When Vincent first met Sephiroth, the first thing that came to mind when he stared into his green, almost cat-like eyes was "This is Lucrecia's son."
"Well? Are you going to sleep the rest of eternity away or are you going to come out and actually do something about the idiot that caused us no end of grief?" he asked bluntly.
Vincent stared at him.
"What?"
"I said are you going to sleep the rest of eternity away or are you going to get your lazy and old ass out of that coffin and actually do something about that troll Hojo?"
Vincent was very confused by Sephiroth's demeanor. There was a lax, devil-may-care attitude that barely concealed the sense of 'steel' and 'resolve' in his frame. This was someone who would walk through hell and not hesitate to do it for those he cared about.
"How did you find me?"
"Wasn't that hard. For some reason the troll left behind instructions on how to open the safe with the keys lying around. I would have come to get you out sooner, but I had to be certain the mansion was left abandoned long enough that any watchers would be gone."
Vincent stared at him.
"How long?"
"It's been seven years since I used the ruckus you created to escape. I bet Hojo was pissed when he found out that your distraction allowed me to slip past his ridiculous defenses long enough to make it on my own," said Sephiroth with a grin. "He definitely wouldn't have expected me to survive this long."
And he wouldn't have, if not for the memories he had of his past life as Harry. As it was he found his new life more like a relaxing vacation, even if monster hunting got annoying.
Vincent said nothing, but he had never been much for talking anyway.
"I know where mom is. She's alive...technically...but I have no idea how the hell I'm supposed to purge the Calamity from her so she can come out of the stasis she's in."
Vincent almost slipped from his perch in shock.
"What?"
"Lucrecia is alive," repeated Sephiroth... once more he was very thankful for Dudley's addiction to video games. Final Fantasy VII was one of the few Harry had played through till the end, never mind watched the post-game movie.
It meant he knew the general area where Lucrecia was. And that Vincent was still alive, if sleeping.
Lucrecia had been surprised, but delighted when Sephiroth found her, even if she couldn't leave the crystal. The second he figured out how to purge Jenova's cells from her though...
"Why did you wake me?"
"Partly to thank you for causing such a scene. I wouldn't have been able to slip away so easily if you hadn't drawn all the attention to yourself."
"And the other reason?" asked Vincent.
He felt nothing but trepidation when Chaos sat up and took notice at the unholy grin on Sephiroth's face.
"Why to piss off the troll Hojo of course. It's rather difficult to cause anarchy and discord without some Chaos!"
Inside his head, he could hear Chaos cackling with glee. Somehow he had the feeling the summon had just found the perfect enabler from hell.
"Besides...this way all those annoying adults will leave me be about monster hunting. We're close enough in appearance that no one would bat an eye if a hunter took his son with him on jobs for training," said Sephiroth tiredly. "Honestly, I forget to cast a healing spell one time before walking into town and suddenly it's like the internal radar of mother's everywhere tends to hone in on me and in order to smother me."
Vincent snorted at that.
"How old are you?"
"I just turned eleven," said Sephiroth.
Vincent was about to stand when his mind stopped and ran that through his head.
"Eleven?" he repeated incredulous, before he outright stared at Sephiroth. "You couldn't have been older than four when you escaped!"
"Four and three months. I wasn't about to stick around when Hojo had Gast killed. I'm not stupid," said Sephiroth defensively.
Vincent took a long hard look at Sephiroth. The boy had been on his own since he was four, according to his own admission. With how powerful Shin-Ra was, and the reach Hojo had through it, he would have been terribly alone for years, unable to trust just anyone for fear they'd turn him in. He had no doubts Hojo would stop at nothing to get his claws back into the boy.
He had to wonder if Sephiroth had ever experienced what it was like to be a normal child.
With that in mind...and the hopes of seeing Lucrecia again... Vincent followed Sephiroth out of the mansion.
Seven years later...
Sephiroth was bored. Tomorrow was his eighteenth birthday and Vincent was clearly up to something. He had never really celebrated his new birthday until he had freed the former Turk from his prison and even then it was rarely much.
It was strange really, how easily Vincent and Sephiroth fell into the routine of being 'father and son'. Hell, they even looked alike, just with slightly different coloring.
While Vincent wasn't the most talkative person, he was a silent bastion of support that Sephiroth had always needed, but never had. He didn't tell the child what to do, or order him around simply because he was older. He allowed Sephiroth to make his own mistakes and simply offered advice when needed, as well as a helping hand when he got in over his head.
And Chaos... the summon had taken one look at Sephiroth when he first came out and had let out an unholy cackle that said volumes of how much fun they were going to have.
The sheer level of destruction and anarchy the two could cause when they were both bored and had a proper target...like say a bunch of ill-equipped Shin-Ra troops during a ridiculous war... it was fortunate Vincent kept Chaos on a short leash.
He found it comforting that almost all his 'extra' personalities had a tendency to treat Sephiroth as their own. Hellmasker was a toss up, but after one fight with the boy shortly after he received Masamune, the creature had apparently decided to treat Sephiroth as something close to an equal.
It meant the risk of him attacking the child on sight was greatly lessened, even if Hellmasker only did so to find a weakness he could exploit.
Vincent looked at the young man with amusement. He had arranged for a special treat this time around, and he knew Sephiroth would love it.
So it was with no little paternal fondness as he watched Sephiroth light up with delight as he spotted two familiar faces...and one very bewildered one.
"So...this is the puppy you adopted Angeal?" asked Sephiroth with amusement.
"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" complained the black-haired man with amethyst eyes.
"Because you are one," deadpanned Genesis. He grinned as Sephiroth, pulling the longer haired teen into a manly hug. "Good to see you again Seph."
Sephiroth grinned back...and Zack suddenly snickered as Genesis' hair was abruptly turned purple of all things.
"So how did you get away from work?"
"We have mandatory vacations. Angeal and I made sure ours just happened to coincide with your birthday, since Vinnie was so kind to share the date with us. Angeal decided to drag the puppy with him since he didn't want the mutt getting into trouble while we were gone and his own vacation was due anyway."
Puppy, or rather Zack Fair, pouted at that. The only reason he didn't make more of a fuss was because Angeal said there was a very high chance he could play with the silver-haired demon himself. A man Angeal had spoken of with great respect and admiration, which had gotten Zack's full attention.
Angeal rarely spoke of anyone like that.
Sephiroth smirked.
"I have paintball guns and the location of some Turks that have been annoying me lately."
Genesis look positively wicked, as did Zack. Angeal cast a glance at Vincent.
"I got him the guns and the ammo. Not my problem if some rookie Turks run afoul of the birthday boy," said Vincent, eyes glinting darkly with amusement.
Genesis cackled.
"This is going to be fun."
Vincent had to smile at the unholy alliance of Sephiroth, Genesis and Zack. The three had far too much fun causing no end of trouble for the Turks on assignment, and he made sure one of them got a good look at him to report back to Veld.
Later that night...
"...And then Vincent woke up and found a Touch Me in his bed, and wasn't fast enough to avoid being turned into a frog."
Zack howled with laughter.
"And people thought I was joking when I said those things were evil!" he said, laughing his ass off.
Sephiroth grinned.
"Oh believe me, the Turks hate the Frog materia now. There's nothing funnier than the angry croaks of big bad Turks turned into frogs when they're trying to capture you," cackled Sephiroth.
"They have a scoreboard in the Turk lounge, for every time you've 'frogged' them," said Vincent.
That set Sephiroth, Genesis and Zack off again with laughter.
"So how is it you can fight toe to toe with Angeal anyway, without the SOLDIER enhancements?" asked Zack, because he had to know.
Vincent looked both amused and slightly annoyed.
"This fool was avoiding a Behemoth and didn't notice a natural Mako spring nearby. He fell in head first and by the time he woke up he was as saturated as you three are with it. He figured out a way to avoid the withdrawal symptoms while unintentionally becoming as strong as a First," said Vincent with a drawl.
He had been worried sick for days before Sephiroth started to shown signs of life again. It said something that even Chaos was worried about him over it.
Whatever gods had blessed Sephiroth, they were clearly still looking out for him if he was able to survive that with little to no ill effects, even if he had been previously dosing himself with low amounts of Mako to survive previously.
That, or Sephiroth was naturally predisposed to higher concentrations of Mako in his system...Vincent had noticed the boy was forced to up the amount of Mako he ingested shortly before the accident.
Still, the visit was good for not only Sephiroth, but Zack as well. The teen tried but he simply couldn't match the Sephiroth's sword skills. He didn't mind too much though.
On an unrelated note, Vincent had the amusement of seeing the trio come face to face with Sephiroth's chocolate addiction. One attempt from Zack to swipe some cake had resulted in the boy being turned into a Frog for the better part of two hours.
Sephiroth really had an unhealthy fascination with that materia...and Vincent had the distinct feeling he was going to see a lot more frogs in Midgar very soon if the snickering coming from Genesis and Zack were any indication.
The unholy light in their eyes while holding some far too familiar materia didn't help either.
(And if Vincent took far too much glee sharing the "Frog Incident" in the Science division with Sephiroth, well who was going to complain to them? Hojo?)
Genesis was having far too much fun. Who knew Zack was such a deviant bastard? And Sephiroth had requested they get as much blackmail as they could on the Science division, particularly Hojo.
And Sephiroth... Genesis would swear he was the lovechild of Chaos himself for half the suggestions he came up with off the top of his head.
(Genesis would not realize the irony of that statement until he found out Sephiroth was actually Vincent's son, who had Chaos implanted inside his body. Chaos certainly found it amusing as hell.)
The red haired general quietly cackled as he started to set up a prank against Hojo...or anyone unlucky enough to come into this particular lab... for later.
He wasn't expecting Hojo himself to show up, but a quickly cast Mini solved that minor issue. Sephiroth was right in that a creative application of materia solved a lot of problems.
Like avoiding fan clubs, for instance... which had Vincent not so quietly laughing his ass off at the sour look on Sephiroth's face.
Angeal, Zack and Genesis could sympathize. Fan clubs could be evil.
Genesis had no idea that his fate and the fate of Angeal would change dramatically from what he overheard. Hojo really had to get out of the habit of talking to himself like that.
His eyes widened as he heard the words 'degradation' 'deepground', and 'Hollander'.
From what he could make out, something about the experiments Hollander did do Genesis and Angeal were faulty, and the side effects were about to start up. More importantly it seemed Hollander or someone else had been using Genesis' genes to create children that were all being used as guinea pigs for Shin-Ra in a place called Deepground.
Feeling a cold pit in his stomach and the prank entirely forgotten...it was already set up anyway for later... Genesis waited until he was alone and in a secure room before he called Sephiroth. If anyone could get him actual information it would be the silver haired teen and his Turk partner.
When the phone picked up, Genesis' first words set the tone for their future conversations.
"Seph, what can you tell me about Deepground?" he asked seriously.
"Where did you even hear of that group?"
"Hojo mentioned it...along with a few other things. By the way you were right... Mini is a lot more useful than people think."
Seph sighed, before telling Genesis what limited he did know of Deepground. Which wasn't much, but was still far more than most would get thanks to Vincent. All he knew was that it was Bad News, and to avoid it like the plague.
The more he told Genesis, the angrier the red head became. The fact Shin-Ra was doing this.
His rage simmered quietly under the surface, just waiting to break free. Which happened when his Mako enhancements suddenly stopped working like they should and no one could explain why.
The final straw? The fact he grew freaking wings, which should not happen because he was supposed to be past the whole "spontaneous and bizzare limbs" stage of Mako Enhancement! He thought the Science department finally had their shit together when it came to SOLDIER injections!