Chapter Six
Jaras had no idea what time it was. He'd lain down on the mattress in the center of his cage some time earlier, his exhaustion and stress having gotten the better of him. He roused when he heard the door to the lab open again, and people talking.
Pushing his long, silver hair back, he squinted over at the source of the voices. It was Peirte and someone in a suit, presumably, a Turk.
"Are you sure this is safe?" the Turk asked, motioning toward Jaras.
"He's displayed absolutely no ability to fight." Dr. Methius said, coming closer. "He will be restrained, anyway."
"You have to get him out of the cage, first." The Turk reflexively reached beneath his suit coat and touched his gun.
"That shouldn't be a problem, Toskin." Peirte saw that Jaras was looking back at him. "I see you've awoken."
Jaras got to his feet, his body protesting his every move. He was incredibly sore from his handling before.
"Turn your back to me, please," Peirte asked, his voice overly kind.
Jaras hesitated. Something was going on, something that he knew he'd rather not be a part of.
The first crack in the doctor's façade appeared. He took another step forward, and slammed a hand against the bars. "I said turn!"
Remembering what Derek had told him earlier, Jaras realized he needed to obey. If ASRIO was on the way for him, then he needed to just cooperate for a short while. Surely, they'd get to him before anything happened. He turned away from the scientist.
"Take off your shirt."
Again, Jaras slowly complied, feeling his hands beginning to shake.
"Pull your hair over your shoulder, expose your back."
He reached back and pulled his lengthy hair forward.
Nothing seemed to happen for a moment, but then there was a click, and Jaras felt something sting him on the left side of his back. Instinctively, he reached back to feel whatever had hit him, but it was located in such a place as to make it hard to get to. Jaras flashed a glance over at the scientist and Turk, seeing that Peirte had some sort of gun in his hand. He knew enough to realize that he hadn't really been shot, and after reaching behind his back again, he managed to get a hold of whatever it was that had driven into him. It hurt terribly as he pulled the thing away, as it seemed to be barbed on the end to stay put long enough to do what was needed. Jaras brought it forward, and looked at the item clutched in his hand. It was some sort of dart-- the kind they use to tranquilize animals.
Although Jaras had pulled the dart out, it had been in long enough to do its job.
Peirte cocked an eyebrow as he watched the small stream of blood run from where the dart had been pulled from. "You may wish to go lay down again, Sephiroth. The effects will begin momentarily."
"What did you do to me?" Jaras demanded, throwing the bloodied dart to the ground.
"That was just a sedative, Sephiroth. The good stuff is yet to come." Peirte pushed his glasses up higher. "Now again, I will ask that you lay down. I should hate for you to fall and injure yourself."
Jaras was getting upset. He was frozen in his place, too scared to do anything. All the memories of the torture and manipulation that he'd suffered at Hojo's hands flashed back, making it impossible to function. "Please… leave me alone."
Once more, Peirte's true colors came out. "Lay down or perhaps you would like me to go get Graff and Hatley in here to make you do as I wish."
Snapping to attention upon the names of those men, Jaras backed over to his mattress. He lowered himself upon it, feeling the first wave of dizziness wash over him from the drug.
Peirte smiled back at his Turk. "See, Toskin? Nothing to worry about. Chemical restraint is a wonderful thing."
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Vincent heard the sound of the airship's engines change and he realized that they were landing. He threw his cloak back around his shoulders and picked up his luggage, before exiting the ship.
He stepped out into the early morning air, immediately being beset upon by his red headed son-in-law.
Reno smiled widely, jogging up to Vincent's side. "Vinny! How the hell are ya? Oh, got another cloak, huh? Goin' back into the goth thing?"
He wasn't in the mood. "Reno."
"Aw, come on, you're just tickled shitless to see me, and you know it." The ASRIO leader jabbed Vincent in the side. "Loosen up. Tifa's not here, you don't have to put up that aloof, detached front of yours."
Vincent just cocked an eyebrow. He wasn't going to get into this with Reno at this hour. "What's the plan?"
"Cuttin' right to the chase as usual, I see." Reno actually took Vincent's suitcase from him and led him toward the entrance to the base. "Well, the lab in Junon isn't too heavily guarded, so it should be a cake walk."
"Why wouldn't they take him to one of the big labs? Surely they would have reason. They should have some serious security around this." Vincent narrowed his eyes in thought as they walked.
"Yeah, that's sorta what I would've thought, too," Reno replied, shrugging. "But he's in Junon. I think they took him there because they figure that all of their main labs, you know, New Nibelhiem, Midgar, whatever, have all got ASRIO plants in them, which they do. So, they may have gone with an auxiliary facility in the hopes of landing him somewhere that there isn't an agent. If that's the case, we're real fuckin' lucky that they picked Junon, because it's just one of two of their little labs that does have an agent. We won the lottery on this one, Vinny."
"How are we going to get in and out, then?" Vincent asked, reaching out and opening the door that led down into the base.
Reno followed him down the short stairwell. "Chopper, Brad, the usual. Drop us off on the roof, pick us up there a few minutes later. You know the drill."
Whereas Tseng used to actually plan these sorts of things, Reno just generally assumed that they could be run the same. Doing so had worked for him well enough over the last several years, and he saw no need to ruin a good thing. Then again, the agents that he sent into do these missions were good, very good, and there hadn't been an insertion team fatality or capture in four years.
It begged the question, and Vincent asked, "Who's going?"
Reno frowned for a moment. "Ericson, Spencer, and Kimo."
"Kimo?" Vincent stopped walking and faced him. "The Turk? I thought he was working as a spy with Rude."
"Well, he was, but there was a mission into the Midgar facility about a year back, and he was ordered to go with the guards in the building to intercept our guys. When he met up with them, he wouldn't fire on my men, sorta blowin' his cover. He skipped the building with the team and has taken up a job here. He's a good guy, even if he's the one that killed Zale." Reno started walking again and toward Vincent's room.
"Wait, he killed Zale way back when?" Vincent had never been made aware of this, as Reno had kept his mouth shut about it until now.
"Yeah, he did."
"That's weird." Vincent recognized the door to his room. It was the same one that he and Tifa had been in for so long during their stay with ASRIO.
"I know, small fuckin' world, huh?" Reno stepped forward and unlocked the room. He'd kept it the same over the years, thinking that if Tifa and Vincent ever found themselves in danger that they may need to move back. It just seemed wrong to him to let anyone else stay in this room. Tseng's room had also gone untouched for the last seven years. Reno kept it locked, and he had the only key. When things were tough, really tough, he'd go in there and sit. Doing so made him feel some sort of link to his old friend, and in these quiet times of meditation, he'd solved plenty of problems. It was the closest thing to religion that the ex-Turk had. "Well, here you go."
Vincent walked in, and Reno went forward and set Vincent's suitcase upon the bed. Vincent looked over at the dresser, realizing that the various small items that Tifa and he had abandoned here were still present. "Housekeeping hasn't been by, I see."
Reno looked at the other man. "Joking already?"
"Well, the place doesn't look like it's been touched since I left." Vincent pulled his cloak from his shoulders and draped it over a chair.
"It's your room, Vinny. Ain't no one gonna stay here but you and your lady." Reno went and landed on the couch. "Speaking of which, how is the old girl?"
Vincent wasn't going to dwell on his marital problems for the moment, and sighed, "She's doing fine. Just a few more weeks."
"Cool." Reno thought back to when Angel had been pregnant, and how nervous he'd been the whole time. "I bet she'll be glad when that's over and done with. You'll probably be, too, huh?"
Vincent went and sat on the edge of the bed, facing him. "Sure."
"Your conversation skills still suck, Vinny."
He just stared.
"And you still do that creepy look thing, too." Reno smiled and pulled his legs up onto the couch. "You know what's funny? Angel does all that shit you do, too. When I was first with her, I never really could see it, you know, but after hangin' out with you for all that time, it got real obvious. It's weird the stuff that kids pick up from their parents, even if they don't know who those parents are. I guess there's something to be said for heredity, huh?"
This just made him think about Jaras again. "When do we leave?"
"Back on that already?" Reno rolled his eyes. "I was gonna have us head out at sunset. That way we can get there around midnight. I'd have us go earlier, but heading in at night is usually the best way. He should still be okay. I don't think they'd fuck him up too badly in just the first day he's there, do you?"
Vincent wouldn't put anything past anyone in Shinra. "I'd hope not."
"Okay." Reno got up from the couch and headed toward the door. "I'm heading home for a while. When it gets close to time, I'll come and get you and we'll head out."
Vincent knit his brow and stood. "You're going, too?"
Reno dropped his gaze to the floor. He hadn't been on a mission personally since the operation to kill Hojo and end the Neo-Jenova Project. The loss of two teammates during two missions as close together as those last few, had turned him off from going on ops. "Yeah."
"But I thought…" Vincent let his words trail off, realizing that questioning Reno on this would probably just insult him.
"I know. But it's Angel's brother, Vinny. I want her to know that I'm doing all that I can to see that we get him back, you know? I might not go on regular missions anymore, but this involves family, so it's sort of a special case." Reno shoved his hands into his pockets.
Vincent smiled at the fact Reno would open up to him this little bit. "I'm sure she appreciates that."
"Yeah, well, like I said, I'll be back later. I'll bring by Angel and Dana. I'm sure the squirt would just love to see Grandpa. Bye." With that, he left.
Vincent stood there alone. There was still just something that seemed wrong with being referred to as 'Grandpa', in light of his body presently only being about thirty five. This family couldn't have gotten any weirder if it tried, he thought to himself.
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Dr. Arlin had gone to her room to drop off her bags and then had walked to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Being only five in the morning, the place was empty and she had to get a sandwich from a vending machine, since none of the food service workers were present. With her item in hand, she went to go sit at a table, spotting only one other person in the room.
Jeanine sat staring at the small package of granola that she'd gotten, not really hungry but knowing that she needed to eat something. She was completely oblivious to Dr. Arlin's approach. Spanky and her had just arrived a few hours before, having made it safely here from Mideel.
"Jeanine?" Dr. Arlin landed across from her, smiling.
Upon seeing her fellow doctor, she forced a smile. "Hey Janice."
"I'm sorry about Jaras," Dr. Arlin said, reaching over and patting the other woman's hand for a moment.
"Yeah." She dropped her gaze to the table. "I keep hoping that I'll wake up, and this will all be a dream."
"I can imagine." The doctor became thoughtful for a moment. Jeanine could prove very convenient to have around. "Maybe this is entirely inappropriate under the circumstances, but I have a question."
Jeanine perked to attention to hear this. "Oh?"
"You deal with addiction therapy in your practice, right?" Janice unwrapped her sandwich.
"Yeah, it's a big part of my psychiatry practice in Mideel." She wondered where this was going.
"Well, I've got someone who just admitted to being an alcoholic, and he needs some serious help. He's about to lose his marriage and everything. I know you probably don't feel like working, but it might help distract you a little from things." She took a bite of her would-be breakfast.
Jeanine raised her eyebrows. She was always eager to help others. "Really?"
"Yes." Janice smiled, realizing that Jeanine was game. "I was going to have a colleague from town come down to talk with him, but quite frankly, I think he'd do better with someone that he's talked to before."
Now Jeanine was really curious. "I've talked to before? Who is it, Janice?"
Maybe it wasn't fair to throw this at the other woman and she hesitated, rethinking her request.
Jeanine asked again, "Janice, who is it?"
"Vincent."
She just blinked back at the doctor for a moment. "Vincent? Jaras' father?"
"Yes."
"He's an alcoholic?" This was news to her.
"So he says."
"And he and Tifa are having that much trouble?" Jeanine leaned forward, not happy with this knowledge.
"Apparently." Janice took another bite.
"Dear God…" Jeanine collapsed back in her chair. Every time she and Jaras had visited Tifa and Vincent, things had seemed wonderful. The fact that this was going on below the surface cut at her, and she knew that for the sake of the baby that Tifa was about to have, something had to be done.
"I realize that it's a bit out of the realm of acceptable ethics to have you discuss these things with someone close to you, but again, I think he'd do better with someone that he's comfortable with." She gave a fleeting smile.
"No, it's absolutely no problem. You're right, he'd be better off with someone familiar." Jeanine remembered the few times she'd counseled Vincent before. His mind had proven an interesting tangle of issues, and diving back into it was a challenge she was willing to take.
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Wishing to basically avoid everyone, Vincent hadn't come out of his room since arriving at the base. He sat on the couch, flipping through the channels on the television. When he heard a knock, he rolled his eyes and then went and answered. "Oh, hey."
Jeanine produced a smile for her father-in-law. "Hey."
"Are you doing all right?" Vincent asked, stepping aside so she could enter.
"As good as can be expected." Jeanine went and landed on the couch that Vincent had just abandoned. "But I was sent here to see how you are."
Vincent's shoulders slumped as he realized that Dr. Arlin had sent Jeanine to him for a reason. "Look, right now you're probably not feeling like dealing with my issues, Jeanine."
"Actually, this is the only thing that I can do around here to get my mind off of Jaras." She met his gaze. "I can't help Jaras right now, but I can help you, Vincent."
"God damn it." Vincent went and sat on the other end of the couch, turned so he could face her. "What did Janice tell you?"
"That you've been drinking, and that you and Tifa are having problems because of it." She settled back into the couch, seeing that he was going to submit.
He wasn't happy in the least that his problems had now been revealed to a family member. "Right."
"How bad is the drinking, Vincent?" she asked.
"Bad enough."
"Tell me about it. What do you usually do when you feel the need?" Jeanine cocked her head to the side.
"I get confrontational and seem to start arguments. Once I've made Tifa mad, I leave the house and go to a bar. I drink a ton, then sit around until I'm not fall down drunk anymore, and then I go home. On days when I don't go out and drink like that, I take hits off the bottles of alcohol we've got in the house. Tifa never knew until the other day. I've kept it hidden all of this time." Vincent wasn't proud of this admission of weakness in the least.
"Why did she finally find out?"
"I just told her. Because of the arguments that I've been starting, she…" He looked away and frowned.
"She did what?" she queried.
"Tifa began to question her feelings for me, and she turned to Cid." He kept his gaze averted.
From his body language, she knew exactly what he meant. "Tifa had an affair with him?"
"Well, I'm not sure it was like an affair, exactly." Vincent began to fidget with the arm of the couch.
"An emotional affair? Or did they sleep together?"
"Well, they were together once, although Tifa made him stop before he got completely done." He opted to not mention the doubt over the baby's parentage for now. "Emotional affair? I don't quite understand that."
She smiled. "An emotional affair is where a spouse turns to another person to discuss their real feelings with other than with their mate. If they aren't having their emotional needs being met by their significant other, they substitute someone else to fulfill that part of their life."
Vincent turned his eyes back to her. Cid and Tifa had always seemed to deal with one another in a way that he and Tifa never really did. As he had pushed her away and shut her out, her phone calls to Cid had gotten more frequent and longer, and their conversations when he was around had grown more hushed, and they fell into silence whenever Vincent would come back into the room. "God, that's it exactly, Jeanine. She's been using him like that forever. I never really gave it much thought."
"Do you think you would have noticed her increasing need to deal with Cid if you hadn't been drinking?"
"I think I actually used her need to talk to him as an opportunity to drink. She would go into the bedroom to talk to him on the phone and she'd shut the door. It made it easy for me." Vincent felt like a fool. He'd thought he'd been getting away with something, not realizing what he'd been leading Tifa to do.
"When you would hear her talking to Cid, what did they talk about?"
"I don't know exactly. It was always sort of quiet, like she didn't want me to hear. From her expressions and such, I figured she was talking about her feelings regarding me with him. If he was at the house, every time I'd walk into the room, they'd both stop talking. I guess that means they were discussing me, but I always blew it off." His posture slouched forward.
"Did she continue to make the effort of trying to talk to you about her feelings?" Jeanine carefully continued to watch his body language.
"Yeah, and I'd always find some way to turn it into a fight. Every time she'd try to reach out to me, I'd just throw it back at her. It would just be another chance for me to go out and drink." Vincent made a fist and slammed it down to the couch cushion. "What the fuck have I done?"
"Vincent, you're not the only one to blame here."
His eyes blazed. He wasn't about to let Tifa share any of the blame for their woes. "I am. Tifa didn't do anything wrong."
"Vincent, she was carrying on an emotional affair with Cid. You need to accept that, and I'd bet she's been doing that for years. Tell me this, do you think she was aware that trying to discuss emotional issues with you generally resulted in an argument?" she asked.
"Of course, but she kept trying. She wanted to get through to me." Vincent once more began to mess with the arm of the couch.
"Or did she want the argument to happen, so that you would leave and she would have the chance to speak to Cid, and talk about the argument she and you had just had with him?" Jeanine saw his whole body tense as he heard this.
His first instinct was to get furious at such a statement, but he caught himself. Vincent realized that Jeanine was right. "I never thought about that."
"Well, you were each only aware of your own side of the situation. You both have been playing off of each other, Vincent. Your drinking wasn't the only thing fueling your marital troubles. Her dependency on Cid contributed, too. Now, it may be that your drinking came first, and her need to cling to him second, but as the years have gone on, the two of you did nothing to stop this downward cycle." Jeanine noticed that he suddenly looked lost.
"Actually, she's always relied on Cid. When she was married to Cloud, he was the only one who knew that she was unhappy. When I was unable to be with her during our time here in the base after we first got together, she spent every moment away from me with him." Vincent felt his eyes sting.
"She's been very close to him for a long time." Jeanine nodded. "Tifa has been using him from the outset."
"I guess so. If Cid hadn't been with Shera, and if he had gone to Tifa to ask her to leave Cloud instead of me, I wonder if she would have ended up with him instead? She'd had much more of an attachment to him than she'd had with me at the time. Hell, she barely even knew me when she agreed to go with me." Vincent closed his eyes.
"She was looking for any excuse to finally leave Cloud. You were that excuse. If Cid had been there, it's entirely possible that she would have gone with him instead." Jeanine narrowed her eyes. "But I can tell you something."
He looked at her. "What's that?"
"She must care for you more than she cared for Cloud, Vincent. Because despite the fact that Cid was there and would have undoubtedly taken her away if she'd wanted, she stayed with you. She turned him down." Jeanine raised her eyebrows. "Although all this has happened, she does love you."
"That's what she told me."
"And do you still love her?" she asked.
Vincent locked into her gaze. His expressions up until this point had betrayed the fact that he had been unsure of some of the things he'd said, but now his look was one of a man who knew something with every fiber of his being. "I love her, don't ever doubt that I do."
"Then there is every chance that the two of you can work things out." Jeanine shifted in her seat. "But the two of you will need counseling together. I can only help you. She needs help, too."
This made sense to him and he nodded. "She'd agree to that, I think."
"So, what we need to address is your drinking. Her need to use Cid will have to be dealt with separately." Jeanine thought for a moment. "Why do you drink? Are you physically addicted, or is it an excuse to escape your own inner demons?"
"Both."
"What happens to you physically if you don't drink, Vincent?"
He lowered his head. "I start to feel sick. Shakey. Nauseated."
"Vincent," her voice was softer, "those could be symptoms of anxiety, not just addiction."
He knit his brow. "Anxiety?"
"When you don't have alcohol clouding your mind, what do you think about?" she asked.
Vincent didn't want to say it. "Uh… How scared I am."
"Scared of what?"
"Being alone. What would I do if Tifa were gone…"
"What do these thoughts do to you if you dwell on them?" Jeanine moved closer to him, seeing that he was on the verge of tears.
Vincent had a moment of clarity and met her gaze again. "I start to feel physically ill. My hands shake, and I get sick to my stomach."
"So what you thought were your physical symptoms of addiction to alcohol are really just the physical symptoms of your anxiety and fear over being alone?"
He nodded. "I didn't think of it that way."
"And so when the anxiety sets in, you drink to make your mind get off of those thoughts?"
"Yes. When I'm drunk, I can shove all those feelings to the side." Vincent wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Isn't it strange how what you do to cope with your fear of losing the woman you love is the very thing that has driven you to push her away?" Jeanine could see that he was making a profound realization.
The emotion behind his eyes was painful. He let it all sink in for a moment longer and then his expression changed.
He didn't look upset anymore at all.
Vincent sat back and smiled for a moment, and then started laughing.
Familiar with his reactions from her previous meetings with him all those years before, Jeanine wasn't surprised to see this, and it let her know that he really had come to a realization. "We can deal with your anxiety without you resorting to drinking. Without a physical dependency to alcohol, the cycle can be broken, and it can be broken now."
He turned his eyes back to her, his relief clear, the smile still upon his lips. "Jeanine, you're amazing."
"I'm just doing my job." She reflected his grin.
"So, what do we do to cope with the anxiety?"
"For the short term, I can give you a prescription for something. When you start to feel those thoughts coming on, you can take it and it will relax you, hopefully keeping you from seeking an argument so you won't go and drink. For the long term, some more counseling can help you learn to cope with those anxiety attacks. You can be cured of this, Vincent." Jeanine closed the remaining distance between them, and placed a hand upon his leg. Sitting where she was, she could appreciate how much he and Jaras were alike in their mannerisms and expressions. It comforted her in a way.
"You know, Cid just told us day before yesterday that he's dying of lung cancer." Vincent had a need to bring this up.
Jeanine's expression fell. "Really?"
"Yeah." Vincent dropped his gaze away. "He said he's got four months. When he dies, Tifa's going to lose it."
"As attached as she is to him, I don't doubt she will." She let her hand leave his leg and move back to her lap. "I would really encourage you to see to it that you're both seeing a counselor well before that actually happens. If she's able to understand her compulsion to cling to him by then, she will still be devastated of course, they are friends, but at least she will hopefully be relying on you for support again instead of him."
"Then the day I get back, I'll see to it that we schedule an appointment." Vincent looked at her again. "Is there anyone in Kalm that you know?"
She nodded. "Yeah, there's a classmate of mine there. His name is Dr. Martin. You'll really like him. He's excellent. I'll get his number for you."
"I'd appreciate that, Jeanine."
She rose up from the couch. "I think this is a good place to stop for now. After the mission, maybe I can talk with you one more time before you head home, okay?"
"I'd be for that." Vincent also rose, seeing her to the door.
"Good. In case I don't see you before you guys head out tonight," she stepped closer to him, "I want to wish you luck. I really love Jaras, Vincent. If he doesn't come home, I…"
When he saw the tears come up in her eyes, Vincent gave in and embraced her. "We'll get him, Jeanine. I won't leave that lab without him."
She stepped back after a moment, having gotten a grip again. "Okay. Bye."
"Bye." He closed the door behind her. After standing there and thinking about all that had just been said, Vincent made his way over to the edge of the bed and sat. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed home.
Tifa quickly answered. "Hello?"
Vincent smiled upon hearing her voice. "Hey."
"Vincent? What's going on?" she asked, going over and sitting at the kitchen table.
Cid looked up from his bowl of cereal when she landed next to him. "Sue?"
She nodded at him.
"Well, they found out that Jaras is in a lab in Junon." Vincent looked over at the clock, seeing that it was only seven. "We're leaving tonight to go and get him."
Although she was happy that they knew where Jaras was and that there was apparently a plan to get him, her worry over Vincent tempered her reaction. "Oh, okay."
He knit his brow, and his voice got quieter. "Tifa, I talked to Jeanine for awhile this morning."
"How's she coping?" Tifa asked.
"She's hanging in there," he sighed. "But we actually talked about what's going on with us."
"Really?" She was surprised to hear that he'd done this.
"Yeah." He ran a hand through his hair. "She gave me some perspective on all that's gone on with us. I have a lot of things to think about. She's amazing…gets right into my head. Jeanine had a suggestion, though, and I was hoping you'd agree."
"What's that?" Tifa was looking over at Cid as he continued eating his breakfast.
"Well, she thinks that we could really benefit from going to counseling together." He braced for her reaction.
Tifa smiled widely. "Absolutely. I'll do anything to try and work this out, Vincent."
He was immediately relieved to hear this. "Great. She's even got someone she knows working in Kalm who we can go to. She says that it'll probably help you with what's going on with Cid, too."
Her smile quickly fell, as her eyes were still on the pilot. She hated talking about Cid when he was right there. "Oh…yeah. I'll probably need some help there, when the time comes."
"Well, we'll talk about it a little more when I get home, and we'll make an appointment." Vincent could hear the downturn in her mood.
"Okay, that sounds really good, Vincent. I'm really proud that you talked to Jeanine. You sound…better. Happier, I guess."
"Well, she opened my eyes about a few things. Tifa, I love you." He stood back up.
Her grin returned. "I love you, too."
Cid dropped his spoon and pushed his bowl back. There was a frown upon his lips.
"I'm going to go. I need to eat." Vincent closed his eyes for a moment.
"Okay, bye." Her smile was evident in her voice.
"Bye." Vincent flipped his phone closed and slipped it back into his pocket.
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Jaras was only slightly aware of what was going on around him for a long time. He knew that he'd been removed from his cell, and that he was presently strapped down onto some sort of bed or table. His right arm was pulled straight out from his side, tied down to where he couldn't move it at all. In fact, other than being able to turn his head from side to side, he couldn't move anything.
Dr. Methius appeared in his line of sight. "Sephiroth, are you coherent?"
Jaras blinked hard, trying to get his head from spinning. He heard the man's question, but was sluggish to respond. "I'm Jaras…"
"No, your name is Sephiroth. Jaras was a false alias that you adopted. It isn't as regal a name by any means." Peirte smiled down at him. "Are you ready?"
"What?" Jaras tried to lift his head to get his bearings, but it made him nauseous.
The scientist lifted up his hand, displaying the syringe he was holding within it. "I have the Jenova cells here for you. Are you ready to say goodbye to your weak and fragile state?"
"No!" Jaras felt his mind clear instantly in his terror. He struggled against his restraints, as the memory of Hojo injecting him with dose after dose of Jenova came back. The pain each of those inoculations had caused was excruciating, and the thought that he was about to be subjected to the same thing sent him into a panic.
"Settle down!" Methius lost his smile.
There was something commanding in the doctor's voice that forced Jaras to freeze. After growing up under Hojo's oppression, there were some bits of conditioning within him that had made themselves almost instinct. The best way to survive was to comply. That was a lesson he'd learned many times over.
"There's no need to panic." The doctor's expression softened again. "You will survive this. You are resistant to the poisoning that Jenova can cause. You suffered no ill effects that proved permanent before. Hojo documented everything to the letter, this will go exactly as planned."
Feeling tears in his eyes, Jaras broke down. He didn't want to return to the way he had been. The memories of the progressive madness he'd suffered as Sephiroth were nightmares he didn't want to fall victim to again. Those cells had infiltrated his mind, controlling him. He hadn't been in charge of his own consciousness then-- it had seemed like he was merely along for the ride. The things he had done and that he'd thought hadn't been within his control. Jaras was all too aware that if those cells were injected into him again, that he would cease to be whom he had been for the last fourteen years.
Jaras' whole body trembled in his fear. "Please, just let me go. Don't do this…I'm begging you! I have a wife! I just want to go home, I don't deserve this!"
Peirte's face contorted into an expression of amusement. "Oh now, honestly, Sephiroth! You're above such trite, piffle things as love! You were the most powerful being to ever grace this planet. How can you resist regaining that status?"
"I just want to go home." He felt the heat of tears upon his cheeks. "That wasn't me… If you inject me with that, Sephiroth might come back, but I'll die!"
"As it is, you are pathetic and would be no great loss, Jaras, or whatever it is you call yourself." Dr. Methius reached out and stroked the arm that had been tied out from Jaras' side. "Begging is shameful. You're no more than a placeholder, keeping this body alive so that the real Sephiroth could someday return. Today is that day, my friend."
Jaras strained his aching shoulder in an attempt to pull his arm out of the scientist's reach, but it couldn't be broken loose. He looked at his arm, seeing that at some point, an intravenous line had been placed into it, and that the scientist was preparing to inject the Jenova into the line. "Don't…"
Peirte pulled the cap from the needle on the syringe and then lined it up with the injection port on the I.V. line he had placed. Before he dispensed the contents of the syringe into Jaras, he looked into those frightened cat-like eyes one last time. "Is there anything you wish to say before we proceed?"
With his bottom lip quivering, Jaras managed to get a few words out. "Have someone tell Jeanine that I love her…"
Naturally, Peirte had no actual intention of passing on any such message, but he would humor his test subject. If Sephiroth was going to remember anything, it would be preferable to be on his good side. "Very well. Let's get on with it."
Jaras closed his eyes. There was a fire spreading up his arm from the injection site. He clenched his teeth, knowing that within a few moments, he would be in agony.
Derek walked into the lab, having been sent by Peirte to carry out some menial chore. The screaming he heard before he even opened the doors made his heart rate skyrocket. Someone was begging for their suffering to end and once inside, he saw that it was Jaras. He dropped the papers in his hands, and his eyes went wide. "Oh no…"
Dr. Methius looked over, seeing that his assistant had returned. Disregarding the misery of the man beside him, he strolled over to Derek and asked him, "You've put in those requests with accounting, I assume?"
Derek couldn't take his eyes from Jaras as he writhed on the table a short distance away. He knew that he had to keep his emotional reaction hidden, lest his cover be blown. "You started?"
Whether the assistant wanted to show it or not, Peirte could see that he was disturbed by the struggles and cries of the specimen. "Yes. Don't look so unwell for the situation, Derek. He will be fine, no, better than he was in the beginning. You know the old saying, you can't make an omelet…"
Derek bent down to retrieve the papers he'd dropped. "Yeah, without breaking eggs or whatever."
"That's right." Methius glanced back over his shoulder for a second when Jaras let out a particularly shrill scream. "Quiet down already. Surely, it's not that bad."
If only Dr. Methius had even a vague idea what he had just inflicted upon poor Jaras, he wouldn't have been so flippant about the situation. It felt like Jaras' body was on fire. His blood boiled within his veins as the Jenova cells that had been introduced into him began to divide madly, lodging themselves within his nervous system and muscles. His consciousness was being invaded by a cruel force. This new personality felt frighteningly familiar. All of Jaras' kinder traits were being shoved aside, and the darker facets of his personality were being given a life of their own.
As the pain finally began to abate, Jaras closed his eyes and relaxed. He felt good, frighteningly wonderful, and a smile came to his lips.
-------------------
Vincent sat in the base's cafeteria, trying to finish his breakfast. There was a sense of unrest in him, and he couldn't get Jaras off his mind. Somehow, deep within, he sensed that something had happened, and it was making him sick to his stomach.
He heard a giddy squeal behind him and turned just in time to be plowed into by his granddaughter. "Hey, Dana."
She climbed right up into his lap and threw her arms around his neck. "Bring me anything?"
The girl had a habit of asking for things, and Vincent smiled. He reached into the inner pocket of his cloak and pulled out one of the pieces of candy he'd stuffed into it, after hearing that Dana would be brought by. "How's this?"
The fire-haired girl took the offering readily and pulled the wrapper from it, and then popped it into her mouth.
Angel and Reno finally got close, and Angel put her hands on her hips. "Dana Jessica Sparks! You haven't even had breakfast yet and you're eating candy?"
The girl's eyes went wide and she pulled the edge of Vincent's cloak up over her a little. "But Grandpa gave it to me!"
Angel rolled her eyes at her father and then sat next to him. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't impose your poor eating habits upon my daughter, Dad."
Vincent smiled and turned, kid in his lap and all, as to be able to face Angel. "How are you?"
She raised her eyebrows. "As good as possible, I guess. I'm just so worried about Jaras. I can't imagine how scared he probably is."
He nodded. "I know. What he must have thought when they first caught up with him…"
Reno was feeling left out of the conversation and sat right on the table, between his wife and father-in-law. "It fuckin' sucks."
Angel slapped him in the shoulder, hard. "I will remind you to watch your language around Dana, Reno."
He instantly looked guilty and looked down at his kid, who still had herself nestled beneath Vincent's cloak. "Sorry."
Seeing her dad get in trouble made Dana giggle as she peeked out from beneath the red fabric. "Busted."
Reno cocked an eyebrow at her. "Watch it, Squirt."
Dana snickered again. She liked the fact that her dad usually got into just as much trouble with her mother as she did.
Vincent looked between Dana and Reno a few times, coming to realize that there was absolutely no trace that the girl had descended from him at all. She was a carbon copy of Reno in almost every way, and no one would have picked either Angel or Vincent out of a line up as anyone related to her.
The little girl turned her neck back and looked into Vincent's eyes. "Daddy says you're gonna go get Uncle Jaras today with him."
"That's the plan," he said back to her.
"Is it gonna be scary?" she asked.
Vincent gave her a smile. "Just a little."
"I think you and Daddy are brave." She wriggled off of his lap and went over to her mother. "Can we get chili dogs for dinner tonight since Daddy won't be here?"
Well aware of her husband's aversion for the aforementioned food item and her daughter's strange compulsion for it, Angel nodded. "I don't see why not."
"Yay!" She then ran off somewhere else in the room. It was late enough now that the cafeteria workers were here, and she had a tendency to sneak off into the kitchen here, begging treats from the cooks.
With the girl gone, Angel suddenly turned serious. "Dad, are you sure you want to go on this mission?"
"I have to."
"It's just that you've got a brand new baby on the way, and I don't want anything to happen to you." Angel pulled her chair closer to Vincent and placed a hand upon his leg.
"Angel, Jaras is my son. I have no choice in the matter. If it were you that they'd captured, I'd be running into that lab to rescue you just the same." He appreciated her concern, but it wasn't going to change his mind.
"All right, just promise me that you'll be careful, and make sure that Reno doesn't do anything stupid." She forced a smile.
"Hey!" Reno crossed his arms over his chest and scowled.
"Reno, let's be honest," she looked up at her husband, "you haven't been on a mission in ages. Neither of you have. I'm not sure that rushing into this lab in a big hurry like this is a good idea. I wish the both of you would just leave it to the regular team. The thought that I might not just lose my brother, but my father and husband as well, is just a little more than I can take."
Vincent and Reno just looked at one another. They hadn't given any thought to the fact that they were risking everyone that Angel was close to.
Reno's self confidence was unflappable. "Babe, I ain't dyin'."
"And I'm not leaving that lab without Jaras," Vincent added.
"Well, those better be promises you're both going to keep." Angel dropped her gaze away.
"You're not even going on the helicopter with us, I'm assuming?" Vincent asked, cocking his head to the side.
"No, I do no such thing anymore. For the most part, Reno and I have just worked in the base. I still provide tactical assistance via planning and radio, but once I had the baby, I felt that the days of going into the field for me needed to end." Angel scanned the room. "Speaking of which, where is Dana?"
Reno slid off the table and straightened his suit. "Dunno. I'll go find her."
They watched Reno retreat off out of view, shuffling along with his hands in his pockets as he tended to do.
Now alone, Angel turned to her father. "Seriously, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. He's always been way too cavalier about missions, and I don't think he really understands that he's a lot older than he used to be, and he has his limitations."
The fact that this statement applied to him as well didn't go unnoticed. "I'll do what I can, but you know as well as I do that he sure as hell isn't going to listen to me. In fact, he tends to do whatever he can to do what I tell him not to."
She laughed. "That's my man. Don't let him fool you, though, Dad. He respects you. You have no idea how much, either."
Vincent cocked an eyebrow to hear this. He wasn't inclined to believe it. "Right."
"No, really, he does." Angel looked back, hoping that Reno was well out of earshot. "You were the only Turk to ever stand up to Hojo. He says you've quote, 'got a set on you to have done that'. He's impressed by you."
"Then why does he harass me constantly?" Vincent asked, not able to suppress his need to smile.
"He only gives crap to people he actually likes, Dad." Angel laughed. "If he didn't truly like you, he'd outright ignore you. But the truth is that he goes out of his way to mess with you."
Vincent smirked. "Then what do I have to do to get on his bad side?"
-------------------
There was no pain anymore. Not even the parts of his body that had been battered and beaten the day before bothered him now. He felt…light, relaxed. Having been placed back into his cage a while ago, he was lying on his back on the mattress within.
He took a deep breath, shrugging off the last of the tiredness he'd succumbed to after the injection, and opened his eyes. After pulling an errant tendril of his silver hair back from his face, he sat up and looked around.
Peirte was standing beside the cage, his hands behind his back. "Have you recovered from the injection?"
He glanced down at where the catheter had been in his arm and saw that it had been removed, a small bandage over the site. "Yes."
The scientist smiled to himself, and began to pace before the bars, but never taking his eyes from his specimen. "And how are you feeling at the moment?"
His green eyes narrowed, and a faint smile was upon his lips as he turned his gaze upward and toward the doctor. "Fine."
"I would like to test something, Sephiroth." Peirte pointed. "Look to your left, if you would."
He turned his eyes where indicated, spotting something in a bag beside his bed. He reached over and picked it up, opening it up and looking within. His smile widened and he pulled out the combat knife within it. The blade was about ten inches long, and it glinted in the light. "Dangerous arming a prisoner, is it not?"
"You won't hurt me after what I've done for you." Peirte pushed his glasses up with an index finger. "If you had one wish, Sephiroth, what would that wish be? Would it be to go home? Would it be to see your so-called wife? Or would it be to have revenge?"
He cocked an eyebrow. Revenge had a nice ring to it. "Revenge upon whom?"
Peirte looked over at Toskin, who was holding someone at gunpoint in the shadows. "Come here."
The Turk dug the muzzle of his gun into the back of the man before him, forcing him to step forward.
Upon seeing who it was, the silver haired man's eyes narrowed again, and his smile fell. "Hatley."
"Toskin, put him in," Peirte ordered.
Toskin nodded curtly and forced the SOLDIER to the door of the cage. He reached out and opened it, then shoving Hatley inside.
Knife in hand, he slowly rose from the bed, examining the SOLDIER standing in the corner of the cage. This was just more than he could have ever hoped for.
Hatley was here for no other reason than to die. He was unarmed, and clearly terrified. The SOLDIER raised his hands in a pointless gesture. "Come on, man. This isn't cool."
"Do you think what you and your little friend did to me was 'cool'?" he asked, taking painfully slow steps toward his intended victim. He had the knife clutched in his right hand. The blade was positioned so that the blunt edge of the knife was pressed back against his wrist. The way it was being held indicated that he knew exactly how to use this weapon. There would be no wild stabbing, no amateur butchery. He knew what to do.
"Look, it was nothing personal, man." Hatley had his back pressed up against the bars, aware that there was no escape. "If you didn't really want us to do what we did, then why didn't you just fight us then? I mean, you're fucking Sephiroth, you should've been able to stop us!"
"Are you honestly going to stand there and say that I wanted that to happen?" He almost smiled. "I was bound and gagged. What in the hell was I supposed to do?"
"Stay back!" Hatley begged, his tough façade completely undone.
Closing the remaining distance between them quickly, he struck out with his right hand, connecting with the left side of the SOLDIER's jaw. With the knife held in his hand as it was, the blade sliced through the man's cheek as his head was forced back from the blow.
Hatley cried out and covered his lacerated face with his hands. "Shit! What are you doing?"
"Revenge." He spun the knife in his hand, and then plunged the blade into the middle of the man's abdomen. With one sharp motion, he pulled the blade upward, eviscerating the man before him. "You're lucky that this is all I'm going to do to you."
The SOLDIER collapsed to his knees. As his entrails fell forward from his body, he screamed in horror, trying to gather them back up and put them as they were.
Smiling again, Jaras decided not to let this man linger. His cries of agony and horror were beginning to annoy him. He reached out and grabbed Hatley's hair, forcing him to look up. With one more deliberate slash, the SOLDIER's neck was opened up and blood poured forth.
He stepped back and watched his victim die, tossing his hair back over his shoulder casually as he did so.
Hatley remained on his knees for a few seconds, trying to say something, but the words wouldn't come with his throat severed. His world grew dark and he fell forward, dead.
"Very good." Peirte was ecstatic with Sephiroth's actions. This was exactly what he'd hoped for. There was one more test. "Now, what is your name?"
His lips pulled back and he turned from the dead man before him, locking gazes with the scientist. "Sephiroth."
-------------------
Still having hours to go before he would leave for the mission, Vincent stepped out of the base around noon and headed toward the hangers. He went into the one that had previously housed the ASRIO chopper, looking for someone specific.
He entered the enormous structure and found himself faced with the same ancient helicopter, looking more or less as it had the last time he'd seen it. Wondering if anyone was around, he called out, "Hello?"
"Whatcha want?" someone replied.
"Brad?" Vincent walked around the helicopter, looking for the source of the voice.
The pilot stepped out from behind the tail of the aircraft, wiping his hands on a rag. "Hey, Vincent!"
Vincent accepted a handshake from the man and smiled. "How have you been?"
"Good, really good." He examined Vincent, finding him to not look all that much different from the last time he'd seen him. "You?"
"I'll be doing a lot better after we go and get Jaras tonight," Vincent admitted.
The other man nodded and looked thoughtful. "Yeah, I can't stand to think what it'd be like if somethin' like that ever happened to Felix."
"Felix being your son?" Vincent asked, not knowing.
"Yeah. Airship pilot for a cruise line." Brad was proud of his boy's chosen career path. "Great guy."
"Pilot like his father?" Vincent smiled again for a moment, but it made him think of Cid. "Hey, have you kept up with Highwind at all?"
Brad shrugged. "Eh, the old bastard calls me like once or twice a year, but I ain't heard from him for a while. How's he doing?"
Vincent wasn't thrilled about having to be the one to deliver this news. "Actually, he's not doing very well."
"What's going on with him?" Brad asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well, for starters, Jin broke up with him a few months ago."
Brad's eyes went wide. Seeing as that Jin worked for ASRIO on the airship, he'd run into her on occasion around the base, but she'd never disclosed this to him. "Really? She never said anything. Then again, she don't talk to anyone around here much. Although, she's been a little bitchier than normal, come to think of it."
"Well, that's not all of it, I'm afraid." Vincent knit his brow and looked at the ground. "Cid's got cancer."
Brad dropped the rag he'd been holding in his left hand. He was silent for a few moments, but then whispered, "Honest to God?"
Vincent nodded, bringing his gaze back up. "I guess he just found out the other day. They told him four months."
Brad went over to his workbench and sat on one of the two stools before it. This was terrible to hear. He and Cid had known each other for ages, having been in the service together so long ago. The thought that he was on his way out didn't sit well with Brad. Although nearing fifty, he hadn't lost any friends to disease and Cid was the last one he figured would be the one to go first. "How's he handling it?"
"You know Cid." Vincent went and sat next to him. "He's putting up that usual front about it, but he admitted to me before I left that he's scared."
To hear that Cid had actually said such a thing let Brad know exactly how serious this was. "And there's no chance that he's gonna pull through?"
"I guess not. It's extensive, he said, all throughout his chest."
"That's a cruel joke. The guy finally quit smoking what, six, seven years ago and now this comes along to claim him?" Brad shook his head. "I can't believe it."
"Neither can I." Vincent frowned, remembering how Cid had seemed so serious when he'd asked the former Turk to kill him.
"Shit. I need to call him." Brad looked up at Vincent.
"He's at my house," Vincent said, picking up a scrap of paper from the workbench and a broken pencil. He scribbled down his home phone number and handed it to Brad. "That's the number."
Brad examined the paper for a moment, before shoving it into his shirt pocket. "Thanks. I'll call him tomorrow after we're done getting Jaras."
"He'd appreciate that, Brad." Vincent got up, having delivered the news. "I guess I'll see you tonight, then."
"Sure thing. We're taking off around seven. Don't be late." Brad got back to his feet and started toward the chopper again.
"All right." Vincent slipped back out.
-------------------
When it was six thirty, Vincent again pulled out his phone as he sat on his bed. He dialed home to talk to Tifa just one last time.
Tifa didn't answer, Cid did. "Yeah?"
Vincent frowned at this, thinking that Cid was just a little too comfortable in his home. "It's Vincent."
"Oh, you want Tifa, just a sec," Cid said, before setting the phone down noisily upon the table.
Tifa picked up a few moments later. "Vincent?"
A smile finally broke upon his face. "Hey."
"What's going on?" she asked.
"We're leaving in about half an hour. I thought I should call before I go." Vincent leaned forward where he sat, wishing that she was actually here with him.
The worry was immediately obvious in her voice. "That's pretty soon."
"I know."
"Vincent, I'm really scared." Tifa sat at the kitchen table, glad that Cid was out of the room for the time being.
"It's okay, Tifa. It'll all turn out the way it's supposed to." His own anxiety was clear.
"Vincent, promise me that you'll come home."
"Tifa…" He didn't want to have this conversation again.
"Please, Vincent." She was obviously crying now.
He closed his eyes. "I'll do everything that I can to get out of this alive, Tifa."
"That's not what I asked…"
He sighed heavily, and slouched forward further. This was hurting him more than she would ever know. "I will do everything that I can to get out alive, Tifa. That's the best I can do."
She sobbed on the other end of the line.
"I'm sorry, Tifa. I really am." Vincent reached into his pocket and pulled out his vial of heart pills again and opened it, quickly placing one beneath his tongue. "I love you, Tifa. Take care of yourself."
These didn't sound like the words of a man who believed he was going to live. Somehow, Vincent already seemed to know the ultimate outcome of what was to happen.
Tifa got a hold of herself as best she could. "I love you, too."
"Tell Aaron that I love him, all right?" Vincent's voice wavered.
"I will."
"And tell Cid…" Vincent stopped himself.
"Tell Cid what?"
"Tell him to take care, too." Vincent stood up.
Tifa broke down again. Vincent was saying goodbye, permanently. "I…I will. Oh, God Vincent, please just come home…"
"I've got to go now, Tifa." He closed his eyes for a second. "Remember, I love you."
"I love you, too."
"Goodbye, Tifa." Vincent hastily wiped a tear away from his eye.
"Bye, Vincent." Tifa couldn't bring herself to hang up, and she just remained where she was, with the phone still to her ear.
He, too, was having a hard time hanging up, and a smile came back. "Tifa, I'm going to go now. Hang up, okay?"
"Okay." She didn't.
Vincent almost laughed. "Really, hang up."
"Bye, Vincent. I love you." She walked over to where the phone normally rested on the kitchen counter.
"I love you, Tifa. Goodbye."
Tifa, with her hand shaking uncontrollably, reached out and hung the phone up. Standing there, she covered her face with her hands and cried.
Cid heard her breaking down from the other room, and left the boys to their video game for the moment, and went to go see what was going on with her. Upon entering the kitchen, he saw her there in tears. "Tiff?"
She turned to face him. "That was Vincent."
"Why are you so upset? What did he say to you?" The pilot wondered if the other man had tried to start something with Tifa, like he'd done so many times recently.
"Nothing, except they're going on the mission in half an hour, and that he just wanted to say goodbye." Tifa went over before Cid and put her arms around him.
He held her tightly, wishing that this wasn't happening. "You know he's tough, Tifa. He'll do everything he can to get through this."
"That's just what he said." She looked up into his blue eyes. "But he wouldn't promise me that he's going to come out of this alive, Cid."
"That's just the way he is, Tiff. You know that." In an uncharacteristic move, he reached up and put an errant bit of her hair back behind her ear, as he kept locked in her gaze. "It's all right, Tifa. I'll be here with you, okay?"
She reached up and touched the hand he still had against the side of her head. "Okay."
-------------------
At fifteen 'til seven, Reno walked into Vincent's room without so much as knocking. He was dressed in the usual ASRIO mission outfit, and had another just like it in his hands for Vincent. "Brought your prom dress, Vinny."
He rose up from the couch where he'd ended up after talking to Tifa, and accepted the clothes from Reno. Without a word, he disappeared into the bathroom to get dressed.
Reno went and landed on the couch where Vincent had just gotten up from. "Oh, hey, you know I like it when you make it all warm for me like this."
The bathroom door cracked open a little and Vincent looked out, wondering what in the hell Reno was talking about. When he saw his son-in-law in his vacated spot, he understood and rolled his eyes before shutting the door and getting back to dressing.
The ASRIO leader pulled his legs up onto the couch and began to flip through the channels endlessly while he waited for Vincent to re-emerge. "So, you excited 'bout going back into action?"
Muffled through the door, Vincent's response could be heard. "Not particularly."
"Oh, come on. You've missed it, don't lie."
Again, through the door came his answer. "Shut up."
Reno finally settled upon the weather channel as per his norm. "Supposed to rain tonight."
Vincent stepped out of the bathroom, redressed in his outfit. He went over to the dresser and strapped his gun to his leg.
Reno studied him. Now seeing him in the form-fitting shirt that he'd been provided with, Reno could appreciate the fact that Vincent had thickened up a little over the years. "Vinny, you've packed on a few pounds."
He pulled his gun from its holster and turned to Reno. "You have, too."
Reno raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, well…put the gun away. What can I say? Angel knows how to fuckin' cook. Tifa must not do too bad herself."
The fact was that most of Vincent's weight gain had come as a result of his drinking, but this was not a confession he felt like making to his present company. "She cooks just fine."
Being far more intuitive than anyone ever gave him credit for, Reno knew that Vincent was upset about several things. He looked at his watch, seeing that they still had ten minutes. Then again, there would be no departure for the mission until he decided to show up at the chopper anyway. Such was the benefit of being in charge. He slid his legs back off the couch. "Vinny, come over here."
He didn't move, and just looked over, cocking an eyebrow as he slipped his gun back into its holster.
"Seriously." Reno patted the cushions next to him.
Feeling ridiculous about obeying Reno's request, he hung his head and went over, sitting beside the other man.
Reno reached out and put his hand on Vincent's shoulder. "Things ain't so good, huh?"
Vincent's eyes went wide and he looked at Reno. "What?"
"You've gone back to that sorta sulky depressed thing you used to pull, Vinny." Reno let his hand fall away. "What's bugging you? I mean, other than Jaras."
There was no way on God's green Earth that he was going to get into this with Reno, either now or ever. It was bad enough that both Janice and Jeanine knew about his problems. "Nothing."
Reno looked a little disappointed and hurt. "You know, I was around Tseng for a long time, right?"
"Yes. You and he were close."
"Well, he did certain things when he was upset." Reno shrugged. "You sorta do those same things, Vinny. It's kinda like being with him again when I'm with you."
Vincent narrowed his eyes. "Oh?"
"Yeah, and so that's why I can sit here right now, and know that you're lying. Something's tearing you up. I can understand if you don't want me to know what it is, but you've got to tell me that you're gonna be all right when all's said and done." Reno smiled faintly. "My girl wouldn't be happy to know her old man's upset."
Vincent forced a grin, but he was genuinely touched on some level by Reno's concern. "I'll be fine, Reno. I always am."
"Good enough." Reno got up from the couch. "They're waitin' on us. Let's head out."
Remembering how cold it could get on the helicopter, Vincent grabbed his cloak before heading out. He would leave it on the chopper during the mission, but at least it could keep him warm during the flight.