The Shinra building loomed before him, an intimidating structure of metal and glass that stretched for seventy floors into the sky. He had never had access to all those floors until today. Today, he was a Turk, and today he had donned the trademark midnight blue of the Turks for the first time. With his imposing stature and cold dark eyes, the uniform seemed to suit him.
He stood for a long moment before the building, and this was the only sign of nervousness that he allowed. He soon tore his gaze from the grandiose structure and strode through the doors with only the slightest nod to the receptionist who looked his way. He made straight for the elevators, pulling out his new keycard to let the machine know that he did indeed have the authority to access the upper floors.
The elevator acquiesced to his command, and as its doors began to close, into the building rushed a young woman in a lab coat. She started hurrying towards the elevator, but upon seeing that the doors had nearly shut already, she slowed to a walk with a sigh.
He caught the doors, forced them back open, and waited. The woman appeared startled, but she flashed him a smile and hastened to join him. Once she had stepped into the elevator, he let the doors shut, and the car started upwards.
The woman stood beside him with her face turned away, fussing with her lab coat and obviously eager to get wherever she was going. Even though he hadn't gotten a good look at her face, he could tell that she was beautiful. Her brown hair, swept up into a high ponytail, nevertheless hung nearly to her waist and glinted coppery whenever it caught the light. Next to him, she seemed tiny, almost fragile, with a slender figure, long legs, and delicate fingers that couldn't seem to stay still. Apparently she, too, was a little nervous, though perhaps that was his fault.
"Sorry," he said at length, not sure why he wished to break the silence. Normally he avoided conversation when he could. "My name is Vincent."
She glanced at him quickly, but soon returned her gaze to the city beyond the glass walls of the elevator. "You're a Turk, aren't you?" she asked, her voice slightly tremulous.
"Yes," he answered, "although today is my first day."
"Oh, mine, too!" she exclaimed, sounding relieved, though whether because of his admission or something else, he wasn't sure. "As a scientist, that is," she added quickly. "I was only a lab assistant before, you understand, but I got promoted just yesterday."
Vincent nodded and was about to reply when the elevator came to a stop at the 65th floor. The doors opened with a pleasant ding, but this failed to encourage him. "Well, this is my floor," he said, barely able to hide his reluctance.
The woman said nothing in reply, and he stepped off the elevator feeling disappointed. He had not even gotten her name, he realized belatedly. He supposed, however, that they would see each other again, considering they both worked on the upper floors.
A slightly shorter Turk with dirty-blond hair and pale grey eyes stood waiting nearby. "I see you've met the HQ's resident beauty," he said.
Vincent blinked, then realized he was referring to the young scientist. "Hardly," he clipped.
"Then be warned: she's picky about men." He shook his head and then stuck out his hand. "Anyway, I'm Liam."
He accepted the hand and shook it brusquely. "Vincent."
"Well, as soon as the other one gets here, I'll take you to see Chen."
Vincent nodded, and the two of them stood silently for a few minutes until the second of the two elevators dinged and a young woman stepped out. Her fiery red-brown hair, cut in a boyish style, along with her bright green eyes made her stand out sharply despite the fact that she wore the same uniform as the other two.
She grinned amicably and said, "Hope I didn't keep you gentlemen waiting." Her voice seemed almost raucous in comparison to that of the young scientist he had spoken to only a few moments ago. "The name's Talya," she said, holding a hand out to Vincent.
Admittedly, it surprised him to find a woman in the Turks, and so he failed to react to her gesture.
She frowned slightly, lowered the proffered hand, and turned to Liam. "I'm hoping he's the other new guy," she said. "If that's the case, I'll forgive him for gawking."
Liam only shook his head and motioned for the two of them to follow. Vincent did so with a frown, but Talya's grin had returned and there was an almost cheerful confidence in her step.
The blond Turk led them to an office that was more functional than large or plush, unlike President Shinra's office which Vincent had as yet only seen on television. Another suited man sat behind the cluttered desk, and he stood as the three of them entered. Out of all of them, he came the closest to matching Vincent's height. He had short dark hair that was probably brown in good light and eyes of a dark blue color that scrutinized the two newcomers sharply as he walked around his desk to meet them.
"I am Chen," he told him in a businesslike tone, "the leader of the Turks." He looked at Vincent expectantly.
"Vincent Valentine, sir," he responded.
Chen raised an eyebrow. "Valentine?"
"Yes, sir." He could see Talya smirking out of the corner of his eye, and sighed inwardly.
"Are you kidding me?"
"No, sir, I am not."
Chen regarded him dubiously for a moment longer, and then turned to Talya with a nod.
"Talya Keagan, sir," she said, carefully suppressing her smirk.
"Welcome to the Turks," Chen said, though there was no welcome in his voice. "Your first assignment will be tomorrow; Liam will brief you. It is hardly a significant task, but I will be expecting a good performance from each of you."
"Yes, sir," both new Turks responded, not quite in unison.
Chen returned to his desk, and Liam led them back out of the office. Before the briefing, he explained, he wanted to show them around the Turk's floor. The first thing he showed them was a drab room full of grey filing cabinets. If they were ever to betray Shinra, Liam stated coolly, their existence would be erased so completely that the only remaining trace of them would be in a thin manilla folder in one of these cabinets.
After this statement, he left the room. Vincent and Talya exchanged glances before following, but neither said a word. Somehow it was not surprising. They were the ones who did Shinra's dirty work; this was what happened to their victims, so it was only fitting the same happened to them should they turn traitorous.
"I can watch dreams?" Aeris wondered aloud, drawing back from the mirror and blinking in amazement. During these long five years, she had never managed such a thing.
"It only seems possible when the dreams are very vivid," her mother answered from beside her.
Aeris started. Detached as she was from her own world, this so-called Promised Land, she rarely noticed Ifalna's presence unless her mother spoke. "Do you think... Vincent always dreams like this?"
"Haven't you watched him before?"
"Well... no, not really. I mean, I only wanted to see how he would deal with Sephiroth after he woke. I didn't think watching a sleeping person would be very interesting."
"You certainly watched Cloud sleep often enough in the beginning," Ifalna stated.
Aeris looked away. "That's different."
"I know. I'm sorry." There was a pause. "And what of Sephiroth?"
She glanced at the mirror and shook her head. "I can't see inside his mind, though I admit that I'd like to know what he dreams about. Even without his memory, do the faces of those he's killed come back to haunt him? Or is he sleeping peacefully now?" She shook her head again. "Somehow, it doesn't seem fair, does it?"
"No," Ifalna agreed quietly, "it doesn't."
They were both silent for a moment, and then Aeris looked back at the mirror. "I wish I could see this story from Lucrecia's point of view," she said. "Hearing Vincent tell it, I never understand why she accepted her part in the Jenova Project. Maybe he just doesn't like to talk about it, but maybe he didn't understand it either."
"Well, Lucrecia should be in the Lifestream now. Her soul is probably more or less untouched as yet, so you could try searching her memories."
Aeris supposed that she should not have been surprised. She was no stranger to the souls that wandered the Lifestream. She had spoken with them many times. It was just that this seemed different, more probing and intrusive; although, she reminded herself, she had already peaked inside of Vincent's mind, and he was living.
In any case, what did it matter what she did if she was dead herself? With that cold reality in mind, she decided that she would look for Lucrecia's side of the story.
It was mid-morning, and Lucrecia sat at her already-cluttered desk, a thick file spread open before her. She had not had access to these documents until her recent promotion, and now she was going through them voraciously, determined to catch up with the other scientists. She wanted to prove to those men that she was much more than a pretty face. She was capable of thinking on their level, too; she just needed to immerse herself in all the information that they already had.
Professor Gast especially had been working with the Jenova specimen, as he had named it. She had first heard of it several months ago, when the organism had been discovered far to the north, near Snow Village. As an assistant, she had not had access to much more than conjectures, and she had heard only that Gast suspected that it was an Ancient. That alone had been enough to pique her interest, and now that she had been promoted, she could work with it alongside the other scientists and uncover Jenova's secrets for herself.
A bony hand on her shoulder made her start, and she turned to find Professor Hojo standing behind her. Had she really been so lost in these files that she hadn't noticed him come in? She had probably lost track of the time then, too, and she wondered if she had forgotten about something. Was there some test that she was supposed to help out with now? Oh, she could just imagine the looks she'd get if she were late again.
Then again, Hojo didn't look angry, which was reassuring; he had a way of losing his temper at the drop of a hat, and surely if she were late for something, that would annoy him.
"What is it?" she asked, managing to keep her voice level.
"Professor Gast is running some tests that he wants us to help him with," Hojo explained gruffly. When first she met him, she had thought his harsh tone rather insulting, but by now she knew that that was just how he spoke to everyone; he couldn't really seem to help it.
"Oh, dear," Lucrecia sighed, getting to her feet. "I'm not late, am I?"
"No," he assured her. "It wasn't scheduled, so you couldn't have known about it."
She smiled in relief. "Well, that's good to hear. I was afraid I'd end up making a fool of myself again."
Hojo didn't seem to know quite what to say in response. Sometimes his conversational skills were a bit lacking, but once the topic turned towards something he was really interested in, it was hard to keep up with him. He was a brilliant man, really; he just didn't like small talk.
Shaking her head in dismissal, Lucrecia motioned for Hojo to go on, and she followed him out of her office and towards the lab.
Vincent returned from a mission in Wutai, feeling somehow too tired to sleep. It was perhaps an hour to noon; he had been up for nearly forty hours, but despite his body's fatigue, the sunlight discouraged him from resting. So, when Chen told him he had off until mid-afternoon, he went to the employee lounge rather than heading for his apartment to get some rest. Admittedly, he was never particularly welcome on the lounge floor because of his status as a Turk, but he disliked the small recreational area on the Turks' floor, and anyway, he had no chance of catching sight of that scientist if he stayed there.
After that one day several weeks ago, he had gotten only glimpses of her. Aside from filing reports, he generally did not spend much time in the Shinra building, and then his hours there never seemed to coincide with the scientist's free time. He had not even managed to learn her name. Probably he could have asked someone, but he would rather hear it from her own lips first.
When he reached the lounge, he looked around first to make certain that Talya was nowhere to be seen. Sometimes she hung out here, too, and most employees accepted her readily enough, considering her friendly nature and the fact that she was a woman. To them, perhaps, she did not seem as intimidating as the other Turks, though she was certainly as deadly. She joked in even the direst situations, but she always managed to get the job done.
Nevertheless, Vincent was not terribly fond of her. His name was an ongoing joke to her; she had never once called him Vincent, but rather stuck with Valentine, laughing when she said it. She was always prying, too, trying to find out anything and everything about him, especially his reason for choosing the general lounge over the Turks' when he was so antisocial.
Relieved to find her absent from the lounge, Vincent found himself a seat and ordered a cup of coffee. He had never really liked the stuff, but as a Turk, he sometimes found the caffeine a necessity. He let his gaze wander, watching those around him while he waited for his drink.
It was then that she stepped off the elevator. It barely registered at first, and then he thought that he was imagining things in his weary state. He blinked a few times, but she was still there, and he watched her make her way over to an empty table and sit down. Now that he finally had the opportunity to talk to her, would he even attempt it? he wondered. Tired as he was, he was more likely to do something stupid, and it wasn't as though he had any real reason to speak with her. She probably got attention from a lot of men. Why would she see him as being any different?
Vincent deliberated for some time, barely noticing when his coffee arrived. At length he made up his mind and strode over to join her. "Do you mind if I sit with you?" he asked.
She looked up at him in startlement, then smiled hesitantly and shook her head. "No, go ahead."
He took the chair opposite her and wondered what he was supposed to say now. "You never told me your name," he remarked after a moment.
"I didn't, did I?" she said. "Well, it's Lucrecia. Lucrecia Coen. You said yours was Vincent, right?"
He nodded. "Vincent Valentine. I'm surprised you remembered."
"I would be, too, if I hadn't heard people talking about you. Newest member of the Turks, excellent marksman."
Vincent only shrugged.
"You look tired," Lucrecia commented. "Did you not sleep well?"
"Not at all, really. I just returned from a mission. Red-eye flight, you understand."
"Oh," she said, and he could tell that wondering what the mission had been made her slightly uncomfortable. She soon overcame it, however, and smiled sympathetically. "Yes, I imagine it would be hard to sleep in the air."
He nodded slightly. "At any rate," he began, eager to shift the subject away from his less-than-commendable activities, "I've heard that your department is working with something called Jenova. How is that going?"
She seemed surprised that he knew anything of it, but her expression brightened. "Very well," she replied. "The whole specimen hasn't been recovered yet, of course, so we've only been working with samples. Professor Gast says that once they've finished excavating the Jenova specimen, Shinra is going to get us a lab in some out-of-the-way place so that we can do our research without being bothered."
"That sounds nice," Vincent commented, although he realized immediately that he would never see her if she left the Shinra building. "What is the Jenova specimen anyway? Have you confirmed anything yet?"
"Well, we're not 100 certain," she conceded, "but all tests seem to indicate that it's an Ancient. The time and place certainly match up--roughly 2,000 years old and discovered near Snow Village. Jenova must have been alive during the last years of the Ancients."
"Then did it die from the same thing that killed off the rest of the Ancients?"
Lucrecia shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Professor Gast says that parts of her are actually still alive. It's as though she was frozen solid in ice while she still breathed, and so it's preserved her perfectly. It's fascinating stuff. I can hardly wait until we get the separate lab for it."
"Indeed."
Some of her enthusiasm faded. "I'm not boring you, am I?"
Vincent shook his head quickly. "Not at all. I think I'm just tired."
"Maybe you should go get some sleep," she suggested.
Her concern startled him, and he could only nod slowly. "Probably," he agreed. "It's just that I don't see you around much."
"You'd give up your much-needed sleep just to talk to a woman whose name you didn't know until just now?"
"Is that so difficult to fathom?"
"Yes. I mean, I'm nothing extraordinary."
"Nonsense," Vincent stated. "You're beautiful."
"Oh..." His reply seemed to disappoint her. She glanced at her watch and smiled at him briefly. "Well, it looks like I've lost track of the time again. I'd best be getting back to the lab."
He nodded, deciding to keep his mouth shut lest he say something more foolish.
"I'll talk with you again sometime, Vincent," she said as she got to her feet, though she did not sound like she meant it.
He nodded again. "I hope so, Lucrecia."
"Bye," she said with a wave before turning to head for the elevator.
Vincent watched her go with a sigh. He should have waited until he had the presence of mind to carry on an intelligent conversation. Instead, it seemed that he had made a fool of himself, and quite possibly she would not want anything more to do with him. He returned his attention to his coffee, which had cooled significantly by now.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder, and he started.
"Hey, Valentine," came Talya's voice, "was that your girlfriend?"
He lifted his head to glance at her over his shoulder. "I just met her, Talya," he said tiredly, "and she's no more interested in me than she is in you."
"I didn't know she was into girls, too."
"She's not," he replied flatly.
"Oh, I see. Sucks for you, huh, lover-boy?"
"Don't you have work to do?" he asked.
"Hey, I have off, too, sometimes," she said indignantly, taking a seat beside him. "Anyway, it's probably not as bad as you think. You were doing pretty good for a while, and she'll probably get over whatever that last thing you said to her was. Unless you really managed to screw up with that; I don't know since I wasn't listening."
"It's good to know that you haven't sunk to eavesdropping yet," Vincent remarked.
"That was a little harsh, considering I'm trying to be nice here. But I'll forgive you, since you're a Turk in love."
"Talya," he began, a warning in his voice.
"By the way," she went on, ignoring him, "are you gonna tell her what you do for a living? That may be the problem, you know. She--"
"It's no secret that I'm a Turk," he cut in. "She already knows what I do."
"She likes killers then, does she?"
"Doubtful."
"But you are a cute one. That's got to count for something."
Vincent got to his feet with a sigh of exasperation. "Go bother someone else, Talya, please."
"Fine, Valentine. I guess you need to go get your beauty sleep anyway."
He did not bother to reply, but instead took the elevator up to the Turks' lounge, which he found empty, and fell asleep in a chair.
Lucrecia wondered for the umpteenth time how she had gotten herself into this predicament, held captive by a bunch of terrorists in such a cold and inhospitable environment. At least, she supposed, she had a coat, and they were keeping her inside a tent along with the other captives, but the bonds on her hands were uncomfortably restrictive, and the cold still managed to penetrate to her bones.
She wished that she had declined when Professor Gast had asked whether she wanted to accompany him to oversee the transportation of the Jenova specimen to Nibelheim, but she had been to eager to see it. Now Gast, Hojo, and herself were at the mercy of these terrorists who claimed that the Jenova specimen was an abomination. They had told Shinra that they would release the scientists only if the company agreed to terminate the project and return Jenova to its place buried deep in the ice.
Shinra, she knew, would do no such thing. She wondered if he would send the Turks to deal with this. She wondered if Vincent would be among them. If she made it through this alive, she thought wryly, that would give her an opportunity to apologize for what had happened when they had spoken the week before. She shouldn't have taken offense because he had called her beautiful. Just because he had noticed it, that didn't mean that he was as shallow as many of the other men who talked to her. He had seemed genuinely interested in what she had said.
Why she kept thinking about it, though, she wasn't sure. Maybe it was because she kept hearing about him. People said that he never smiled and that he carried out all of his missions with deadly efficiency. They made him out to be almost machine-like, but he hadn't seemed that way to Lucrecia. She had seen the hint of a smile on his face, and obviously he had been far from proud of his accomplishments as a Turk. Had he only let down his guard because of his fatigue? Or had it been something else?
Shaking her head, she roused herself from her reverie and looked around the tent to see how her fellow captives were doing. Hojo was wearing a look that could have killed, but his mouth was clamped shut. In any other situation, he probably would have loosed his temper, but now it was unwise to erupt into anger. In contrast, Gast appeared quite calm, almost relaxed where he sat with his hands bound behind him.
Their captors sat around tensely, fingers twitching against triggers, eyes fixed on the tent flap by which their companions stood watch. Lucrecia doubted many of them had even held a gun before, much less threatened anyone with one. She wondered what it was about this Jenova specimen that had made them resort to this. Why risk their lives to make certain it remained untouched? Was it really that dangerous? They would have to look into that, she decided, though she knew that Hojo would consider it a waste of time. Gast at least might consent to taking a little more caution with Jenova.
A man pulled the tent flap open then and motioned for the only guard not fidgeting to come out. "They've sent someone to negotiate," he said as his companion joined him outside the tent.
Lucrecia peered outside and caught sight of a red-haired woman before the flap fell shut. She thought she recognized the woman as one of the Turks, though at the moment she was out-of-uniform. Or perhaps Lucrecia was mistaken. In either case, she mentioned nothing to the others. If it was one of the Turks, then any negotiations were likely a ruse. She tried not to appear any more anxious than she had been at the thought.
Some minutes passed, and then she heard gunfire outside. Their captors exchanged frightened glances, and one of them grabbed Lucrecia, who sat closest to the outside. He pulled her out into the cold twilight and put his gun to her head. She could feel him trembling. "Stop or I shoot!" he shouted, and she thought that he sounded very young.
There was a second's lull in the fighting, and then one loud gunshot rang out, and Lucrecia shut her eyes. The man holding her made a sort of gurgling sound, as though blood were blocking his voice, and the gun slid from her head. He toppled over, his loosening grasp pulling her off balance. Unable to use her hands to steady herself, she fell with him.
She lay there motionless, afraid to open her eyes lest she see the dead man lying nearby. She could hear the fighting going on around her, gunshots and fire and men dying with screams more successful than her captor's. At last she heard someone shouting surrender, and the gunfire ceased. There was silence save for one man's moaning some distance away.
Lucrecia opened her eyes cautiously and found herself staring at the tent's ceiling. She sat up, realizing that she and the dead man must have fallen back through the flap. She could see him lying beside her, his legs sticking out into the snow and his head lying at someone's feet, a bullet hole clean in the center of his forehead, blood sta--
She looked away and swallowed hard. She had never seen a dead man before.
"Are you all right?"
It was Hojo's voice, and it took her a moment to realize that he was speaking to her. She nodded minutely, then again, more forcefully.
"Did you faint?"
"N-no," she managed, realizing how she must have looked, lying there with her eyes shut tight. "I... I was just... scared."
Hojo nodded and didn't say anything else. She looked around. Their remaining captors sat frozen, both of them still staring at the dead man. They had been too frightened to do anything after that, she realized, and now that their leader--presumably--had surrendered, they didn't dare.
Suddenly someone dragged the dead man out away from the tent, and Lucrecia scrabbled back from the flap as it opened.
It was Vincent.
"You two," he said to the terrorists inside, "put down your weapons and get out here."
They started and hurriedly did as they were told, eyes wide and limbs shaking. Lucrecia really felt sorry for them, despite what they had done. They had obviously believed themselves to be right, so much so that they had risked this even though they weren't fighters themselves.
Once the pair had left, Vincent pulled out a knife and crouched down beside Lucrecia, cutting her bonds. "You shouldn't go out there just yet," he told her quietly, avoiding her gaze. "There are more dead bodies where that one came from."
He moved on to free the other two scientists without waiting for a reply.
Gast and Hojo didn't seem at all squeamish about dead bodies, and both followed Vincent out of the tent. Lucrecia remained inside by herself, pulling her knees up to her chest.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" she heard Hojo shouting outside. Apparently he could no longer hold back his temper. "What if you had missed?"
"I don't miss," came Vincent's cool reply, and Lucrecia realized in astonishment that Hojo was taking out his anger not on the terrorists, but on Vincent, who must have been the one to kill her captor.
"You don't miss, huh?" Hojo snorted. "Well then, what if he had managed to pull that trigger before he went down, did you think of that?"
"I doubt someone as untrained as he obviously was would have had the reflexes to do so."
"But it's the twitchy ones who do that sort of thing by accident."
"Then you'll agree that he might have done it even if we had given in to his demands."
"You think you're so smart--"
"I think that I know how to do my job. That is all."
"You just don't give a damn," Hojo spat. "I bet you--"
Lucrecia stepped out of the tent, unable to tolerate any more of this. "Nibori, stop it," she said, knowing that he hated being called by his first name. Even his friends called him Hojo. "Look, I'm all right. There's no point in considering all these what if's."
The scientist seemed startled. "But he was willing to--"
"I don't want to hear it. He saved our lives, and that's all there is to it."
He fell silent, frowning, and after a moment he turned away and strode to join Professor Gast who stood with the other Turks, speaking to the terrorists.
Vincent started after him.
"Wait a second, Vincent," she said, and he turned back questioningly. "I want to apologize for being curt with you earlier. I didn't have any reason to. And now... Well, thank you for saving me. I suppose I'm in your debt now."
He shook his head. "I was only doing my job."
"Is that really all?" she asked in spite of herself.
"I don't know what you mean," he said, turning to go.
Lucrecia sighed and trailed after him.
"Talya," Vincent said when he reached the other Turks, "why don't you take Gast and the others back to the village?"
"Sure thing, Valentine," answered the red-haired woman Lucrecia had seen earlier. When Vincent glared at her sharply, she added, "Sir," suppressing a smirk.
"Liam and I will join you shortly," Vincent told her.
Talya motioned for the three scientists to go with her, and she led them away from the bloody scene and back towards Snow Village. Lucrecia found herself somewhat disappointed, though she supposed that Vincent still had work to do here. Maybe he would like to talk, but this was hardly the place or time. Deciding to try speaking with him later, she followed Talya back to Icicle Inn without complaint and retired gratefully to her room there. It had been a long day.
She woke cold and disoriented, her eyes finding no familiarity in the tiny bedroom surrounding her. She sat up quickly in her confusion, the blanket falling and exposing her to the room's cold air. She shivered and almost lay back, but she did not want to stay in this lonely room, even if she had managed to recognize it by now.
Lucrecia dressed quickly, gathered her few belongings, and stepped out into the hall. She started when she found Vincent standing against the far wall, waiting, and she stood frozen in the doorway.
"Good morning," he said quietly.
"G-good morning," she replied, wondering why she was suddenly so nervous. She turned to shut the door behind her, using that as an excuse to break his gaze.
"Professor Gast and Hojo are waiting for you downstairs," Vincent informed her as she turned back around. "You'll be leaving for Midgar as soon as the snow stops."
"And you?"
"I still have some work to do here."
Lucrecia nodded absently. "Tell me, Vincent, did it feel any different this time?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... rescuing people instead of... what you normally do."
"Yes," he answered after a moment, "it was very different."
"People tell me that you're very cold-hearted," Lucrecia said thoughtfully, "but if that's true, then this mission would have been the same to you as all the others you've been on. It wouldn't have been anything more than a job to you."
He did not reply, and his penetrating gaze finally left her face.
She stepped forward and stretched up on tip-toe to kiss him on the cheek. "I imagine you don't get much sincere gratitude," she told him quietly. "I hope this makes us even."
That said, she turned for the stairs, afraid to wait for his response. Arriving in the lobby, she found Professor Gast and Hojo waiting near the huge furnace that heated the inn. Talya and Liam, the two Turks who had accompanied Vincent, stood near a window, both now in uniform and keeping their distance from the scientists. They were well aware that their company was not wanted.
Lucrecia went over to join Gast and Hojo, who greeted her with good-morning's and absent-minded smiles, but no conversation ensued. Hojo seemed reluctant to talk with the Turks within hearing range, while Gast was lost in thought, as usual. The two Turks nearby had no qualms about conversing, though they did so under their breaths and Lucrecia surmised from their tones that they were having an argument.
She sensed rather than heard Vincent come down the stairs, and her eyes followed him as he strode over to join Talya and Liam by the window. He did not so much as glance in her direction, and Lucrecia was grateful. After that impulsive kiss of hers, any attention from him would only embarrass her.
The direction of her gaze, however, did not go unnoticed; Hojo tapped her on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow him outside.
On the inn's front step, he turned to look at her speculatively. "I don't like how you're looking at that tall Turk," he said at length.
"You mean Vincent?" she asked.
Hojo nodded.
"And how exactly am I looking at him?"
"Like you might be interested in him. Romantically."
Lucrecia laughed as though the idea were ridiculous, although she knew quite well it wasn't; Vincent was a handsome man, and he had saved her life. "Honestly, Hojo, I barely know him. Anyway, why would it matter to you if I was? Don't tell me you're jealous."
Hojo frowned uncomfortably. "No, that isn't why it bothers me. I haven't heard good things about that Turk. They say he's very good at what he does, a deadly killer. You should avoid him."
"Hojo," she said, "I appreciate your concern, but I don't need your judgment to guide me."
"Lucrecia, everyone agrees that he's an uncaring bastard."
"Some people say the same thing about you," she told him archly, "but that doesn't mean I have to listen to them, does it?"
Hojo was silent for a moment. "Fine," he sighed, "befriend him if you must, but be careful around him, all right?"
"That, I can do," she replied, her expression softening. They exchanged no more words, both seeming to notice in the same instant that the snow was letting up, and turned to go back inside.
Author's Notes
Vincent's nightmares. I wrote this mostly because I really just thought it would be fun to do my own version of his past, but it also gave me access, as it were, to a rather important character, Talya. (This also marks the first time I used the name Keagan in a story. I've used it twice since because I just can't seem to help myself.) Editing this, though, I realized it was kind of cumbersome because the story is more about Sephiroth than Vincent, so I did my best to shorten it. I cut out a lot of the scenes in Vincent's flashback, most notably his mission to Wutai which he only briefly mentions here, and also Vincent's assessment of the hostage situation in the Knowlespole.
Despite the cuts, though, I wasn't able to shorten it enough to stand as one chapter, so I decided to split it up. Of course, part of the problem may be because I significantly lengthened the scene with Aeris. As the first appearance she makes outside the prologue, I felt I ought to make it more than just a paragraph, and get some kind of reaction from her about Sephiroth.