Disclaimer: Nay, I own not the characters of Square Enix. And I be too tired to come up with anything witty.

Author's Note: This chapter begins strangely, but just roll with it and it will all make sense in time.

I am also very sorry that this has taken so long to get up. I have been downright drowning in schoolwork, and it's a surprise I've had time to write at all.

Chapter 14

Welcome to My Life

Several hundred years ago.

She raised her hand, shielding her eyes from the glare as she swept her gaze over the gleaming city. This was to be her home, until the end of her days. Or at least until the theocracy betrayed her again. But that wouldn't happen, she had to remind herself. She was the theocracy now, the leader.

It was still a shock sometimes, waking up in the morning and realizing she was alive and happy. Ever since she had been a child, she had known of her impending untimely death. It had been something they taught her since she had begun her training. It had always just seemed inevitable, she would die, and the world would be saved. But then he had come…

She smiled to herself, remembering the time three years ago when she had realized her life didn't have to end. Spira could be saved without death, and it had taken a complete stranger to teach them that.

And look at her now, High Summoner Yuna, standing on the highest balcony of the most sacred temple in Bevelle, the holiest city in Spira. Of course, holy was no longer the proper word for it.

Spira had slowly begun to pick itself back up from the brink of disaster. The various organizations that had been vying for power after the downfall of Yevon, a group of religious tyrants who had held the land in their grip for a thousand years, had finally agreed to merge into one.

The organization was to be called Shinra.

It had been dubbed after its founder, a 12 year-old genius, and Yuna's cousin. He had recently discovered the excess of energy buried deep within the planet's core, just waiting to be harnessed and used to the world's advantage. Maybe, with work, it could even be converted to a form a usable power to fuel Spira's cities, like the cities of a thousand years ago, before the war.

That was the new Shinra corporation's goal, they would regulate the study of the power, and also lead Spira in politics. Yuna, the High Summoner and Spira's rightful leader, had already signed on to participate with them.

The future looked bright.

Yuna was just about to turn and enter the temple, when she stumbled, grabbing onto the balcony to steady herself. For a moment, she thought she was just being clumsy, then she realized the balcony was shaking. And not just the balcony, the entire city was seized in the grip of some unseen force. If it was an earthquake, it was more powerful than anything Spira had experienced before.

Suddenly, the air was filled with a deafening roar, like a tidal wave crashing onto the seashore. Yuna looked up just in time to see a massive mushroom-shaped black cloud rising up into the clear sky.

Oh no! she thought wildly, the reactor!

The rumbling had stopped. Picking herself up from the ground, she sprinted for the door, holding her robes up above her ankles. She cursed the damn things, wishing fervently for the days before she had accepted her role as High Summoner, when she had been able to wear anything she wanted.

The temple interior was almost unrecognizable. The damage was far worse than anything Yuna could have imagined. Artifacts and statues had toppled over, tapestries had been shaken off the wall, everything covered in a fine layer of rock dust shaken from the ceiling. Yuna thanked the fates that no one had been at worship at this hour. Hardly anyone ever was anymore.

"Yuna!"

A short, yellow haired girl had appeared at the door to the lower floors of the temple. She rushed over to Yuna, nimbly avoiding the rubble strewn about the marble floor.

"Rikku!" Yuna exclaimed, "What's going on?"

"There was this massive explosion!" Rikku answered, waving her arms for emphasis, "The new Shinra Reactor blew up!"

Yuna swallowed. Her fears had been confirmed. The Reactor. The project that Shinra, and all the rest of Spira, had put all its resources into for the last year…all gone. How would the Youth League and the Machine Faction feel about this? The two organizations had finally agreed to work together, and they had even taken knew names to consummate their partnership with Shinra. The Youth League had chosen the name "Soldier". They would serve as the new Shinra Corporation's military defense. The Machine Faction would from now on be known as "The Turks," and they would be Shinra's investigative department. Everything had seemed so perfect…

"Yuna, there's something else." Rikku's young face was unusually serious. "A whole bunch of people were injured. A lot of them are dead…"

Yuna felt her heart jump into her throat. "He…" she breathed, "Is he…"

Rikku shook her head, her braids flapping. "I don't know. I haven't had any time to check on anyone. I'm sure he'll be-,"

Yuna didn't give her a chance to finish. She broke into desperate a run, taking the steps down to the cloisters three at a time. This was where they brought all the injured…

She stumbled out into the sunshine of the courtyard, just in time to see three men emerge from another section of the temple. Two of them were supporting the third, who was limping badly. He looked up and met Yuna's eyes. With a strangled cry, the High Summoner flew across the courtyard, launching herself at the man and almost knocking him over.

"Tidus! I was so scared, I though you might be…"

The man put his arms around her. His embrace wasn't as strong as it usually was, but he seemed to be alright. "Calm down," he soothed, "I'm alive. But you're kind of hurting my leg."

Yuna stepped back. The two men resumed their task of helping Tidus to the infirmary. Yuna trailed a little behind. "What happened?" she asked.

"Something went wrong," Tidus told her, "There was an explosion. Shinra said it could have lasting damage."

"Lasting damage?"

"Yeah," Tidus, grunting as his leg bumped against one of the men's, "He thinks the explosion could have had an effect on the entire land. The tectonic plates…or something like that…they're going to shift."

"Huh?" Yuna didn't understand what he was talking about. Tectonic plates? Shifting?

Tidus must have heard her bemused tone. "The land is going to drift apart," he explained gravelly.

Yuna stopped dead. "What?"

Tidus glanced back over his shoulder at her. "That's what Shinra said. He's just a kid, but he's pretty smart, ya know?"

Yuna knew. Shinra had to be the most intelligent person she had ever met. There must be something he can do, she thought, We cannot just let the world drift apart!

"Wait," Vincent said, looking up, "The land drifted apart?"

Lucrecia dropped the history file onto the table. Sitting back in her chair, she crossed her arms. "Yes. That's why there is more than one continent. If it hadn't been for that initial Shinra explosion, the Planet wouldn't look like it does today."

Vincent let his breath out in a low whistle. It was hard to imagine that the ground beneath him had been blown apart by human means. What kind of force did it take to do something of that scale? It seemed Mako was much more powerful than he had previously imagined.

"So what happened next?" he asked excitedly, "Do the files say anything else about the High Summoner and Spira and everything else?"

Lucrecia shrugged. "Not really. Yuna and Tidus lived happily ever after. They thought they had done something so wonderful for our world. They never discovered they had set something so horrible into motion. And how could they have?" Lucrecia rubbed her eyes tiredly. "We all do what we can, and when we can't even do that anymore, we…"

"We what?" Vincent prompted her.

A misty, rather far away look came into Lucrecia's eyes. "We die."

"Oh," Vincent answered, unsettled. "So Shinra was started by a kid?"

Lucrecia seemed to come back to herself. "Yes. Shinra was a 12 year-old boy with delusions of grandeur. I'm sure he meant well, but…" she sighed, "It definitely didn't turn out well. But here," she raised her glass. "A toast to your first mission as leader of the Turks."

Vincent raised his own glass, which was full of a rather cheap wine Lucrecia had produced from a cupboard in her room. He didn't drink though, and neither did Lucrecia. They were kidding themselves and they knew it. Neither of them had any reason to celebrate Vincent's appointment as leader of the Turks. He would now be expected to kill or be killed.

But he wasn't going to stand for that. The moment he set foot outside of the Shinra Facility, he was gone. There was no way he was giving up this chance for freedom. In a few hours, he would leave. And he wouldn't be coming back.

Lucrecia's face was unreadable from where she sat across the table from him. If she knew Vincent planned to escape, she gave no sign. She would never tell anyone, he was sure, but he had been slightly wary around her ever since he had realized who she had reminded him of for the last few months.

They had the same mannerisms, the same way of drifting out of the world every so often. Seph was there, in her features, in her eyes, in her hair. They looked so much alike Vincent was astounded her hadn't noticed before.

And then came the most baffling thought of all. Could Lucrecia and Seph be brother and sister? Vincent had thought and re-thought this possibility over and over, and he couldn't come up with a good reason why or why not. He could always have asked Lucrecia, but whenever he was around her he just never was able to work up the nerves. He would have asked Seph, but he hadn't seen him for months. He didn't even know if he was still alive.

Well, he would find out. As soon as he was free of the choking clutches of the Shinra Laboratories, he would make sure everything was put to right. He would rescue Seph as soon as he could. He would make his way back to the Mithril Mountains and (his heart wrenched as he thought of it) bear the tidings of Kai's death to her family. And then maybe, just maybe, he would save Lucrecia as well. She had made it very clear she didn't enjoy working with the Shinra. Vincent had often wondered how she had ended up here. She was an incredible woman; she didn't belong with the sickos who ran the labs.

"So, when are you leaving?"

"What?" Vincent asked sharply, jerking up out of his thoughts.

Lucrecia raised an eyebrow. "I meant, when does your mission start?"

"Oh," Vincent said, rather sheepishly, "At five o-, I mean seventeen hundred hours."

Lucrecia smiled. "I see you're beginning to pick up the lingo."

He shrugged. It wouldn't matter soon. Forty-five minutes, to be exact, he saw, glancing at the clock on Lucrecia's wall.

Corel was a small town. It showed up as nothing more than a tiny blip on the radar of the helicopter flying over the continent, black against the crimson-drenched evening sky. Flying was nearly the only way to reach Corel from the north. It was unapproachable by sea, and anyone foolish enough to try to reach it on foot would be forced to scramble over half the mountain rage. And the Shinra were the only ones with access to helicopters.

Vincent sat in the back of this agonizingly loud machine, contemplating asking the driver if he could just get out and walk to. He didn't like flying. It brought up too many memories of two months ago. Lying on the floor of Cid's plane, with Kai just a few inches away from him.

He squeezed his eyes shut. He wouldn't think about that right now. There would be plenty of time to dwell on his past mistakes once he was free. He would get as far away from the Shinra as possible, somewhere down in the Southern Continent, maybe. Somewhere he would never have to think of the mountains or the labs ever again.

"We're approaching Corel, Sir," the pilot called.

"Uh, good." Vincent had to shout to be heard amidst the roar of the propellers. "That's good." He attempted to put a bit of authority in his voice. It didn't work very well. And what did it matter? He was gone the moment the helicopter touched the ground…

The one flaw in his plan was waiting for him the moment he stepped out into the breezy evening.

Corel was a small town, smaller than Kalm had been, and much more empty. There wasn't a single person sitting on a porch, or leaning out of one of the windows along the narrow street. Everything was locked and barred.

And Vincent saw precisely why.

There was already a group of Shinra representatives standing on the edge of town, facing him. He had been told there would be, and he hadn't really thought much of it. Reno and Tseng were both there, wearing the Turk garments that matched Vincent's. There were also several other men (or women, he couldn't tell) dressed in the bulky combat suits of Soldier. And someone else.

Vincent stared. Whatever he had been expecting on his first mission, this definitely wasn't it. The man standing in the center of the Shinra group was tall and fair, his silver hair slithering down his back, contrasting with the pitch black of his coat.

It was Seph.

But it can't be…Vincent thought as he stumbled forward. He was too old. Just a few months ago Seph had been his age. The man standing before him couldn't have been younger than twenty five. But as Vincent approached, his lips twitched into a smirk, lighting his pale eyes up in a familiar way.

"So this is the infamous Vincent Valentine." He held out a hand. "I'm Sephiroth. I lead Soldier."

"Yeah, nice to…nice to meet you." Vincent didn't know why he was acting this way. If this truly was Seph, he should know who he was. Unless of course, something had happened to him. Vincent had lost his memory for awhile; maybe Seph had never gotten his back.

And what is all of this? he couldn't help thinking, Put-a-lab-experiment-in-charge week?

"We should get started, boss." Reno fingered the trigger on his gun, his words jostling Vincent out of his thoughts. "The natives aren't being very compliant."

"Shut up," Tseng snapped before Vincent could respond. "He's not in charge here."

"Yes, I am." Vincent blinked. Somehow, those words had come out of his mouth. "I killed Erika, so now I'm the leader." Someone had to exert authority here, but he was surprised that it had been he. Maybe this demon transformation had done more than just reconfigure his body.

Sephiroth was watching approvingly. "I like this guy," he said, and Vincent couldn't be sure if he was talking to himself or Reno and Tseng. Whatever the case, no one made any protest as Vincent approached, closing the last few feet between himself and the rest of the Shinra. His escape plans would have to be put on hold until he could find out what was going on. Finding Seph here had brought up a new snag in the proceedings.

"What's the situation?" It seemed like the thing to ask. He didn't want to sound unprofessional. There was no reason to give Tseng another reason to undermine his authority.

Sephiroth glanced back at Corel distastefully. "We gave them the chance to evacuate, but they haven't taken it. The idiots don't think we'll live up to our threats." He laughed.

It wasn't a pleasant sound.