louis sighed. Cid raised an eyebrow.

"In Nebelheim, the entire town was wiped out." Cid stood abruptly.

"What did you say!"

"In Nebe-"

"I heard you, I heard you" Cid said as he interrupted him. He grabbed the match from his mouth and in one motion pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "But what the hell does this mean..." Cid trailed off, breathing out a cloud of smoke.

"I wonder if it has to do with the strange way the Lifestream has been acting lately," a third voice said. Cid started as he looked around, he didn't see anyone. He looked down.

"Oh it's just you." He said.

"That's the first time in a long while that you didn't recognize my voice" Nanaki said with amusement "But I understand your preoccupation. This is serious business."

"The lifestream huh, you mentioned that earlier didn't you." Cid said, settling back into his chair.

"I also mentioned it. Though with different words" Louis said "And I was just about to get around to that"

"You sound like you're pouting that you didn't get to say it first" Cid said calmly. Louis glared at him.

"This is no time for jokes." Cid kept it to himself, but he suspected Louis just couldn't think of any comeback. He hadn't hesitated to joke at bad times in the past.

"If you don't mind Doctor, please go on." Nanaki said politely. Cid didn't think it would really be possible for anyone to get mad at Nanaki's manners.

"Ah," Louis said, slightly embarrassed "No you go ahead, you probably know more about it" Cid smirked, something he usually didn't do, but this occasion deserved it.

"Well, the voices of the planet have been in chaos. If my grandfather was here I'm sure he'd be able to tell us what was wrong, but it seems that I'm to be all that's available. I can't quite understand them myself, but they seem to be conflicted about something." Nanaki looked up at both the doctor and Cid. "If I were to make a guess, I'd say that the lifestream is fighting with itself."

"That was kind of the impression I got" Louis said with a frown "But it doesn't really make much sense does it. The planet seems to be trying to heal itself, as is usual, but parts of the stream keep surging of for moments with a violent intent."

"Is there anything we can do about it?" Cid asked after a moment of silence. Both Nanaki and Louis shook their head.

"Not while we still know so little" Louis said.

"Well, then I'm going to have to ask you not to tell anyone else about it yet. If you learn anything more, come straight to me, we'll figure out the best course of action when we can." Cid said standing up and pacing a step or two. He turned around to face them again.

"For god's sake, don't tell Vincent or Cloud right now. They've got enough on their mind."

"And Sephiroth?" Louis asked. Cid paused for a moment, then waved a hand in dismissal.

"If you think it necessary." Louis shook his head no. Cid nodded. Nanaki looked at Cid curiously.

"It still bothers you that people come to you first, doesn't it" he asked the captain as Louis left. Cid looked down at him with a sigh.

"Yes, yes it does."

"Well, whether you like it or not, I have to say, you're really the best one for the job." Nanaki closed his eyes in a feline smile. "Believe it or not" he said softly "I think you do an even better job than Cloud."

Cid frowned as the cat slunk off, twitching his tail with entirely too much humor.

"Damn feline," he murmured to himself as he walked over to the window looking out onto the landscape below.

~*****~

Sephiroth looked at the two as they were in the room, just as he'd left them, except Cloud was sitting down. He looked at Cloud, and then at Vincent, and understood what Cid had been saying. They were so close, even ten feet apart, that they could be two halves of one whole.

But there was a sort of companionship and comfortability in the air that spoke more brothers than lovers. Not that that had been the issue. He looked at Vincent. Had this man really, regretted not being there for him? He looked at the dark haired man with confusion. It was true that if he dyed his own hair the same color, the only real difference would be height and eye color. They didn't look alike enough to be twins, but they could easily be mistaken for brothers.

"Can I talk with you?" Sephiroth said to Vincent. Vincent nodded. He looked over at Cloud. Cloud got up and left the room with only a slight backwards glance. He seemed rather worried. Sephiroth went to the opposite door the Cloud went through.

"I don't exactly feel comfortable chatting in a bathroom, he said without looking to see if Vincent was following him. The room had two chairs and a bed. Sephiroth ignored the chairs and sat on the side of the bed. Vincent slid into a chair and scooted it to face him.

"I take it you know my relation to you now?" Vincent said deceivingly plainly, but Sephiroth recognize the tone as more than interested, because it was a tone he himself used to disguise his feelings.

"I do" He said quietly. Vincent sighed.

"My story is a long, and complicated one, did you want to hear it?" Sephiroth looked at him for a long moment before answering.

"No." He said simply. Vincent looked a little lost.

"I don't know how to be a father." he said.

"You've never been a father, did you expect any different?" Sephiroth said. Vincent flinched at what was an unintentional insult.

"I...."

"Don't bother" Sephiroth said sounding colder than intended. "I only ever knew my father to be Hojo, and it became to be a despicable position. I wouldn't ask you to fill it." Vincent looked despondent at that. Sephiroth noticed.

"Then, there's no hope for it..." Vincent said a little sadly. Sephiroth sighed with a bit in exasperation.

"Don't get me wrong. I didn't say I wanted nothing to do with you." Vincent looked up at him again, his face still pale. "I just don't want a father looking over my shoulder. I'm quite too old for you to start learning that role now anyway." Sephiroth frowned. "And I have no intention on learning how to be a son." He said peevishly. Vincent smiled at that. And Sephiroth almost swore he heard a slight laugh.

"Then what should I be?" Vincent asked with a smile. Sephiroth frowned, because it was in his nature.

"A friend, It's something even I could benefit from learning how to be." He looked at Vincent. "And there's someone else I wish to be friends with, but I'm not sure how." Sephiroth paused. The silence was pregnant.

"Would you help me?" Sephiroth asked almost to silent to hear. It seemed to take a lot out of him to even attempt asking. Vincent, being ever so perceptive, and understanding his son probably more than either of them realized answered sincerely.

"I wouldn't even dream of refusing..." he said with a pained smile. Pained because he himself had once forced himself to ask someone those four hard words. It had been long ago, and it was no longer hard for him to do, but he remembered it better, because someone had been there, and had answered the same way.

Different situation, different time, different people. But did history truly repeat itself quite so much?

"I'm glad you have a friend where I didn't." Vincent said quietly... "Cloud would never betray you like mine did."

"I thought that you were under the impression that you were the one that failed." Sephiroth said, knowing what the man was talking about instinctively, even if he didn't know the details. Vincent shook his head.

"I am the one that failed. But she would have left anyway." Sephiroth was left not understanding at all as Vincent stood and left the room.