Kei! Don't be upset it's not about Dante! Come back to me!

Chapter 192

Nibelheim was located on the Western Continent, and therefore, quite a travel. Even though Shinra choppers were fast, it would still take most of the day to get there. I dreaded going back there, regardless of what I had told Vincent. It didn't frighten me the way I had imagined it would, and maybe I had by now gotten over the fact that I had once felt that my life had ended in the small town. It had simply been the end of one phase and the start of another. But still, the place reminded me of a lot of bad things. Tifa being hurt, Sephiroth burning down the town that had since been rebuilt, Zack's and Cloud's disappearance, myself getting hurt, and Sephiroth's betrayal. I still remembered the sound of my heart breaking as I begged him through the door down in the basement of the Shinra Mansion. To now know that Vincent had been there, mere yards away, in a different room... I had probably even tried the door to that very room when I had been searching for Sephiroth. The things that Vincent had been through inside that place... It was the start of a new phase for both of us. It had lead us both astray for a while. The damn mansion should be burned to the ground.

"You want me to fly for a while?" I asked him after a few hours. His concentration hadn't faltered and I had no doubt he had been one of the best pilots in his time with the Turks. It was funny to think of him as one of them. Once, that had been an insult, but now we were on the same side, mostly even on the same page. Nowadays I felt a certain awe that he had been part of them. His body was now enhanced, but while I had taken enough rest over the passed hours, he had been out all night, for two nights in a row.

"I'm fine." Came the simple reply, his red eyes never leaving the horizon.

"You know you don't have to act tough around me, right?" This time, his eyes did find mine, a dark eyebrow raised in wonder. "I like you, Vincent," I answered his silent question. "There's no bullshit between you and me. I know what people think of me, but somehow, you've never judged me. And I don't judge you. If you need rest, just say the damn word."

"Not since that first day," He corrected me, taking me back to the first time we had ever met. He'd suspected me of still being on Sephiroth's side and thus, a danger to them all. "I was wrong." I had forgotten about that for a moment. Still, ever since the ice had been broken between us, things had changed. He'd never tiptoed around me the way others did, reluctant of telling me what they really thought. Maybe they were afraid of me, or maybe they just didn't see the point, but Vincent never shied away from telling it like it is. He didn't fear me or my temper, and somehow, I had never lost it with him. Something in him calmed me.

"You had every right to be cautious," I assured him. "But at least you were honest. Which is what I meant to say." He remained silent for a little while, his face unreadable, but I knew he was mulling something over inside that head of his. Instead of pressuring him, I waited for him to finish his train of thought.

"Very well," He finally said, sounding decisive. "I expect we will run into trouble in Nibelheim and we need the energy. I will take your offer."

I smiled and got up from the co-pilot seat and switched sides with him. "So, I've been meaning to ask you. Where's Red?" Vincent planted his strange copper shoes on the console and slouched in his seat, something I rarely ever saw him do. I was glad he felt at ease enough with me to do so.

"There seems to be something going on in Cosmo Canyon." He replied with his eyes closed. He didn't seem annoyed with my questioning, but simply relaxed and laid back. I remembered the village from my last visit, the beautiful cliffs and the tiny buildings that were built on them. The winding stairs that seemed to go on forever to reach the top of the canyon. There was no place on the planet where the stars shone so bright in the night sky.

"There's trouble?" I asked Vincent urgently. "Does he need our help?"

He shook his head, eyes still closed. "No, he will let us know if he does. People have been disappearing from the area, mostly young girls. Nanaki has taken the responsibility upon himself to find them." I wondered if maybe he was also dealing with Deepground, but then I thought that Cosmo Canyon was too small and that Deepground didn't take only women. Still, this needed to be investigated, and Red was right to remain in his own village to help.

"All right," I said while taking the chopper a little higher to steer clear of the mist hanging low over the ocean. It must be cold out on sea right now. "Let's get these assholes dealt with and see if we can help him out." Vincent grunted in reply softly, and I decided to leave him alone. I had offered him rest we both knew he would need, and the last thing I wanted was to keep him occupied with my nagging. I cracked my neck and fixed my eyeballs ahead, waiting for land to appear in the distance.

We landed in the Nibelheim area a few hours later, when it was already dark. The reactor was located high up in the mountains, but we found a place not too far from it to safely leave the chopper.

"Have you ever been to the reactor?" I asked Vincent when we walked side by side, making our way over to the infernal edifice.

"Yes," He said. "With Cloud and Tifa, after they woke me up inside the Shinra Mansion." The reactor loomed closer, somehow looking more menacing than I remembered it being. Last time I had been here, I had been afraid, but I had never expected things to go so wrong in there.

"Still feels strange to me that I walked right passed your door while you were down there," I stated. "I mean, I probably even rattled your door when I was looking for Sephiroth." Saying his name came easier to me these days. There was a new name now that froze on my lips every time I uttered it. "If I'd known..."

"You didn't know," He reassured me as he ascended the stairs leading up into the reactor. "Even if you had, I didn't want to leave. Cloud persuaded me when he mentioned going after Hojo. Are you all right?" He'd turned to face the bottom of the stairs, where I had come to a standstill. I hadn't even noticed my legs had stopped moving, but now that I looked up at Vincent standing on the steps, the reactor towering over me, I was once again reminded of the darkest chapter of my life.

"Yes, I think so," I said while staring up at the reactor. "It just occurred to me... how much can happen to a person in such a short amount of time. Apart from the fact you've gone into hibernation for about thirty years, you and I are almost the same age. Look at all the shit that's happened to us in that time," Vincent stood watching me, and even though I could see the thoughts running through his clever mind, there was no show of emotions on his flawless face. I crinkled my brow at him. "It's not healthy."

"No, it isn't," He shook his head in agreement. "But, you're not in this alone. Come," He took a few steps down and held out his leather clad hand for me to take. "I've come to realize that mutual sorrow means having to bear only half the burden." I couldn't help but smile at his effort to make me feel better, and placed my hand in his. The way his story had ended made me sad, knowing he had to live with missing the love of his life each and every day. Something told me that was even worse than all the experiments they'd preformed on him. Since then, all he'd done was fight for others, never once thinking about himself. It was time he found some happiness, maybe someone to share it with.

"You deserve the world, Vincent," I said to him in all honesty. "If I could, I would kill Hojo all over again for everything he's done to you." He smiled as he led me up the steps and into the reactor, a smile so subtle I might have missed it had I not been looking straight at him. He didn't say anything, but I felt his hand tighten over mine for a moment. I was thankful for his guidance, because as much as I hated to admit it to anyone, I was in need of a little support at the moment. Where was Reno when I needed him?

We stepped through the doors, which stood wide open. Most likely, no one had been here in years. After the Nibelheim incident eight years ago, Shinra had swept in and cleared the place of anything alive, including Cloud and Zack. I could only guess that Hojo had arrived, ordering the two men be transported to his lab inside the Shinra Mansion, while leaving Tifa and myself in Tseng's capable hands. Come to think of it, it seemed I owed the man my life. I was lucky Hojo had decided to leave me out of his experiments, or things might have ended up even worse for me. Had someone prevented Hojo from carting me away to his basement? I took a deep breath and tried to push all the memories from my mind and focus on the matter at hand, which was ridding the world of Deepground. Maybe after that, I could finally focus on myself.

What remained of Shinra were only the abandoned pods that had once contained the Mako experiments, the monsters that had escaped and terrorized the Nibel area. The room felt much smaller than it had the first time I'd entered it, but maybe that was just the dark energy that had remained in the atmosphere. It was almost palpable in the air. Familiar stairs cut through the middle of the room, dividing the rows of pods into two halves. I remembered once laying on those stairs, bleeding to death. At the top of the stairs was another door, which was also opened wide. Above the doorway, was one word, a word that sent a shiver down my spine.

"Jenova," Vincent spoke softly from beside me, his eyes fixed on the name. "The calamity from the sky."

"Is she? Ollie thinks she's my ex mother-in-law." I grinned at Vincent sheepishly, trying to lighten the mood. "But then he found out I'm injected with Jenova cells, so he changed his mind and now claims Sephiroth is my brother. Which, by the way, is even more disturbing."

"Ollie is a very deranged boy," Vincent replied dryly, clearly not understanding Ollie's sense of humor. Truth be told, at times neither did I, but I loved him just the same. "Though in a way, you and Sephiroth do share the same cells." I saw the corner of his mouth twitch, before he let go of my hand and proceeded up the stairs.

My brow furrowed in confusion. "That's not even funny," I scolded him as I followed. "I liked you better when you were boring and awkward. Stop being human, it's annoying." I thought I actually heard a chuckle, but must have imagined it. We stepped through the door, finding the empty pedestal where Jenova's containment cell had once been kept. Once, I'd wondered why they had kept her here, and not at Shinra HQ, in the basement where the other labs were. It seemed strange to me at first, but what place was more secluded than this? Sephiroth was never even meant to come here. When we went on the mission to Nibelheim, Director Lazard had already gone missing, and there was no doubt in my mind that he would never have sent Sephiroth out to the reactor. Had all the drama with Genesis never happened, then other people would have been sent to Nibelheim, and Sephiroth would never have found out about any of it. It had all simply been an unfortunate series of events that had led up to this. Maybe it was fate, maybe it was coincidence, but it was the worst joke in history for sure.

"Are we two sad stories, or what?" I asked Vincent as he ran a hand over the torn tubes leading down into the reactor. I remembered Sephiroth and Zack having fought down there, and myself almost slipping into the large hole in the floor when Sephiroth had closed in on me, asking for my cooperation. He'd warned me then what might happen if I ignored his wishes. "How about after we get what we need in the Mansion, we set it on fire, huh? Just because we can." Vincent swung his feet over the edge and disappeared from sight. "It was just a suggestion." I mumbled, before jumping in after him and landing in a crouch. "So, what exactly did Rosso say about the Protomateria and what's it got to do with Nibelheim?" We stepped over to the corner of the room, where a metal hatch led down into the sewers. The tunnels were meant as a safety net, should the reactors ever overflow, and led straight to the underground network of sewers that ran all the way to Nibelheim and out into the sea.

"The WRO found out that Lucrecia-" He fell silent for a moment and looked away from me. Then he crouched and yanked the hatch off its hinges in a single pull. I raised my eyebrows, feeling impressed. "They told me Lucrecia was researching Omega and the Protomateria. Her lab was in the basement of the Shinra Mansion. I was kept there before Hojo locked me up inside that room. She's the one who fused me with Chaos after Hojo shot and killed me. Our answers lie in that laboratory. As for Rosso, she claimed I am the keeper of the materia... She said it is the key to controlling Omega. Whatever that might be." So she'd saved his life, even if it meant it was over. She'd had a difficult choice to make, and it made me wonder if maybe she had had feelings for Vincent after all. He always said his love was unrequited, but I wasn't so sure about that. Why wouldn't she? There was nothing wrong with the man that was currently climbing down the steps into the pitch black tunnels. I imagined him being a nice guy before all this happened to him, selfless and considerate. He was still that, but someone couldn't go through something like he had and not change. He'd become darker, and estranged from the world of the living. Could he ever come back from that?

"How come others always know stuff we don't, even when it concerns us?" I followed him down into the blackness, my boots splashing down into a foot of water, instantly soaking my socks with cold slosh. "That's so nasty." The question had been aimed more at myself than at Vincent, but he replied anyway.

"Because it's others that do these things to us." There was a sudden hiss coming from his right and our heads snapped in its direction. "It looks like we're not the only ones here."

"I don't like the sound of that." I whispered, seeing Vincent's red orbs light up in the darkness. Could he actually see in this dark?

"I thought you loved battles?" He asked me, his voice dripping with anticipation. Lights started to flicker around us, and I let my eyes dance around in amazement when the whole tunnel lit up. Once again, Shinra technology at its finest; motion-sensor lights. When had they ever been interested in durability? The tunnel was large, leading off right and left. Green slime and moss were sticking to the smooth walls and the ceiling. There were multiple chambers to this tunnel, being separated by large, iron grating. In the water around us, were several creatures. All the same, turtle-like bodies. Green, standing upright with a large shield on their backs and a trident in their hands. I smirked at him and palmed a gun.

"Dance with me?" Shots echoed through the tunnel before I had even seen Vincent move. His bullets ricocheted right off the creatures armor, which was thick and smooth. After digging deep into my memory, I recalled being taught about these creatures in class at the academy. They were called Sahagin, invulnerable to many physical attacks, due to their shield and armor, but it could be pierced. The head however, was unprotected. One by one, they pushed towards us, tridents at the ready. We moved out of the way swiftly, while continuing to try and penetrate the tough skins with bullets. They twirled their tridents and deflected the hail of metal rain. After emptying an entire clip on the bastards, nothing more had happened than one of Vincent's bullets digging itself into one of the creatures heads and bringing it down. There were five more of them. I lost patience and moved in, palming my blades as I did.

"Be careful, Eden." Vincent warned me while he maintained his distance. These things proved to be a handful, ducking in on themselves whenever I came too close, and swinging their weapons around viscously. Once, I narrowly avoided getting nicked by a sharp trident, but I caught it in my hand deftly and tore it from the Sahagin's grip. After that I made quick work of it, and it went down with a squeak. Due to Vincent's perfect aim, and my swift moves, the creatures were dealt with before long.

"If we find these things in every chamber, this is going to be a long walk." I commented as I sheathed my weapons.

Every next chamber looked the same, but we encountered only a handful more Sahagins. It seemed they had been lingering around here and were attracted to the sound of the hatch. The tunnels were long and cold, and the icy water that had drenched my socks and rode up my pants wasn't helping. I shivered visibly, and I once again asked myself if Vincent was even less human than myself, as he showed no sign of any kind of discomfort. Or maybe he was better at dealing with it that I was. Even though there were several junctions, Vincent seemed to know where we were going, stalking through the water with a confident stride, taking us closer and closer to the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim. Each new tunnel lit up as we entered it, the one behind falling into darkness as the motion activated lights extinguished. Now and then, we were assaulted by slithering eel-like creatures in the water. They tried to wrap their long slimy bodies around our legs to pull us under, but they were hardly a challenge for either of us.

"Vincent?" My words echoed around the tunnel walls, resounding at least three times before fading away. He didn't reply, but I knew he'd heard me. "What keeps you going? I mean, you said you only went with Cloud to go after Hojo. Well...he's dead now. Why not go back to your coffin?" To anyone else, that might have been a rude thing to ask, cruel even, but Vincent and I had a mutual understanding of each other. He didn't need me to handle him with silk gloves and sweet words. He didn't falter in his steps, didn't look over his shoulder at me, didn't even flinch.

"I used to think I deserved the punishment," He finally replied. "It was my fault that I couldn't stop her." I knew that by 'her' he meant Lucrecia, Sephiroth's biological mother, but I also understood it must pain him to say her name. It probably pained him just to think about her. "But, because of Cloud, I've come to realize it was all Hojo. He poisoned her innocent mind. There is no more need for me to repent. All I can do now is try and prevent more suffering. That is was keeps me going."

I nodded at my feet, knowing he wouldn't see me. "I think you're a good man, Vincent," I meant that. He was always there for others, never putting himself first. There wasn't a selfish cell in the man's body, human or otherwise. "Don't ever think that you're not." This time, he did freeze in his tracks, and I almost bumped into his back, but caught myself on his torn red cape.

"She thought I'd hate her for what happened to my father," He then said to me, eyes trained on something in the water. "He died in an accident she was involved in," Then he looked up at the ceiling, his shoulders tensed. "I never blamed her for that, but she cut all ties with me after I found out. I wish I had never-" He fell silent and swallowed, his head lowering onto his chest. I placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a gentle squeeze. "I wish I had tried harder to comfort her."

"I'm sorry I asked," I whispered, feeling the sadness wash off him like the heat from a flame. "Forget I did, okay? Vincent," I swung my other hand around his shoulder too, holding on to him. "There was no way you could have expected such an outcome. I wish I had never met Sephiroth, wish I had never let him kiss me that very first time, but you know what? We did what we did, and we live with it every day. But, don't you think we've sacrificed enough? People make their own decisions," I let go of him and moved to stand before him, forcing him to raise his red orbs and look at me. "We're all right, aren't we?"

"Hmpf..." He nodded, before removing his eyes from mine and looking away. "I suppose so, yes."

"We fight because other people make mistakes, and that's the way it will always be." I said to him, sounding a lot more confident than I had been feeling lately. "Now let's get this over with so we can go home and forget about this Gods forsaken place."

The final mile to the mansion was a quick but silent one. I feared Vincent had fallen into a brooding mood because of my questions, but since he was usually silent, I couldn't be sure. I didn't want to ask either.

Eventually, we reached a large metal door on the right hand side, which needed a little persuasion opening up. Vincent's Cerberus made quick work of the old, rusted lock, and we pushed the door open all the way, to reveal a broad staircase leading up to the surface. We shared a look before taking the steps at a run. After about three flights, we finally arrived at sub-level, and reached an elevator. The gate gave way easily enough, leaving us to step inside. Vincent pressed the first floor button and leaned back against the wall, folding his arms. I let my eyes trail over his features for a moment, trying to find any indication that he was angry with me. There was zero emotion on his face, not giving anything away.

"Are you okay?" I asked him after another painful silence.

"Yes," He replied and finally looked at me. This time, there was an emotion to be caught. A ghost of pain flickered in his eyes, sadness and loss. I remembered how he had supported me back at the reactor, when I had been overwhelmed with memories. This manor must be doing the same to him. When the doors opened, I slipped my hand into his and led him from the elevator, hoping he knew that I understood. He didn't protest, or break free, but let me comfort him, stepping along awkwardly.