I owned the can of soup fed to them in one of the scenes, everything else belongs to Squaresoft, which is kinda good, because I don't think I could handle the responsibility...

Chapter two: What we did to deserve this...

-

"Show me the way,
They say safety in numbers,
I lift up my eyes to the sky,
And imagine a crowd of hearts that surround me,
And give me the courage to die...

"Were you to weep,
And lie soft at my feet,
Then you'd wash all my troubles away,
And imagine the host of angels around me,
That give me the courage to die..."

Vincent woke to the soft singing, not realizing at first where he was and who with. It was almost too soon when he remembered what had happened yesterday. Or was it still today? Cloud was right, it was hard to keep track of time here. Maybe he had slept for years again, maybe just ten minutes. The room was as dark as it had been, the only sounds the soft humming of the computers and Cloud.

The Turk pushed himself to a sitting position and turned to look at the boy in the tank. He could remember walking back to it, but not when it had happened. Cloud's eyes were almost closed and he seemed to be far away, humming quietly and absently running fingers through his hair. It now stood up and into every possible direction in stubborn spikes. Vincent almost smiled at the sight.

"Nice song." His soft words made Cloud's eyes pop open, and the boy sat up, smiling shyly.

"Thanks, my mom taught it to me." The smile disappeared and Cloud sighed. "She thinks I'm dead, they told her so. The other villagers didn't like us much, all we had was each other, and now she's all alone..."

"What about your father?"

"He died when I was just a kid."

Vincent moved closer to the tank and leaned his left side against the cool glass. Inside, Cloud moved instinctively closer to him. "How did you..." the Turk wasn't sure how to ask the question, but the boy asked it himself.

"How did I become one of Hojo's projects?" Vincent nodded. "It's kind of a long story..."

"Cloud, I don't think we're going anywhere anytime soon..." His wry words made Cloud smile, even though they were the last words someone in his situation needed to hear.

"I guess you're right." The boy crossed his legs and leaned forward, bringing his face close to Vincent's. "Like I said, the villagers don't like us much... all the other kids just bullied me all of the time. So I was alone a lot. Dad had left me a sword, and I learned to use it when I was eleven, and I'd take it along when I went up to the mountains, just to walk or to fight monsters." His face twisted into a sad sneer. "Even when I was killing monsters to keep everyone safe, they didn't like me. But they didn't dare to bully me anymore. Well, not alone, at least.

"One day I was chasing a monster that ran towards Nibelheim... it went inside the mansion, and I followed it. I'd never been in there before, but I had to get the monster, or it would have wandered into the village sooner or later. I heard it upstairs, and found it in one of the rooms. I killed it, it fell against a wall, and..." Cloud shrugged and looked up. Vincent stared at him, listening intently to the quiet voice. "...it opened some kind of a hidden passage. I should have left then, mom always said that nothing good ever comes from the mansion, but I got curious.

"There was a long stairwell, and when I looked down I saw a light. Some of the stairs were broken but I could still get down easy, and quiet. You have to learn to walk quietly when hunting monsters.

"When I got closer to the bottom, I started to hear voices. I almost went back up, but figured that I could hide from them." Vincent was nodding, he remembered the places Cloud described, and could imagine the boy sneaking around.

"There was a cave at the bottom, but no one in sight. I could still hear the voices, and followed them to a library." Now the boy shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself.

"Hojo was there, with some of his goons. They didn't see me, or hear me, I'm sure of that, but I heard them, talking about the 'experiments in the reactor'. I couldn't understand much of it, and figured that I'd better leave before they caught me, and... well, then they did. One of the goons came from behind me and he was so quiet that I didn't even know he was there until he grabbed my sword. I must have screamed, he scared the hell out of me, 'cause then all the goons had their hands on me and Hojo was looking down at me and laughing, making fun and thinking what he should do with 'this spy'." Cloud twisted his face, trying to look like the professor, and lowered his voice to a slithery hiss.

"'My my, what have we here? It's not every day that a new specimen just runs into our arms... take a good look around, kid, it's the last time you'll ever see the outside world.' And then they put me in the tank, this one, and... the experiments started."

Vincent had almost smiled at the imitation, but grew serious again when all hope and joy left Cloud's glowing eyes. He tried to make the boy think something else than the experiments.

"You learned to use a sword and fight when you were eleven... wonder what Hojo wants me to teach you..." Cloud's eyes lit up at that.

"I always wanted to learn how to fight like a Soldier. I was going to leave to Midgar, I would have, but then I ended up here..." he looked around sadly while Vincent shrugged.

"I don't know that much of the Soldier techniques. But I can teach you some things, like how to use a gun." The Turk was surprised when Cloud laughed. "What is it?"

"They don't even give us forks and knives to eat, you think they'll give us weapons?"

Vincent frowned and thought for a second. "You have a point. So it's unarmed combat, then." He looked down, at his claw. He wasn't exactly unarmed, and even if he was unable to raise his hand against Hojo, the goons weren't necessarily protected the same way. The Turk looked up and saw that Cloud was also staring at the claw, probably thinking the same thing. He twitched the fingers, which made Cloud look up. "It's a tempting thought, but... might not work."

"...yeah, if they can control you... could you try, anyway?" the boy whispered after a while. Vincent nodded and leaned against the glass. "Do they come here often? To let you out?"

"Usually for experiments, but if Hojo's not here, they won't do any. And feeding time. But they don't let me out then. Sometimes, if Hojo's happy, he'll let me out for a bit, just to walk around the lab. He never lets me out there." Cloud looked longingly at the door, obviously wishing for a way out.

'Knowing Hojo,' Vincent thought, 'he won't let you out of that door until you're dead or useless to him... same goes for me, too.' His thoughts went to Lucretia as the red eyed man wondered where she had spent the time Hojo had tortured him. The scientist wouldn't have let her far, not with such a fine specimen. She must have been as much a prisoner as he. All the way until Sephiroth's birth and her death, which had set her free.

Drawn from his thought by Cloud's shuffling inside the tank, Vincent turned to look at the boy. Even if he had spent the last year or so down here, maybe he knew something of her son...

"Cloud, have you ever heard of someone called Sephiroth?"

The blond head came up and Cloud looked at him with a raised eyebrow, eyes glittering more than usually. "Are you kidding? Have I heard of Sephiroth?" The Turk nodded, wondering about the reaction.

"You have heard of him?"

"Of course! You'd have to have slept for the past ten years not to have heard of him!" Cloud said with a smile. Vincent decided to ignore the words for now, not feeling like explaining that he indeed had done just that.

"Humor me, please. Could you tell me about him? What he looks like, how he acts... what kind of a person is he?"

Cloud gave him another funny look, wondering if the older man was joking, but shrugged and started to tell what he knew. "Well, he's really tall... I mean, about your height, and he has loooong silver hair, all the way to his hips, and he always looks serious and calm. And he's really pale, and has really bright, green eyes, Mako green, and they glow too."

The boy had talked some earlier, but now he was almost babbling excitedly. Vincent's smile was hidden behind the cape's collar as he studied Cloud's face. Sephiroth must be his idol, he figured, although the interest seemed to be bordering on a case of serious hero worship.

"He's the best Soldier and fighter EVER, which is why Shin-Ra made him general almost ten years ago. He won the war in Wutai, like you don't know, and after that he's just been in Midgar, at the Soldier Academy, which is where I was going to go. Since I was seven, I wanted to be a Soldier, just like him!"

'Forget hero worship, this kid is almost in love with the man!' Vincent thought and his smile grew even wider, while tears threatened to well up. Lucretia's son, how such a woman could have given birth to anything less.

"People say that no one really knows the real Sephiroth, as he keeps to himself a lot, but he's fair and kind, but kinda strict, guess he has to be, he is The General." Cloud finished with another shrug, a smile and a dreamy look in his eyes, but he soon blushed when he saw Vincent's amused expression.

"You seem to respect him very much." The Turk said quietly, to which Cloud nodded.

"Yeah, I do. Me and a lot of people!" His smile faded soon and was replaced with curiosity. "Umm, why did you ask? I mean, about him? Haven't you heard of Sephiroth?"

Vincent was quiet for a while before answering. "No I haven't, not before Hojo mentioned him. But I... knew his mother. A long time ago, before he was born."

Cloud's curiosity doubled and he frowned as he took a closer look at Vincent. "Now you're making fun of me. I'm not that stupid." Red eyes looked up questioningly and Cloud crossed his arms over his chest. "Look at you, you can't be more than 25, and he's way over 20." Then the boy's eyes went wide and he took an even closer look. Vincent didn't move under the scrutiny, thinking about the simplest way to explain.

Cloud gasped and the figurative light bulb appeared over his head. "Oh I get it!" Vincent looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Now I know why you looked so familiar! You look just like him!"

"Like who?"

"You're his brother or something, aren't you? You knew his mom that way!"

The rest of Cloud's excited babble didn't make its way to Vincent's ears, as the phrase 'You look just like him!' rang in them again and again. 'You look just like him!' Had...

Had HE, Vincent Valentine, fathered Lucretia's child? Was Sephiroth his son? Had Hojo ran his sick experiments on HIS SON?! Could it be possible?

"Vincent?" The quiet question finally reached his ears.

"Sorry, Cloud... I look... like Sephiroth?"

The boy nodded, lifting a shaking hand to the glass, to point. "Yeah, you have the same kind of eyes, only different colour. And the same nose. And your hair is similar as well."

"He... he doesn't look like Hojo?"

"Hojo?!" Cloud's surprised burst startled Vincent so badly he almost jumped. The boy laughed for a while until a coughing fit interrupted him. "Sephiroth and Hojo look as much alike as a lion and a rat! And you can guess which one's the rat!"

Vincent shook his head, mind running circles around the revelations. Sephiroth's hair, the colour of his eyes... but if he and the General looked so alike...

Cloud's coughing distracted him, and he looked to the pale boy who had curled up on the floor and was shaking rather badly. The Turk frowned and got on his knees, pressing his hands against the glass. "Cloud? Are you alright?" The blond shook his head and looked up when the fit passed, tears streaming from his eyes.

"It's... the Mako... makes me sick... happens ev'ry time..." the words were interrupted by another small fit, and Vincent started to grow very worried when he noticed drops of Mako and blood on Cloud's hands that covered his pale face and red cheeks.

"Do you have a fever?" The Turk asked after Cloud had caught his breath again. The boy lifted a shaky hand to his brow and nodded.

"It'll... pass... in a couple of days..."

"You want me to call one of the assistants?"

"No... they don't do anything... just tell me to... suck it up. Like a Soldier." Cloud was now laying on the crated floor, burning cheek pressed against the cold metal, eyes closed. "It doesn't... feel too bad... this time..." the boy drifted to sleep as soon as he had whispered the last word. Vincent stared at him for a few more minutes, making sure that he could breathe and wasn't in too much pain. Then he turned to lean his back against the glass again, thoughts drifting.

'Sephiroth is my son... mine. Hojo experimented on my child, changed him with Mako and Jenova. Killed the woman I love, destroyed my life...' he felt the rage burning deep inside, and growled. 'Lucretia, I swear... I will avenge you... you and our son!'

Her voice, a soft laugh, rang in his head again, only to fade away, leaving only the whisperings.

Vincent looked around, at the Mako tubes in the lab, and wished he could just shove the scientist into one and allow all his victims to experiment on HIM. Who knew how many people, how many innocents he had captured and abused. 'How many did you kill while I slept, you bastard?'

But his rage was futile. As long as Hojo had control over him, he couldn't attack the scientist, couldn't get revenge. Frustrated, Vincent stood up and walked to the computers. There were quite a few of them, controlling the Mako and the doors and probably everything else in the room. He tried pressing a few buttons, but that just opened a new window on the screen, telling him that he needed a password to proceed. With a low growl, the Turk slammed his fisted claw to the keyboard, loosening a few letters and making the computer bleep loudly for a while. It helped a bit, released some of his anger. Vincent looked up, worried that he had woken Cloud, but the blond still slept, curled into a ball.

The walls were lined with bookshelves, and Vincent was sure that they were full of books concerning the experiments, but what he knew of Hojo, the scientist wouldn't keep his private notes where anyone could read them. So all the worthwhile information must be in his computer files, hidden behind passwords. Sitting down, he tried a few of the words Hojo seemed fond of. "Let's see... 'jenova'."

It didn't work. Neither did Mako, Sephiroth, torture, specimen, Cloud, laboratory, Shin-Ra or science, not even in capitals. "Didn't want to make it easy on me, did you?" Vincent growled and punched in 'imanasshole', just to make himself feel better. It didn't work either, except that the door opened. Vincent whirled around, red eyes large, thinking for a second that he'd managed to open it.

The first goon gave him an angry look. "Get away from there!" The large man ordered and Vincent found his body obeying. The second carried two trays of food and gave one to him before going to open Cloud's tank. The first one kept an eye on the Turk while the second shook the blond awake and just about shoved his face into the bowl of broth.

"Leave him be, he's sick." Vincent hissed.

"Yeah? Well he'll have to eat to get better!" The assistant answered and ordered him to stand still. "Eat your food like a good slave, won't you?" Vincent had no choice but to obey.

Cloud managed to eat some of his food, but after he hadn't taken a bite in five minutes, the goon shrugged and opened the door to take the tray away. "Suit yourself, you know it's all you're gonna get today, specimen C." The boy didn't say anything, just closed his eyes. Vincent had finished his share, surprised at how hungry he had been.

Once the assistants had left, the Turk regained control over his body again, and went to the tank. "Cloud? Are you alright?"

"Hnn, better..." the boy managed after a while and cracked open an eye. "...the food does help... tastes like... sewer water, though..."

Vincent nodded and sat down, back against the glass. "I thought they would have let you out."

"...no, not after eating... later, usually... don't want me... throwing up all over the place... if I get sick..."

Figures... Vincent thought and closed his eyes.

"...Vincent?"

"Yes?"

"Umm... you didn't tell me... how you ended up... down here?"

The Turk opened his eyes slowly and turned to look at the boy. Cloud stared back, blue eyes, now glowing slightly green, only half open. "It isn't a nice story. Are you sure you want to hear?"

"...yeah... don't feel... so alone, if I can... listen to your voice..."

"Very well." Vincent wasn't sure if he wanted to tell the story, but what did it matter anymore? Hojo and his goons could control him, make him do whatever they wanted. It wasn't likely that he and Cloud were getting out of here soon, he'd end up telling the story sooner or later, just to fight boredom.

"It was... years ago, the first time I ever came to Nibelheim, and to this mansion. Not knowing that I wouldn't leave it. I was a Turk back then, sent to babysit some scientists."

"A... Turk? I don't remember... seeing you..." Cloud whispered, frowning. Much didn't happen in little Nibelheim, a Turk and some scientists going into the Mansion would have been talked about for days.

"I think you are too young to remember it, it happened over 25 years ago." Vincent turned to look at the puzzled boy and smiled gently. "You'll understand soon enough.

"Hojo was one of the scientists, and there was a man called Gast. He was truly a genius, and was in charge of the project. And then there was ...Lucretia. She... was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, I ... I fell in love with her immediately, and she had similar feelings for me, as well. But Hojo...

"I wasn't told too much of their project, only what I needed to know. I didn't even care to know. Foolish, but how could I have known what would happen...

"A child would be born, made better, more superior with Mako and cells from a being called Jenova. I didn't know that Lucretia would be its mother, not until she was already pregnant. She refused to tell me whose it was, although she clearly wanted to. I was angry, mad at her, but mostly at the other scientists. I... I went down to the laboratory, here, and confronted Hojo, who was alone at the time. I demanded to know what was going on, how they had blackmailed Lucretia into doing it. I demanded for the experiment to stop.

"Hojo, he just laughed at me. Laughed, and ... shot me." Vincent stopped talking, just stared at the floor. He could tell from the dim, greenish-blue glow that Cloud was still awake and listening.

"The next months... as far as anyone else knew, I was dead. Hojo was thrilled to tell me what kind of a story he'd made up to explain my death. I had gotten drunk, 'gone berserk', and attacked him, and he had shot me in self-defense. I had no family, no one to miss me but Lucretia, and she was as much a prisoner here as I was.

"But I wasn't dead. Hojo used me as a test subject for some experiments he had in mind." The Turk lifted his claw and turned it around slowly. "He kept playing with me, telling me what was going on in the outside world, how Lucretia's belly was growing... until came the day that the baby was born. I was put to sleep, and I slept until Hojo woke me to teach you. That is my story."

"The... the baby... was Sephiroth, right?" Cloud whispered after a moment. Vincent nodded. "And... and you're his... you're his father... you and Lucretia..."

The Turk's head went down, dark hair hiding his face from the outside world. "It would seem so."

"...damn."

"Yes."

Spiralling (or Safety in Numbers) by Erasure.

Zax puts his hand on her shoulder, startling the author from her thoughts.
"Geeze, man! Don't do that!"
The Soldier leans down so that their noses almost touch, and glowers at her. "You said I'd get a big part in this story!"
"Umm, so?"
"Umm, so, second chapter is over and I haven't even been mentioned yet!" He growls out the words.
The author sweatdrops and grins, shrinking under the glare.
"Eh heh heh, gee, did ya learn that look from Sephy or something? Zacky darling, you know I loves you, believe me, just as soon as we get the scenes with the two angsters outta the way you'll come in to the picture."
"That a promise?"
" 'On my mother's eyes'."
"Good."
"Good."
"Nice to know that I didn't sleep with you for nothing..."
"...uh, you didn't..."
"Huh? Ohh, yeah, that was Sephy. My bad. But, pleeze, write me in already, won't ya?!"
As soon as Zax is out of the door the author turns back to the Ancient (aka computer) and rolls her eyes. "Hmph. Divas. 'Oo, lookit me, I carry a big-ass sword, all the bishies and bishiettes love me, I'm a friggin' Soldier, yada yada yada...'"
"I HEARD THAT!!"
"...and if you think HE'S bad, you should see Sephiroth..."