AN: This hasn't been betaed yet, but I wanted to get it to you as quick as I could. Sorry for the extra long wait, but it was unavoidable.

Now a Monster

Chapter 21: The End of a Universe

Vincent

It gave me great pleasure hunting Hellmasker down and slowly killing it. I could have probably been of more help in the battle, but my son…what an odd concept…seemed to be enjoying himself decimating his mother's army. Our more common soldiers were doing fine as well. They seemed to be mostly standing their ground with Avalanche and the Turks assisting them. Thus, I felt that I could take a bit of personal time and deal with a few past issues.

Zack had taken on Gallian, which didn't bother me much. That one was mostly a bundle of instincts. Being angry at it would have been the equivalent of holding a grudge against a poorly trained, rabid animal. Hellmasker and Death Gigas had been far more unwelcome and far more intelligent. They knew what they had done and had had found enjoyment in doing it. The only regret I felt as I systematically shot body parts off Hellmasker was that Gigas had already been cut into fillets by Sephiroth.

I was just finishing up taking off Hellmasker's right leg when Lucrecia's army started evaporating around me, sometimes literally. Quite a few so-called demons simply vanished into nothing making the once nightmarish army dwindle significantly. My chick had been right. They had been illusions with some ordinary monsters hidden behind them and only a very few true demons. I contemplated this as I blew Hellmaskers right shoulder apart with a few shots.

I have a very smart chick. Now if he only had some sense…

"Report. Any visuals of Lucrecia Crescent?" My son's voice queried over the communications link.

I glanced around. I was rather deep into the enemy army but I couldn't spot anyone looking like Lucrecia. Many of the normal monsters were racing away from the battle field looking confused and panicked. Most were creatures that, while very dangerous, preferred to be far away from people. Suddenly waking to find themselves not only in an odd place, but surrounded by loud noise, carnage, smoke, and weapon wielding people had probably frightened them badly and their first instinct was to flee for shelter.

"Negative. We need medical assistance on the field." Nanaki's voice was the first to respond sounding exhausted.

"Nope. Didn't see her Seph. Damn. That dog runs fast." Zack stumbled into the conversation panting.

That made me smile as I started in on Hellmakser's left leg, starting at the ankle. "I have not seen her either."

"No sign of her here." Cloud commented.

"Not me."

"Nope."

Damn.

I finished my game with Hellmasker, using the last of a clip of bullets to finish my vivisection, then dodged a frantic looking tonberry as it sped away. It had lost its knife somewhere and was waddling with a limp towards the tree line. I didn't bother dealing with it. There would be more than enough predators in the area that would find a wounded, unarmed tonberry a good snack.

I turned away from what was left of Hellmasker and surveyed the area. What remained of the army was being speedily dispatched into the lifestream. The fire that Chaos had started during his fight with Jenova was now gone, but the thick miasma of smoke still hung heavy over the area. Even the sky was lightening. Medics were rushing onto the field to locate the wounded. Our army's units were reassembling into coherent groups and being led to clean the last of the combatants out.

The only area that showed nothing moving was where the smoke was the heaviest. Where Veld was.

Lucrecia could wait.

I wound through the battle field dodging stretchers and leaping over the worst of the carnage. While we had taken a bit of damage to our side, mainly amongst the volunteer soldiers, most of the damage had been inflicted on the monsters.

"Quadrant one, clear." Yuffie called. "Should we head over to help out Nanaki's folks? They seem to be having some trouble over there with those…"

"We have them, Yuffie. Thank you for the offer." Nanaki broke in.

"Maintain your position." Sephiroth ordered. "Everyone stay alert. She might be doing a tactical retreat."

"I'm done with Rover." Zack still sounded winded. "I'm heading back to my unit."

I leapt past Nanaki's group and noted that they were indeed finishing up what looked like a sea urchin on squat little legs and a wolf's head poking oddly out from a next of waving black spines. I nodded briefly to the fire-cat and continued to where I had last seen Chaos. If Chaos had done to Veld as he had often done to me –abandoning me after a fight, leaving me exhausted and vulnerable- I needed to get to my partner before anything got to him.

As I went further into the smoke, more bodies started showing up. The fire had baked them into fantastical shapes, almost like a madman's version of sculpture. The ground was charred and hot under my combat boots. The smell of roasted flesh and smoke clutched around my throat trying to choke me.

"Veld!" I yelled scanning the area. "Veld, answer me!"

It was a long shot, but I hoped that he'd chirp out an insult of two to let me know where he was. I wasn't really expecting one. Chaos had always left me completely drained after one of his appearances. Seeing the amount of power that it would have taken to make this side of the field into a barren, blasted waste, I would have bet that even Chaos was now exhausted.

"Veld!" I looked at each corpse I went past, just in case.

They were mostly poor dumb animals that had been caught in the fight. A shattered, burnt wing of a tonadu protruded upwards from the ground. What looked to be a pack of silly cripshaws were in a tangled, smoking heap. The heavy bones of a diablo were scattered and blackened as they poked out of the grayish top ash that puffed up with each step I took.

"Veld!"

I scrambled over a heap of dead adamantaimai hoping for some sign. There was a crater of some sort over to the right, so I slipped down a handy thigh bone and went investigating. When I got to the edge, I saw what was down there. I guess at one point in time, it was once Jenova. Now it was a naked Elena feebly trying to crawl away from a melting greenish-blue figure that was disintegrating into a clear puddle of ooze.

I slid down the slope and lifted her. She gave a small whimper and tried to bat me away with one broken hand.

"Elena. It's okay." I jumped lightly to the top of the crater, searching for a safe place to put her while I searched for Veld.

"Vincent."

I turned to find Nanaki slowly picking his way through the rubble. His lush red coat was now burned in places and his mane was weighed down in blood. A few minor wounds showed up as shinier patches against his now dull fur.

"I saw you head this way. Do you want me to help? My senses are limited here, but I might be of assistance." He seemed hesitant.

I suppose I could hold a grudge for his actions up north, but Nanaki was really still only a teen, not an adult quite yet. I think I tended to forget that at times. His very presence, his calmness, and his flashes of wisdom made me think of him as older. As a teen, he was still liable to be swayed by others, far too easily at times, especially if those others were people he knew and respected.

"Thank you, my friend." I nodded to him solemnly. "I would much appreciate it."

He gave me a small cat smile. "No. Thank you."

We headed deeper into the waste, skirting around blasted trees that still had small licks of flame flickering along their broken trunks, passing charred corpses of various animals, and occasionally sliding down a hillside. The area that Chaos and Jenova had destroyed between them seemed to stretch on for over a mile. I carried Elena, who continued to make small, ineffective gestures as if trying to ward me off. They were piteously weak, but it didn't stop her from trying. Someplace in her, some small spark was still fighting to survive. Turks, even this one, were tough.

Nanaki finally found Veld laying behind a pile of debris covered in ash. As I approached, he opened his eyes and gave me a tired smile.

"Damn, that was fun." My partner chuckled. "It was like that turf war we fought. Remember the one with the Red Vests down around the docks in Junon?"

I carefully set Elena down on a piece of ground that seemed safe enough and went to Veld's side. "Yes, wasn't that the time you fell on a broken bottle and got a three inch piece of glass in your ass?"

"No, not that one." He winced as I started checking him for injuries. "The one where the numb-nut local contact gave us the wrong info and we raided an upper class nude beach, had to backtrack to the correct piece of slum, and then spent the afternoon kicking those dumb, sodding asses up and down the docks."

He had only a few minor wounds. A burn on the back of his elbow and a few shallow scrapes. The worst was a long cut that slashed across his back from his right shoulder blade down to his left hip. Mainly, he just seemed exhausted…and chatty. Chatty with Veld was a warning sign that something during that battle had rattled his nerves. I shrugged is aside though. He'd get around to telling me about it later, once he'd rolled it around in his head a few times and came up with a bit of snarky, flip commentary about the incident to share with me.

"Come on." I hefted him up. "We need to get out of here."

Nanaki volunteered to help by carrying Elena and the four of us backtracked our way out of that zone. Elena settled down instantly when placed on Nanaki's back and buried her face in his dirty mane. Veld kept chatting about past missions, many of which I only vaguely remembered. My memory lapse wasn't a side effect of anything dramatic; they had just been dull. After a few all nighters watching some pimp smack around his whores, things started looking the same. Veld seemingly remembered everything.

"…and then that guy, the one with the bandana over his right eye, started yelping that we spoiled his new shoes…" He babbled on.

I wondered if I could hunt down Tseng and hand Veld over to him. It would probably take a day or so for Veld to work his nerves out on his own, but with Tseng to torment, he'd probably be fine by this evening. I considered it as we made our way through the battle field.

"Shall we go to the medic's tent?" Nanaki walked carefully at my side trying not to disturb Elena.

"Take her. I'll take him back to the apartments." I wasn't entirely sure, as I watched the fire-cat leave whether I wanted to take Veld back to the apartments because he was mostly unharmed, or because in the mood he was in he'd spill most anything. There were a few moments as a young Turk I was less than willing to share with everyone, and I was coming to the conclusion as Veld started yammering on about a rather nasty incident involving a punk kid with a baseball bat that had been holed up in a safe house's basement, that my partner needed his privacy.

I didn't mind if my chick overheard. Hojo knew most of those lovely moments, but having Tseng and Avalanche find out about the humiliating time I was chased down a Midgar street by a pissed off mother chocobo was not something I wanted to contemplate. Yuffie alone would make my life miserable.

Speaking of my chick, I wondered where he was. I took a small detour around the sensory array computers but couldn't spot him. A few dead monsters were littered around testifying that at least a few came close enough for Cloud to dispatch, but no gawky chicks were roving about.

"Cloud." I shifted Veld, who was blithely rambling on about freezing our asses off up in the north while searching for a pilfered watch that some kid had taken from the president's hotel room. I was beginning to wonder if I got verbal diarrhea after being possessed by Chaos. If so, I was lucky that he abandoned me after the whole Deepground fiasco. Who knows what I might have inadvertently babbled. Now that the thought occurred to me, a few unwanted, and completely forgotten confessions might explain why Yuffie got nervous around me whenever someone started playing cribbage –Cid's favorite game, unfortunately- I had a few not so nice stories of an old set up Veld and I had invented involving that game.

"Vincent." The blond came over and glanced at my companion. "We're nearly finished here."

"Where's Hojo?" I still tried to spot him amongst the milling crowd of scientists who were dismantling the equipment.

"I sent him back to the apartment." Cloud nodded towards the town. "He was looking pale."

I frowned. I should have thought of that. My chick was barely recovered from his episode with Lucrecia. It would have been very stressful for him to work under combat conditions which would have affected his health. It was pure selfishness that caused me to haul him from Junon here, but I honestly could not force myself to leave him behind. However, I should probably have locked him in the same room as Rufus to keep him safe. After all, he was far more important than old man Shinra's brat but he had also been too valuable an asset to our army to leave in safe seclusion. I just hoped that he had the sense to go lie down and rest…

…my chick…sense…

I started to worry.

Hojo

I don't know exactly when it occurred to me, but I knew what was going to happen. I watched on the computer screen as Lucrecia's army came apart. I saw just how few demons were actually present on the field. I knew. I just knew.

She figured it out. She knew that with me standing behind the lines, with Sephiroth standing in the front, and every soldier prepared to look right through her illusions, her attacks were over. So, she did the only thing she could do. She bluffed. She sent her troops ahead to attack, distracting us from what she was really planning.

It was obvious once I thought about it, once I noticed what was actually on the battle field, or more precisely what wasn't on the field…massive amounts of demons. The others were busy celebrating the victory, even Cloud was happy in his own silent way. They never bothered to consider just how quickly things ended or how few true casualties there were. These things had wiped out cities and they thought it could end just like that? They didn't think. They yelled. They waved. They cheered. They were just happy that it was over.

But it wasn't.

I tried to pull Cloud aside and explain it to him, but he shook his head, continuing his streak of what-I-don't-think-about-can't-harm-me. He instead shooed me away, telling me to return to the apartment and rest. He even sent a little soldier who was so nervous I felt that I would be protecting him on the way back. I let Cloud wave me off and headed back with my escort jittering nervously at my side ready to shoot any stray pigeons that might be brave enough to attack us.

I kept my thoughts to myself. I had to do something. I had failed so miserably before. I failed to protect Vincent. I failed Sephiroth. Veld, Elena, Barret, even Bettina and Davies had suffered because of her. Because I was, as always, a fool. I fell for her tricks. I got used, drugged. I even shot Vincent because of her, and she wasn't through yet. The only thing that stood between her and destroying everything I ever cared for was time.

And if I was correct, she had all the time in the world.

I quickly went back to the apartment, patted my little soldier on the head, offered him a cookie, sent him off to be brave in other parts of the town and then found the gear we'd used to travel from Junon to Kalm. In a typically efficient, Turk-like way, things had been carefully restocked, packed, and put away. All I had to do was subtract a few things that would weigh me down and I was out the door in minutes. The only things I paused for on my way out of town was a gun from the armory supplies that Highwind had brought with him and to steal the gold chocobo Sephiroth seemed to favor. I hoped my son wouldn't take it too hard, but then again, he never was overly sentimental over birds. Weapons, fine wine, that black leather monstrosity of a jacket, and his long hair were nearly sacred to him, but a bird was a bird to him.

I wonder if there is some connection between his coat and Vincent's beloved cape. Could poor fashion choices be genetic? I'll have to look into that someday…

Anyway, there were only two places that I knew of that she could go. One was the small island to the east. I figured it was possible that she would go there. It was less obvious than the other alternative, and it was also closer. Ideal for a quick retreat.

The problem was that I had no idea when she left or even if she had been on the battle field. I could calculate that with the few true demons that had shown on the monitor that she had been around for at least the very beginning of the battle. Also, I could speculate that she had been there, somewhere, for the majority of the rest to maintain control over her troops. However, I had no idea when she left. She could still be on the field and I could be racing off into the wilderness on another miss-considered adventure.

Nothing new there.

Vincent would probably be nursing a headache soon and wondering if mythril shackles were going to be making a debut in my future. I probably would have been more enthusiastic over that if I didn't know that Vincent's kinks don't include chains and cuffs. I supposed they reminded him too much of work. I know I didn't particularly care for the "naughty doctor" routine for that reason. There was just something passion killing about suddenly being reminded by a casually playful comment that I forgot to file that last report and my entire department would grind to a painful halt the next morning, leading to inquiries, explanations about lost man hours, and stomach churning amounts of paperwork.

I might get lucky and get a spanking though…if there was anything left to spank after Vincent got done chewing my ass off.

Ah well, he'd get over it…sooner or later. Probably later, though.

The chocobo warked a bit as we passed the chocobo farm. It probably was dreaming of some nice greens, or perhaps a nut or two. I really needed to look into those. I wonder what would happen if you fed them to a person. For a moment, the image of my son standing in front of me with glowing gold hair and looking rather peeved surfaced. Then it was replaced by a disturbing image of a young Mrs. Strife chomping on nuts and eyeing a rather clueless Mr. Strife. Maybe those nuts weren't such a great idea…

I contemplated the nut situation as we raced towards the coast and out into the ocean. There was a island just off the coast that, while not as flashy as the larger island with the materia mine, which would one day explode into a lovely mako volcano, had the distinction of being the only other place other than the cavern under that waterfall, to have a mako crystal column large enough for a person to entomb themselves inside of.

It was the perfect escape. To date, no one had learned how to cut a mako crystal, let alone a column of it. The main problem was that mako healed itself. Also, theoretically, she could shift location. Since she would be in essence part of the lifestream, it was possible for her to move to any point in it. I wasn't sure of the mechanics of that, but the possibility was there, which, considering her past, didn't fill me with unending amounts of glee.

The chocobo barely paused as we rushed up the island's beach and I steered us towards the cliff that bisected the island. Long ago, some geological catastrophe split the island raising on half of it high into the air while the other stayed peacefully slumbering. I suspected that there had been a surge in the lifestream back in the old days when the Ancients still roamed the world, possibly around the same time the crater was formed in the Northern Continent. Anyhow, the island cracked and now there was a rather dank cave that had little to recommend it except there was a magnificent mako column in the center of it.

I scrambled off the chocobo the second it came to a halt by the cave entrance. It was night time by the time we arrived and the cave looked like something out of those old movies I used to love to watch. However, the moon was bright so I could get a relatively good look at it. It looked undisturbed. Cobwebs still strung across the narrow passage and the muddy ground was unmarred by any feet but mine. Still, I batted the webs aside and cautiously went in. It only took a few minutes of me bumbling around, smacking my head on rocks and tripping over accumulated sticks and shattered stalagmites, before I found myself in the main cavern. The mako column was hardly as picturesque as the one by Corel. Oh, it glowed and sang its nearly inaudible song, but it lacked the serene beauty of the other. There were no smaller crystals to glitter like fallen stars standing attendance on its beauty, no pool of mako tinged water, no crowning halo of other crystals jutting outwards as if glorifying the beauty of the column. Nope. It was just a plain old column of glowing green that notably lacked anyone in the center of it.

I looked around. She should have been there. It was the closest and thus the more…

…unless she had figured that out too. While I was standing there dithering, she was on her way to Corel. Damn me and my stupid brain. Of course it would be Corel. Lucrecia head off to some second rate crystal in the middle of nowhere? She had no worries. No one would be able to pry her out of her crystal fortress until she damn well wanted to and if she could move through the lifestream, then we could seal that cave and she'd just laugh. All she needed was access to the lifestream and she'd…

…access…

I stood frozen as the weight of my stupidity came crashing down on top of me. She just needed access to the lifestream. She didn't need a crystal. That had just been the most convenient one thirty years ago, but today, thanks to Sephiroth and Cloud, there was a much easier way. Mideel.

I ran back to where I left the chocobo and after a few tries, managed to get on its back and we headed off across the ocean angling for Mideel. Years ago, Vincent and Veld had decided to invent a game night to inspire their recruits with happy thoughts of being in the Turks- Old Man Shinra's idea I'm sure- so they rounded up piles of games to test. One of their favorites was Conquest, a cheerful game where happy-go-lucky players got to move around a map of the planet collecting armies, while pillaging and looting the countryside. I spent years being nothing more than collateral damage as Vincent and Veld butchered the game board Planet's inhabitants and snipping remarks about the backwoods rubes they were mercifully putting out of their misery. Usually, I was lucky to torch a small village before one of them trampled over me with one of their hoards of bloodthirsty minions. However, I did learn a lot about the geography of our lovely planet, so I had no problem urging my chocobo to race directly for Mideel.

I must have dozed part of the way there. When my now irritated chocobo and I arrived at the town, the sun was lightening the sky and I was aching. The once tranquil village had been shattered once again. The houses that Reeve and his WRO had so painstakingly patched together after my son's exuberance with celestial bodies were once again in ruins. The only thing that seemed to be intact was the wharf some entrepreneurial spirit had built along the lakeside.

And there on the side of the mako lake was another chocobo. It looked like a wild one that had been tethered to keep it from running off. Over to one side, my dear ex-wife was kneeling on the ground next to a pack while a small baboon shaped demon sat next to her rocking back and forth making small grunting noises while it chewed nervously on its fingers.

I patted the gun I had stuffed into my pocket to make sure it was there and went to have a bit of quality time with my ex. She turned to look at me as I carefully picked my way across the lakeshore's rocky parameter.

"I thought you would show up." She didn't seem upset that I was there. She nodded to me and went back to her unpacking. "How did the battle go?"

"You lost." I paused to watch her a moment. She seemed to be just pulling out random items and sorting them into piles. "But seeing you didn't really put much effort into it, I'm sure you aren't overwhelmed with surprise over that."

"No." She sighed and pulled out the last of the items. "It was pointless by the end. My time window passed and there was nothing more to be done."

"Time window?"

"Didn't you read my work? Didn't you read Grimiore's?" She scooped up a pile of things and stood to face me. "Didn't anything sink in?"

"I have no idea what…"

She gave a small disgusted snort. "I should have known. You are so blind. People are so blind. That's why…" She turned away shaking her head walking towards the mako lake.

I pulled the gun from my pocket, "Lucrecia…"

She glanced over at me as she stepped onto the wharf. "You're going to shoot me without knowing why?"

I wanted to know why. I really wanted to, and she knew it. Those few seconds that I stood dithering about why she had done it and if she would explain it to me allowed her to walk a few more steps out towards the lake. I lifted the gun, aiming it as Vincent had taught me years ago. "No, I don't want to know. Come back to the shore."

She set the things down that she had in her arms, "I'm surprised. You usually want to know everything." She took time to step across the items, further onto the dock. "But then, you probably think I'm the bad guy here, don't you?"

I always pictured this moment differently. I pictured myself full of righteous wrath, avenging myself, paying her back for what she did to Vincent. I pictured myself standing firm and resolute protecting Vincent from the one person he had been helpless against. I pictured her spitting slander and evil vindictiveness, threatening to come back and destroy everyone and everything I cared for. In my darkest thoughts, I pictured her laughing triumphantly as I cowered helplessly before her as she crowed about doing vile things to Vincent.

Instead, it was sudden, quiet, and terrifyingly easy. She took another step out to the mako lake which glowed a softly and comfortingly as its waves lapped the shore with delicate whispers. The wind, which I hadn't even noticed, ruffled her clothes and hair. She really was lovely. In that moment I saw her as she could have been, brilliant, carefree, smiling, and happy. I saw all the possibilities that she neglected, all the bright, hopeful dreams she could have pursued. And I pulled the trigger. The gun made almost a comical pop, and she stumbled, turning slightly to look at me with an almost curious expression on her face before she tumbled forward into the lake.

I stood there, frozen with the gun still raised, watching as she made a few weak motions before sinking slowly into the lifestream, her body disintegrating as it moved away from the surface.

I could see why Vincent sometimes looked so bleak after an assignment. It was like killing an entire universe of possibilities. As warped as she had been, she had seen the world uniquely. She had experiences that no other would ever have; opportunities only she could have explored; things that she had done, loved, hated, known, wanted, and dreamed of that were now gone.

I had done that.

The gun dropped to the ground and I stood looking at the spot she had been in. Where was the triumph? Where was the righteousness? Where was the sense of doing the right thing? What was the point of everything if it could all end in a silly pop and a splash? All the pain, all the loss and …pop? What if she… Couldn't I have… Wouldn't it have been better… Why?

An arm slipped around me. "Don't think about it."

"Vincent…" I turned and clung to him.

"You did the right thing." He held me close. "Let it go now."

So it ended, in Mideel with me crying like a heartbroken child in Vincent's arms over a woman who had never loved anyone, as Sephiroth, our son, stood quietly near the wreckage of Mideel watching us with sad, old eyes.

Thank you for reading and please review. There are still a few chapters to go. I'll get to work on them as soon as possible.