Greetings people! Thanks a lot for your support, I'm glad you're enjoying this, it's fun to write it :)

Regarding Sephiroth, believe me, I also can't wait to see him appear in the story *laughs * He will be a more frequent character in Act IV, but he will appear sometimes in Act III in some of Lucrecia visions that will start to appear after this chapter.

With everything that is happening around the world right now due to Covid-19, I hope you guys continue to do well! Please, stay safe and take care!


The Price of Freedom

"I believe we're both after the same goal."

Professor Hojo - Final Fantasy VII

Entwined

Lucrecia's eyes widened, stunned and completely without reaction; her arms fell limp beside her, words and thoughts flew from her mind and she stared up into Vincent's face, whose eyes watched her back with a penetrating gaze without straying from hers. Things she believed and took for granted and concrete about their relationship were suddenly taken off, and in that long instant that the kiss lasted the woman felt as if she were floating away out of her body, alienated from the events that were happening to herself.

Vincent pulled away partly, ending the kiss as abruptly as he had started it, but the man remained close, so close that the scientist could feel his body heat.

"I love you." He spoke quietly, in a tone slightly louder than a whisper. "I always have... I wish I had told you before you left Midgar... in fact, my father was trying to convince me to come and talk to you on my birthday, before all that happened."

A wave of dizziness come over her and the scientist leaned against her workstation, her white, numb and unconsciously trembling hands, grabbed it for support with the strength she didn't have. Her concerns about the progress of the current project, her work on building the substance and Allen's health fled completely from her head. Her beliefs about science and the structure and functioning of the world, all of her knowledge seemed useless when she could barely understand what was going on.

"I-I..." Lucrecia stammered, trying to find out how the words worked again. "V-Vincent... I..."

"It's all right." The Turk spoke, never losing his sober composure.

Vincent took one of her hands, his steady fingers gently covering the woman's, pale and trembling, in a caress; he deposited on the open palm the ring his father had given him that night and the scientist stared at the object in astonishment, on her head slowly sinking in the veiled request in the man's gesture.

"I will not demand an answer from you now, Lucrecia..." Vincent continued. "Just, please... think about it. Give me your answer when you're ready to give it."

The woman remained silent, wide-eyed, watching the ring without being able to conjure any reaction or words to speak. The man closed her hand over it and moved away a few steps towards the laboratory's exit, and pausing for a brief moment at the entrance he looked back at her one more time.

"Life goes by fast, when you realize a long time has passed and some things that could be done weren't, that could be lived and weren't... I know that your work is very important for you, it's who you are, but don't let that totally deprive you of living your life."

The Turk left, leaving the woman lost in a whirlwind of thoughts.

...

Lucrecia stared at her computer screen without actually seeing the information displayed on it; once again her focus drifted from work to the previous encounter she had with Vincent the night before and the woman easily lost herself in the new thoughts that invaded her head and blocked out the numerous complex data of the current analysis.

Since when she was just a child and discovered that water doesn't mix naturally with oil, she fell in love with the experimental sciences and decided to pursue a career in this profession. She devoted all of her time to studies and the discoveries that she made every day about the universe, and for many years this was her true love, her passion for science and knowledge. Never before has she allowed himself to devote her precious time in thinking about the trivialities of life, the ordinary things that happened to ordinary people. She never allowed herself to digress about what it would be like to have a family of her own, to get married or to have children... For her it was a completely opposite reality from the things she did and wished for herself, and she thought it was foolish to see her college friends sighing around the corners of the classrooms as they conspired among themselves which of the boys they would like to take to the ball at the end of the semester instead of concentrating on the mountain of books they had to read and tests they had to study to.

They were so silly...

The scientist's eyes strayed from the computer screen and fixed on the golden ring that rested on her workstation next to a pile of reports, looking innocent while silently it was a reminder of the question whose answer was still pending.

She tried for a moment to imagine herself leaving aside her routine of laboratories, research, analysis and experimental interventions to spend her days at home, married to her husband and raising a kid, and that thought seemed so weird to her as the old theory already refuted that the Cetras, Chaos and Omega never existed and the traces found had been created by a human sect.

The woman snorted softly.

"What's going on, Dr. Crescent?" Hojo's voice suddenly sounded beside her and Lucrecia jumped in surprise.

She stared up at her colleague's face, frowning behind his round glasses; the scientist went on dryly.

"Save your daydreams for your break time or after the end of your shift; an error in your analysis will throw the entire project in the trash can and make us waste months of work and investment."

The woman's eyes widened, and realizing she had been caught in her daydreams, Lucrecia laughed embarrassed.

"Sorry, I... I was just thinking too much."

"I realized it." Hojo looked at her with evident displeasure; his gaze fell then on the small round object lying above the other scientist's workstation. "What is this?"

Lucrecia followed his eyes and seeing the ring, she stuttered.

"T-This is..."

The man cut her off sharply.

"Are you having an affair with one of the staff members or with that new bodyguard who keeps following you around like a stray dog?"

The woman blushed violently; the red color spread across her face as quickly as flames when coming into contact with flammable substances, immediately giving her colleague the answer to his question.

"I see..." Hojo's face was unreadable and his true thoughts were hidden from the woman, who felt a shiver run down her spine when he spoke again, sobering, controlled and cold. "Dr. Crescent, I advise you to stop conceiving romantic and useless illusions if you want to succeed in your current field of work. Science will not be waiting for you while you play house with your fellow Turk. Focus your head only on the project; because if I realize again that you're putting all our work at risk, I won't hesitate to send you back to Gast."

Lucrecia straightened up in her chair and replied with genuine seriousness.

"It won't happen again."

...

When he last patrolled the entrance to the laboratories after the daily activities had ended, Vincent heard a series of curses coming from a room inside, and easily recognizing Lucrecia's voice, he entered the lab and after briefly walking for a while he found the scientist fighting against a couple of boxes full of files.

A smile of amusement played on his lips.

"Need some help?" The Turk inquired.

The woman suddenly turned around to face him; in a very quick instant she remembered the previous night and the kiss and her face took on a slight reddish hue, but as soon as the mental image passed on and she noticed the amusement flickering in the man's eyes, she straightened and snorted indignantly, glaring at him.

"I'm doing just fine with it."

"I have no doubt about that." Vincent replied soberly; he approached the scientist and without waiting for a formal request he bent down and easily took all the boxes in his arms, arching an eyebrow at their weight. "What's in here? A dead body?"

"Of course not, just a pile of papers to entertain me for the next few hours." She sighed and headed down the main hall towards her personal laboratory; the man followed closely.

"You are still going to work more, Lucrecia?" Vincent asked; although his voice was neutral, she could feel the disapproving tone behind it.

"Just a little more; the sooner I can finish examining these files the faster I can finish some details of the project. I will rest soon after, I promise."

At that moment the scientist entered her workplace and Vincent observed the new scenario that was familiar to him. The equipment and computers were still arranged around the oval room in the same place where they had left them after the incident with the first Chaos essence, the damaged devices were replaced and the large central tube had also been exchanged with a new one; its current content immediately attracted Vincent's attention.

"You can leave this anywhere near that workstation." Lucrecia absentmindedly indicated and the man obeyed her request, depositing the boxes on the floor at the indicated location.

Straightening up, Vincent observed the second Chaos essence that floated serenely in the greenish liquid inside the tube while Lucrecia sat down at a nearby computer and started to type some information into the system.

"Is this your lab?" The Turk inquired.

"Yes, this is where I spend most of my day when the team isn't at the main experimentation room."

"You chose the same laboratory that we used that day." Vincent commented then.

"I know..." Lucrecia stopped briefly what she was doing, remembering that day's incident that only by a miracle didn't result in tragedy; it had almost hurt her and Grimoire and it nearly cost her friend's life, if he were an ordinary person.

The scientist's mind wandered for a minute to the secret conversation she had had with her former teacher and the woman's brown eyes strayed from the computer screen to look at Vincent; he was the living proof that all the work that Grimoire had researched on the cetras was real, Vincent was the last of his people, an ancient and even sacred race... and he didn't know anything about that, he knew nothing. Lucrecia's countenance took on a shadow of sadness; if Grimoire hadn't been in his current situation, would he have told his son the truth?

She didn't know…

The man's voice brought her back to reality.

"This... is the second essence that you found, isn't it? I remember you and my father saying something about them the day we came to Nibelheim."

"Yes..." Lucrecia replied automatically, shaking her head, turning her thoughts away to focus back on the present. "I decided to bring it with me to continue studying it. There are so many things we still don't know about it, so many possibilities to be unveiled... I was hoping that I could discover something that could help your father, but I'm barely managing to have time to breathe between shifts, I'm not able to do the research I'd like in my spare time."

Vincent approached the tube and felt more strongly the energy of the corrupted essence calling him to come closer; he stopped beside the glass, so nearby that he could touch it if he wished, and in response the black sphere reacted to his presence and several black fluids broke up in the greenish liquid, immediately darkening it and constantly moving along the length of the tube, as if looking for a way to escape from its prison to join its master.

The man took a deep breath and remained indifferent, still, and didn't incite the energy nor did anything to invoke it as the last he had been there.

Lucrecia, however, was completely fascinated.

"This… is incredible...!" She stood up from the chair and stopped beside the Turk, touched the glass and carefully monitored the movement of the fluids inside it; her eyes shone with pure excitement as if she had made a major discovery in her career. "This is the first time that I see it showing such a reaction! I need to see how this works now!"

And remembering she wasn't alone, the scientist looked back at her friend a little disconcerted; she didn't want to be rude in seeming to be kicking him out of the room.

"I... would you mind it?"

"Of course not, go on and research, Lucrecia." He laughed lightly. "Just don't forget your reports."

Vincent stepped aside to let her carry out the countless analyzes she wished to impose on the sample; even with his growing distance the Chaos essence still pulsed slightly inside the tube, calling him constantly. The man ignored it as he stopped at the door to look back at the woman whose face shone with excitement and delight, and he couldn't help but think that this was who Lucrecia was, her true self; deeply in love with science and the woman he had fallen in love with in the beginning of everything.

...

When the scientist arrived at the main laboratory the next morning and found all the computers turned off, most of the lights out and none of the assistants who constantly monitored the experimentation progress of during the night shift, Lucrecia realized that something was wrong. Frowning and leaving the folders full of files above her desk, the woman went down through the central corridor to the experimentation room and stood still at the entrance, finding the place completely empty.

There was no sign of Allen or the equipment of their current project. What was happening?

The sound of footsteps echoed down the hall and Lucrecia hurried out of the experimentation room to move on and within minutes she arrived at the sample storage room; she found Hojo standing next to a bookcase examining the contents of a file. His eyes looked at her above the pages as she entered the room slightly out of breath.

"Professor! Where's Allen? Why is everything off? Where are the others?"

"Due to the reactions he was experiencing, I decided to stop applying the doses and send him back to Midgar, to Shinra's hospital to recover... for his own safety, I must say." The man informed her in a neutral tone and the woman stared back at him in disbelief.

Lucrecia felt a part within herself that was deeply relieved to no longer have to perform the application of experimental doses on her colleague and watch his body uselessly fight the foreign substance dissolving in his veins to slowly succumb to violent genetic transformations; the other part was concerned. Hojo had long spoken to her and to the entire team on how high the investments were made in their project and the extreme need to achieve a satisfactory and functional result; he had reprimanded her more than once for inattention when analyzing the procedures, and now he was willingly giving up on everything?

"But... what about our research on the fusion of human DNA with the modified DNA of the alien creature for the SOLDIER program...?"

"We will continue it. I didn't say that I would end the project entirely." Hojo closed the book and put it back on the shelf. "One part of the team will be handling of the substance you created, the other will help you start a new, more important project; one that your direct participation is fundamental to its success, Dr. Crescent; the main reason you're here, actually."

It caught the woman completely off guard.

"What do you mean? What project?!" Lucrecia exclaimed, feeling suddenly uncomfortable at being kept out of decisions. None of this had been planned before they left Midgar.

"Behold the future of science." Hojo inclined his head, indicating the table in the center of the room.

The other scientist approached it, her hands took a thick folder of yellowed pages that had a neutral cover and just three words written on it.

THE JENOVA PROJECT