A Second Chance
By Arian
Tifa turned from her quiet conversation with Cloud as the door opened and Lucrecia crept out furtively. "Where are you going?" She asked curiously, wondering what could possibly compel the woman to leave Vincent.
"What? Oh, I just need to… to, ah, to go somewhere else for a while. That room gets stuffy when you sit in there too long." Lucrecia stuttered, looking guilty and trying to conceal something from their view.
"Shouldn't someone stay in there with Vincent? Is he OK yet?"
"He woke up not long ago. He's sleeping again now, but he's fine. Could you keep an eye on him? Just look after him for me, would you?" Lucrecia looked imploringly at Tifa, starting to edge towards the door, even as Tifa nodded her agreement.
"She was behaving… a bit odd." Cloud commented once the woman had left.
Tifa nodded thoughtfully. "What do you think? I know she's been acting a little strange before now, but this was different."
"I'll find Cid and Red. I don't know what's going on but if we stick together then hopefully we can sort out whatever it is. What about Vincent?"
"I'll look after him." Tifa smiled as he waved amiably from the doorway, then returned to the room they had left Vincent in.
***************
Lucrecia stood on the path that led up to the mountains, deciding that this was far enough. There was no need for her to go any further away from the village, no one would bother her here.
She pulled out the gun she had taken and her hands trembled as she lifted it. Seems simple enough to operate. She told herself. I'm sure I can figure it out. She nearly laughed. One of the leading scientists of the pioneering Jenova project should have no trouble working out something like this. If the Turks could do it, then there was no reason why she couldn't.
She tried to steady her hands – and her resolve. It would take more than one shot. Many more… It took a lot to take out a Jenova infused being. She would just have to keep trying. She had planned the whole thing out on the way up here, meticulously plotting every detail. She'd have to aim for her stomach and chest, that would be the best way. The last thing she wanted was to shoot herself in the head and find herself still alive and unable to lift the gun, let alone able to aim.
Lucrecia started to laugh, quietly. Not insane laughter, just amused. She never thought she'd have to plan the details and manner of her passing.
She looked around at the mountains one final time. I couldn't have picked a more beautiful spot. Here… yes, here is the right place. This is somewhere to be at peace.
Shutting her eyes for a moment, she ordered her thoughts. For Vincent. So that I won't hurt him anymore. And because this is how I feel it should be. He deserves better…
C'mon Lucrecia! Stop staring at the damned thing and pull the trigger! She frowned to herself, trying to compel her finger to move through the power of sight alone. It refused to budge. Go on! Just pull that tiny little lever! I'll count how many shots it takes, to help ignore the pain. She coaxed and pleaded with herself silently, before eventually bursting into tears. She couldn't do it herself. She just didn't have the willpower to cause such injury to herself, not even to help Vincent.
She sniffed and wiped the crystalline droplets from her face and persuaded herself to think rationally through this, to start thinking like the scientist she was. If I could just find someone else who was willing… It didn't take long for her quick mind to come up with a solution.
***************
Sleeping without the condemning memories for the first time since Hojo had carried out his vicious experiment, Vincent's soul soared free. Free from the painful memories and free from guilt! Oh, but just to be like this again, after so long! To be so blissfully happy it was painful. He never thought he'd feel like that again. Never. But now, there was no guilt. Lucrecia had said she forgave him! And if she, the one he had caused the most pain to, the only one whose opinion truly mattered to him, could do that then he could at last forgive himself. No need to atone for the things he had failed to prevent. That was over now. But still there was regret and sorrow, things that echo down from the past, inevitable and unalterable.
Vincent put them from his mind quickly, not wanting to get bogged down in gloom again yet. He didn't want anything to hinder this joyous feeling.
Slowly, he was dragged back down to earth, back down to his quickly recovering, but still somewhat bruised body. He knew he had not slept long and he slowly blinked his eyes open, trying to accustom them to the light again. His sight was still misty as his gaze fell on the brown haired figure that stood above him.
Smiling faintly, Vincent raised himself up a little, ignoring the aches and twinges that ran down his spine. He was still feeling intoxicated. Lucrecia had said that she loved him, and that she forgave him! Seeing only a mist of brown hair around the face in front of him, he leaned forwards and kissed her, with a nagging feeling that she had been about to say something. In an instant, he darted back. This wasn't Lucrecia.
His vision cleared as he blinked again in shock and he saw Tifa looking at him with an expression that could only be described as stunned. She blinked back at him and there was silence for a moment. Then she laughed.
"You must be feeling a lot better then, Vincent."
Vincent had a mortified look on his face, which hadn't been helped by her laugh. Eventually finding his voice, he tried to force out some sort of apology. "Tifa! I didn't realise… I thought you were… I didn't mean… I'm sorry!" He gave up on trying to explain and simply settled for flushing an attractive shade of pale pink.
Tifa giggled quietly to herself again. She actually thought the whole situation was quite funny.
Vincent, on the other hand, was wondering just how he had mistaken Tifa for Lucrecia. It wasn't as if they looked that much alike. "Where is Lucrecia?" He asked suddenly.
Tifa managed to control her mirth and her face took on a more serious air. "I don't know. She went out a little while ago and I haven't seen her since." She refrained from telling Vincent that Lucrecia had been acting slightly peculiarly, reasoning that there was no need to worry him until they knew what was going on. "Cloud went to find Cid and Red earlier. The pair didn't like hanging around here. I think the waiting made them edgy. When the three of them get back – "
She was interrupted by the faint, sharp sound of a single gunshot from somewhere in the village. "What was that?"
Vincent recognised the sound only too well. "Tifa…" He spoke slowly as he patted his side with one hand. "Where's my gun?"
"It's on the shelf, I put it there to – Oh!" She stopped suddenly in mid-sentence as she saw the empty shelf.
A feeling of sick dread rose up in Vincent's stomach, similar to the feeling when he had known he was going to fall off the cliff-ledge. But this was worse. That fall had just been him. This was Lucrecia. He knew her well enough to take a rough guess at what was going on outside. He cursed softly to himself as he slid off the desk and Tifa helped him to stand.
"Hey. Hey! Hey, Vincent!" Tifa yelled at him, trying to get his attention as he crossed quickly to the door.
He glanced back at her, briefly. "What?"
"Be careful. I'm sure you still aren't well enough to go charging round the village. And we don't know that was Lucrecia."
"I do." He muttered, anxious to be gone.
"I'm sure she wouldn't want you to end up hurting yourself." Tifa said pointedly.
Vincent scowled back at her. "She doesn't know what she wants. She never has. That's always been the problem."
Tifa sighed, resigned to the fact that if there was the slightest chance that Lucrecia was hurt, Vincent would happily kill himself in the process of finding out. "Fine then. I'm coming with you." She moved to the door and put an arm around his waist, offering him her support. He still wasn't as strong as he thought he was and he leaned heavily on her as they quickly left the mansion.
***************
Lucrecia marched resolutely into the general store, not far from the mansion. As luck would have it, the owner was the same guy who had been here all those years ago, when she had still been human. The little store was quiet and the man, somewhere in his forties possibly, looked intensely bored.
She slammed the gun down on the counter and the man looked at it carefully for a moment.
"That's worth about –"
"I don't want to sell it!" Lucrecia sighed impatiently. "Do you remember me?"
"What?" The man, Aaron by name, scrutinised her carefully for a moment. "Yeah. You were one of them Shinra employees who pottered around in that big house years ago." Abruptly, he realised what was wrong. "But you can't be. If you were her you'd be… old."
"I am her. And this is what I want you to do." She quickly outlined her plan and Aaron began to look faintly sick.
"Lady… you're a complete wacko. And I don't want anything to do with you!"
Lucrecia forced the gun into his hand. "Did you lose anyone dear to you in that fire a while back?"
"As it happens, yeah. My young son, and a few of my friends died." He stopped short. It was still a sore point, even now. Many in the town had never really gotten over the damage the fire had caused, not the physical damage, but the psychological scars that it had left.
"Did you want to lash out at somebody? Did you want to find somebody to blame and make them pay?"
Aaron stared at her. "…What are you saying?"
"It's my fault. The fire was my fault. It couldn't have started without me." Her voice got louder as she spoke and she strung the words together quickly. She watched through calculating eyes as Aaron got increasingly angry with each sentence she spoke. "I'm ageless, a willing part of the experiment that created Sephiroth. I created Sephiroth, and doomed your village to its burning! It's even down to me that the threat of the meteor was ever brought about!"
"You?!" Even through his anger, Aaron could think clearly. "No! You didn't do that. Everyone knows that it was the SOLDIER general. It was Sephiroth who summoned meteor!"
"Sephiroth was my son!!!" Lucrecia screamed at him and Aaron finally lost it. He watched the town burn again and he saw the shape of his young son through the flames, as a long blade cut him down. He looked up into the unearthly green eyes of the killer and was unable to contain the need for revenge as he saw the slight smirk.
He saw only Sephiroth as he fired the gun.
In spite of herself, Lucrecia cried out. The bullet had hit her forearm, Aaron was aiming at something in his memory, not at her.
"Fire again!" She yelled at him. "It's all because of me! It's my fault!" She regretted her treatment of the man. He probably didn't deserve what she was putting him through, but he was a means to an end. She needed to keep him angry at her, to keep him firing that gun.
The pain ran up her arm in agonising jolts as she clutched it to her, the instinct for self-preservation still strong.
Aaron lowered the gun a little, the sight of the deep crimson blood on Lucrecia's sleeve bringing him back to reality.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Lucrecia turned instantly at the sound of Vincent's voice and saw him in the doorway, Tifa stood not far behind him.
He walked fully into the room and held out his hand to Aaron. Aaron dropped the gun into Vincent's open hand unquestioningly, and grateful. He had only just realised that he had shot at Lucrecia and now he was beginning to tremble. Tifa helped him to his chair behind the counter, trying to calm him down.
Vincent turned angrily back to Lucrecia. "Why are you doing this? You want to die? Fine! But why do this to me first?" He spread his hands out in disgust. "You cure me. You heal me, making me as immortal as yourself in the process, then you run off and find somebody to shoot you! Lucrecia, why give me back my life if that's what you intended?"
Neither of them turned as Cloud, Cid and Red appeared, hovering just inside the door.
"That's the most I've ever heard him say at once. Maybe that cliff fall did him more damage than we thought." Cid hissed to Red, catching Cloud's serious look and falling silent.
"It's my fault! Everything that has happened to you, and everything that happened to this town, is all down to me! If I live… you'd never let me go… but you deserve better, so…" Lucrecia forced the words out, trying to make Vincent see her reasoning, trying to make him understand.
"Lucrecia, we all make mistakes. All of us, all the time, make mistakes. Terrible, terrible things happen that we cannot undo, that we cannot prevent. And I know this better than anyone. How long was I consumed with my guilt at what happened back then? But you forgave me. For everything, for what I was and what I am, for things that perhaps could never have been stopped by any of us. But you can't give up because of that or you'll never have a chance to put things right again." He spoke softly, gently persuading. "If you die, you leave me here with nothing. Isn't all I've suffered for you enough already? We have a chance to make things better now. To make things the way they never were, and the way they should be. Don't leave me here alone. I couldn't bear it."
"Too many mistakes… I can't fix them. There's… not enough tears in the world to … to fix what I did to you." Lucrecia cried softly, wondering at how it could be that she had any tears left after all the crying she had been doing.
"She's as bad as Vincent! They're both ^&$£% suited to each other!" Cid glared right back at Cloud as the leader strived to silence him.
"You weren't to blame. Hojo…" Vincent grew silent, remembering the one thing that had made a difference to him in his depression. "I forgive you for whatever you think you are to blame for, Lucrecia."
She looked up into the crimson eyes. He forgives me! How amazing those simple words can have this effect on me! Her soul suddenly soared at the prospect of a new beginning and she was swamped by the same blissful euphoria that Vincent had experienced earlier. He has forgiven me. I am whole again.
Vincent glanced over to where Tifa was still trying to comfort the distraught Aaron. A murderous gleam flickered in his eyes as he remembered the deep red stain on Lucrecia's sleeve. Tifa caught his look and shook her head firmly.
"It wasn't deliberate, Vincent."
At that, the ex-Turk nodded slowly. He reached out pulled Lucrecia gently towards him, being careful not to crush her wounded arm.
"Is there really this chance? That things could work at last?" She asked in wonder.
"A new start, for all of us." He paused thoughtfully. "The planet has been renewed, reborn from the mess Shinra made of it. It's a time for new beginnings and second chances. This time perhaps things will work out. Things could be the way they never did before, the way they should have been." He looked over to where Cloud still stood by the doorway and their eyes met for a moment. Perhaps, for the first time, Vincent realised what Aeris had bought for them. Not just their lives, but a future worth living. "Aeris and Holy have given us all another chance at life, to put things right and correct our mistakes. We own it to her not to waste the gift she has given us."
Cloud bowed his head. No one could help him with his grief, not even Tifa. It was his and his alone to deal with and to live through.
Vincent walked slowly to the door with Lucrecia, each leaning on the other for support as they made their way down the path to the Shinra Mansion on the outskirts of Nibelheim.
Before she stepped inside the tall iron-wrought gate and pulled it closed behind her, Lucrecia looked around at the small village and up at the vast mountains that towered over it.
"Thank you, Aeris." She breathed quietly to the girl she had never met who had sacrificed everything to give not only this wonderful second chance with Vincent, but to give everyone a second chance at life.
And perhaps, somewhere in the depths of the Lifestream, Aeris heard her.
Author's note: Depressing… yes. But this is Vincent! What did you expect? Sweetness and light? Actually, that'd probably be quite funny!
Just a little something that sounds like Vincent. It's from Anne Rice's "Interview With The Vampire". Is it me or does Vince sound a lot like Louis?
"And yet nothing turned me from our quest and nothing could turn me, but over and over, committed as I was, I pondered the great risk of our questions, the risk of any question that is truthfully asked; for the answer must carry an incalculable price, a tragic danger."