.~.

In Blood's Gaze

Chapter 20

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When Cloud woke again, it was nearly dawn, the sun glistening over the snow. He sat up slowly in the bed, the fog lifting from his mind. His jaw was still throbbing with a dull ache, but it was bearable.

With a yawn, he stood and went to the window. Even this early in the morning, children were out and beginning to play, sliding down snow banks and building up snowmen. He quirked a small smile at the pouting kid sitting off to one side outside his home, his leg in a very big cast.

Casting his gaze further out, Cloud frowned at the guards standing at every exit of the town, noting that they guarded in pairs. He didn't see Elena outside, and wondered if her reinforcements had arrived yet. Somehow, he didn't feel that Reno or Rude would be showing up anytime soon.

There was a slight knock at the door, and he turned to see Tifa poke her head in slightly. She gave a small gasp seeing him near the window. "Cloud? You're awake?"

He blinked. "Yeah, I'm fine. But how are you?" He moved closer towards the door. She didn't look as pale, but her eyes were shot and he could tell she had low energy.

"Bit better, I should be ready to go soon. I was checking in, you've been asleep for about 12 hours. Vincent was in here taking care of you…" She let that hang as she gave a pointed look around the room, the dark gunman mysteriously vacant.

"He must have gone out, I woke alone." Inside, Cloud wondered how long Vincent had been gone while he had been sleeping.

"Ah, okay… Anyway, how are we going to get out of here? There are ShinRa guards everywhere."

Cloud put a hand to his chin, pondering slowly. They definitely couldn't go back the way they came. The trek through the cave, then down to the lost city… his thoughts snapped to a serene smile, her blood coating a long steel blade. He winced, shaking his head to clear those away. Now wasn't the time.

Frowning, he turned his gaze to the waiting girl. "I'm not sure, but we'll think of something soon before ShinRa decides to make a move."

Tifa merely shrugged, unable to come up with any ideas either. She turned to leave, pausing near the doorway.

"Cloud…"

The blonde made a small questioning sound in his throat, his head cocked to the side.

The brunette didn't turn to face him, merely kept her back to him. "…If there's… anything you need to tell me… you know you can… right?"

Cloud simply stared, his mind running across many thoughts. Aerith's death, Sephiroth's invasion of his dreams, his will bending to the general's call, Vincent…

Keeping a smile on his face, hoping it would travel over to his voice, he answered with a simple, "Yeah, I know."

Tifa nodded, and then continued out the doorway.

After her footsteps trailed down the hallway, he sat on the edge of the bed, his mind overrun by earlier thoughts once again.

.~.

Stepping out once again into the white snow, exhaling a foggy breath, Cloud resumed his search of the town. A light scan of the town showed the guards still occupying the exits, their eyes trained on him. He lowered his head into his cowl, his eyes darkening. He didn't want to have to resort to killing them, nor endangering the lives of the villagers in the crossfire that would ensue.

His gaze rested on the children playing innocently on the snow banks, sliding down in small toboggans. They laughed, enjoying the white powder around them. A few girls were building a snowman, patting down the torso area. One had black hair, one had blonde. The dark hair reminded him of the gunman he hadn't seen since this morning.

Another scan of the town showed no red billowing cape, no dark hair, and no masked eyes. The blonde sighed, his patience wearing thin. He had hoped someone in the group had come up with a plan of getting out of the town without being escorted by ShinRa. He was hoping it wouldn't resort to killing more soldiers. He also was hoping he could just see Vincent, to get some inner strength from him, to fuel his heart for what was to come.

Watching the children play absently, Cloud noted that the child he had seen at earlier times with the cast on his leg was nowhere to be found. He blinked, looking around. Interested in snooping around a bit more, he kept the thought of looking for the boy at the back of his mind. So with another chilled exhale, he started trudging around, careful to avoid getting too close to the outskirts of town and away from the soldiers.

.~.

"Here you are."

Blood red eyes snapped to the blonde trudging his way to stand next to the gunman. Vincent had been standing in front of a house that was almost completely covered by snow, only seeming to be a doorway into a mountain of white. None of the villagers seemed to come near this part of the town; not even the kids who seemed to play on every inch of snow available.

"This place seems familiar." The brunette blinked up at the door, the large locks barring access to anyone who would wander inside. It was the mark upon one of them that had caught his attention. The brand of ShinRa was proudly displayed upon it, even through wear and fading.

"You've seen it before?" Cloud asked. He had never been this far north; even the crazy town of Bone Village had been a first for him. He hadn't been deep enough in SOLDIER to hear of any activity, innocent or otherwise, in the vicinity of the snowy town.

"Somewhere, I just can't seem to grasp where…" Vincent trailed off, his memories coming slowly. Trying to reach around the deep hatred he felt for the slimy doctor, he remembered all he could of Hojo. He had giggled gleefully about something he had found, from what the gunman could recall. He usually only seemed that giddy when he had acquired a new specimen to play with. Flashes of another doctor flitted across his mind. This one, he could barely remember the name, hadn't been with the company when he had risen in the ranks of the Turks. He had disappeared from view and from the clutches of ShinRa, taking something important with him. Something that had connections with a certain First Class SOLDIER that was currently threatening the world, he thought with a frown.

"Something tells me it's not good," Cloud mused. He had been watching the gunman's face carefully, the eyes giving away his trip down memory lane. When they had hardened, Cloud had frowned as well.

Vincent glanced at him. "ShinRa has always been a master of cover-ups, especially wherever the Turks have been used."

"They did something out here? They hid something in this peaceful village?" Cloud stated in mild surprise.

Vincent's dark eyes trained on his. "You shouldn't let a peaceful exterior fool you. Nibelheim is a perfect example." The blonde winced, but understood the jab the gunman had delivered to his ignorance. Just thinking about how everyone in the town vehemently denied there ever was a massacre made him want to vomit. To think something might have happened like that in the happy, snowy town, and that ShinRa might cover it similarly, made his stomach twist.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Vincent wrapped his claw around the lock. "Wait, what are you—"

The lock snapped harshly with a flick of his wrist, and Vincent simply threw it aside into a nearby snow bank. Cloud blinked in shock, watching the brunette open the unused door and slowly slink inside. He peeked around, noting that no one had come running in to stop them, and the guards were still stationed at the exits. Apparently, as long as the group stayed in the town, they didn't seem to care what mischief they got into. He took a breath, momentarily frowning at the open doorway. What would ShinRa want to keep away from the public up here? Something so far north and away from Midgar?

He trudged up the few landing steps and walked through, the darkness of the house engulfing him. He could make out the red cape through the light filtering in from the door and a window up on the ceiling, and made his way near the taller man.

"What did you find?"

Vincent moved, allowing Cloud to see the screen he was standing near. "It appears to be records, of some sort. They don't have descriptions, only short titles." He highlighted the first record on the screen, hitting a key to start the recording.

At first, static overtook the screen, but it slowly filtered to a clean image of the very room they were standing in, only well lit and furnished like a well-loved home. With the lights, it was easy to see the multitude of monitors and equipment lining the walls, all active in the video, but silent and dark in the reality of the room the two men were standing in.

A woman was peering with amusement to a point off the left of the screen, and Cloud nearly gasped at how beautiful she looked. Her long, brown hair was gathered into an elegant braid, the hair groomed delicately and spilling down towards her lower thighs.

A hand suddenly waved from off-screen, and the woman gave a small chuckle. "It's fine." At that, an older gentleman walked towards her, wearing a lab coat and large glasses. Cloud heard an intake of breath from the man next to him, and was about to ask what was wrong, but the man in the video began speaking.

"Camera's ready! Alright then, Ifalna, tell us about the Cetra."

"Cetra…?" Cloud whispered, the word ringing a bell in his mind. But from where?

The woman, Ifalna, began to explain that the Cetra were an ancient race, one that could communicate with the planet. There had been a 'crisis from the sky' that had hit the planet and caused a wound, which took many years to heal. She then explained of a being coming and spreading a virus to the Cetra, infecting them and turning them into monsters. It apparently was quite difficult for her to remain calm after remembering, so the man deemed it time to stop.

As the screen went black, Cloud put his hand to his chin. He had heard of this somewhere before, but where?

Vincent had scrolled to the second recording, and started it.

"The one the Professor mistook for a Cetra… was named Jenova. That is the 'crisis from the sky'."

Cloud started. "Jenova?"

Ifalna explained that as long as Jenova is here, the planet will never heal. So the planet created Weapon to destroy Jenova. But the Cetra managed to confine Jenova, so Weapon had never been used.

"Weapon… wonder if it's nearby?" Cloud wondered. Vincent shook his head as he wondered also.

Scrolling down to the third record, it brought up two new choices. 'Daughter's Record: 10th day after birth' and 'Daughter's Record: 20th day after birth.'

Vincent started the 10th day one, but nothing appeared on the screen.

"I wanted to record my beautiful daughter, but the video's not working right."

"Vincent, we should probably go, this isn't something we can just sit and watch…"

"I've already decided! If it's a girl, then it'll be Aerith! That's that!"

Cloud gasped. "Aerith? That couldn't mean…"

Vincent's eyes had gone wide. "That means he… oh no…"

"What? What's wrong, Vincent?" Cloud urged. But the gunman had already cleared back to the choices, highlighting the 20th day after the daughter's birth.

The tape started out innocent enough, the man and Ifalna getting close, when someone knocked at the door. Ifalna checked the door, but panicked as ShinRa soldiers burst in and drove her back towards the man.

"I've been looking for you, Ifalna… or should I say, Cetra! Ah, long time no see, Professor Gast!"

"Gast?" Vincent growled. His growl grew louder at the thin slimy man that appeared on screen.

"Hojo… how did you know?"

"Hojo…" Cloud whispered in anger. The grinning man explained how he had been waiting for a 'new sample' for two years, which enraged Professor Gast.

"You don't mean Aerith?"

"Hojo wanted Aerith even at birth?" Cloud growled as his thoughts raged back to the experiment he had saved Aerith from when they were in the ShinRa building. He even felt anger for Nanaki, who hadn't wanted to be a part of the experiment either.

Cloud heard Vincent's claw strain with the clenched fist the gunman was making inside the gauntlet. His blood red eyes were dangerously bright, his focus on the maniacally laughing professor on screen as he ordered the soldiers to shoot Professor Gast.

Cloud gripped Vincent's arm, trying to bring him to reality. "Vincent, we need to go."

Vincent closed his eyes, breathing deeply yet not releasing his tense muscles. Cloud shut the machine down as Ifalna screamed for her lover one last time. Pulling gently on the gunman's arm, he led him outside into the snow, noting with growing pride that the muscles in his grip had loosened, and Vincent seemed fine to let himself be led back to the inn. Inside the warmth of their hotel room, as soon as the door closed, Cloud hugged close to Vincent's chest, listening to the deep breathing and strong heartbeat.

The warm hand came to rest on top of his head, the claw resting along his back. Vincent leaned back against the door, his eyes shut, face turned towards the ceiling.

"That man… he destroys any life he touches." he murmured.

Cloud simply nuzzled close under the man's chin, wishing to distract him from his painful memories. He had his fair share of memories of early SOLDIER days, of watching that same professor perform experiments to enhance soldiers' abilities, even going so far as to mutate them, as he saw at the reactor in Nibelheim.

Vincent jolted a bit as Cloud's warm wet tongue lapped at his neck, and he groaned. Pressing the blonde closer, he sighed with mild content and let a small smile alight his face. Leave it to his little blonde warrior to find the right distraction he needed.

He tilted Cloud's chin up with a finger, and proceeded to distract both of them with some heated necking.

.~.

End Chapter 20

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I know, I'm bad, I'm horrible, and they're not even out of the damn snow village yet. This was kind of a rough part for me, but I definitely have a great idea coming up that I can't wait to write out. Would you believe other updates finally drove this chapter out of hiding?

Anyway, my bad, been a couple years, and I definitely have a lot of free time to continue this, being up late for work and all.

Please don't kill me, I promise this will get more love. Oh god, I hope it does. My brain loves to torture me with this story from time to time.