DISCLAIMER/TRIGGER WARNING:

This story contains content of a highly disturbing nature that may be offensive to some readers: including (but definitely not limited to): domestic abuse, rape, blood & gore, general violence, suicide references, self-harm implications, and torture. Please DO NOT read if you are likely to be offended! Vega's life is not a pretty picture!

Vega & other Street Fighter characters owned by CAPCOM. Victoria de Cerna, Miguel de Cerna, & Marc Antoní Gauldera belong to me.

A/N: Yes! I live! Sorry it's been so long. Life, ya know? And editing is boring. I know this chapter is short but the next chapter should make up for it! There's a lot, and I mean A LOT in the next chapter! So, enjoy!

After we buried her, I lay on her bed night after night, unable to sleep. I grew restless, thinking of her lying so cold and alone out there, without me to comfort her; and the ache in my heart tore me open without her to comfort me.

Marc Antoní did his best to convince me that she was not really there in that grave, but I could not bear to think of her restless spirit, somehow trapped in Purgatory, no way to come back to me, no way to find peace. She suffered enough in her life as it was, and to think she would suffer in her afterlife as well was completely unfathomable.

I knew that her body lay quietly in the cool earth, waiting for me to join her there.

And so, one night when I could no longer withstand it, I walked out into the cool air, wandering into our garden with nothing but a big, bright full moon illuminating me. I walked barefoot along the path, dressed in the same disheveled clothing that I had been wearing for days .

None of that mattered, however. I had to be with her again, the only way I could imagine.

I found my way to our family graveyard, to the place I knew I could find her, dropping to my knees in front of her headstone. I ran my fingers along the engraving of the letters, both smooth and sharp, forming her name and I pressed my forehead to the stone.

'Forgive me…'I whispered, kissing the stone. 'I failed you, but I won't leave you. I will lay here forever.'

I laid down slowly onto my side and tucking my hands beneath my head, drifting off to a peaceful sleep, knowing that she was so close.

' Mon Dieu! ' I awoke one night to something I vaguely registered to be French in my groggy state. I lifted my head off my arms and looked up to see Remy standing over me, a breeze blowing through his hair and I could see his eyes for only a moment.

'I had no idea it was this bad!' he exclaimed.

'Remy?'

'Who else?' he smirked.

'What are you doing here?' I asked, ignoring his statement.

'Looking for you! You weren't in your bed or …or your mother's. I was worried.'

'This is my bed now. This is where she really is. I won't have any comfort anywhere else.'

'You're not sleeping on her grave! Tell me you are not!'

I nodded my head.

'It's where I belong...where I need to be.'

He scoffed at me.

'First, you lie on her bed for days on end, not eating, not sleeping—not even bathing—a-and now this !'

I sat up, the breeze blowing through my tangled hair, leaning against her smooth, cold headstone. It sent a shiver down my spine that I tried to ignore. Instead, a fire rose through me as my anger erupted.

'I thought you would understand!' I cried. 'You alone know my pain!'

I hugged my knees, burying my head on my lap.

'I never laid on her grave!' he spat back.

I jerked my head up and glared daggers at him as sharp as the pain in my heart.

'She has no grave! It is nothing but a block of ice! Don't tell me that you would not crawl in beside her right now if you could!'

I could feel hot tears coming to my eyes.

'Not ice, idiot! Crystal; and Émilie would not want that, I know she would not!' he hissed, pushing back his hair from his face. 'And your mother, she would not want this for you…'

'You could never know what she wants! She wants me! I failed her and I belong here, by her side. I feel her...she has been with me since that day...her voice whispers in my mind...can you not hear it?'

Remy gasped, his eyes wide and he rubbed the back of his head.

'She calls to me, Remy. Can't you see that? My beautiful mother cannot rest without me.'

I hugged myself, squeezing my eyes shut.

My long disheveled hair blew in the cool night breeze once more, flowing around me like spider silk.

'Oh, I feel her…' I whispered.

Her delicate fingers combed through my hair, caressing me gently. My tears were cold against my cheeks as I savored them.

'She longs for me as I long for her.'

Remy was quiet as he slunk down to the ground, the ember of his cigarette glowing in the darkness as he lit it and exhaled a big cloud of smoke.

I could hear the soft creaking of his leather jacket and the faint tinkling of his zipper ties. His head was down, the breeze swaying in his hair.

'So…' he said after a long while. 'That's it, then?' he looked up at me.

'You're just going to lay here and mope until you die ?' he hissed, standing and crushing his cigarette beneath his boot.

'Fuck that! You arrogant asshole!'

I gasped, taken aback by his sudden attack and he bent down, grabbing me by the collar of my shirt, lifting me from the ground.

'Do you think you're the only one to feel this way?' his face was inches from mine, my tears pouring down the side of my face, unable to speak.

'There is no god! There is no heaven, no hell, no spirit! She's laying there in her casket, decaying at your feet!'

'No!' I screamed, not willing to listen to him.

'You said it yourself, Vega. No loving god would ever treat you this way! No god would ever want his creatures to suffer. All I have ever known in this life is suffering! No god ever saved me or my sister from it and you—you act as if you are the only one to lose someone!'

I could see his other hand glowing blue as a fist and I closed my eyes, waiting for the blow to come—but none came.

He threw me down to the ground.

'Gah! You make me sick! And you're wrong, Vega. You don't deserve this. Neither does she. She would want to be alive with you. She would want you to live! To be happy again! If she could see you like this, she would be so sad. So very sad.'

My heart sank at the thought, just when I thought I could not feel any more dejected. Her sadness always tore a hole in my heart and to imagine her face, looking at me, full of sadness was just unbearable.

'No! I will worship at her altar for the rest of my life! She would want me here, beside her...where I always was. She could never bear to be apart from me and when I left her for the first time, I tore a hole in her heart that I could never heal but I thought...I thought that maybe if I came back to her, that I could make her whole again and be the savior she always wanted—no, deserved —and now…'

'Merde. I need a drink.' he muttered.

I clutched at the top of the headstone and sobbed, burying my face against my arm.

'Good God, Vega! You look like one of those weeping angels in the cemetery! I am not leaving you like this! You are coming with me!' he cried, pulling me to my feet as I wept uncontrollably.

I pushed him away, staggering back on my feet

'No!' I yelled. 'I won't-I won't leave her! It is my fault she is here! Mine !'

He rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath that I could not understand.

'Vega, you had no way of knowing what would happen! Didn't you say she charged in front of you before you could stop her? She sacrificed herself for you ! You are her son and she was not going to let him hurt you. I saw the love in her eyes for you the first time I met her. She may not have been the best mother, but she loved you. She sacrificed herself for you knowing that you would do the same.'

'I…I would have!'

'I know, Vega. I know.'

I stood there silently after that, staring at him as I tried to process his words.

I threw my arms around him, crushing him tightly in my embrace. I could have kissed him at that moment, but I did not; the sense of relief overwhelmed me.

I felt his arm pat my back.

'Come on. Let's get you cleaned up, no?'

'Wh-why?'

'Well, we can't go out with you looking like this!' he grinned at me.

'No!' I snapped and he simply chuckled at me.

'I thought you would say that.' he smirked.

He grabbed my arm and began to pull me back to the house. I struggled to pull against him.

'Don't make me carry you!'

I sighed and followed him back down the path.

The shadow of her cold gravestone pulled at my heart, willing me to turn back; I stopped and looked back over my shoulder, the breeze blowing through me like her cold breath.

Remy gestured at me.

'Come on, Vega.'

There was a gentle insistence in his voice.

I looked back at him; for the first time, I noticed how his turquoise hair glowed in the moonlight, the same breeze blowing through it and he seemed almost ethereal.

'What? Stop staring at me and come on!' he exclaimed. 'You seriously need a bath and I think we might need to shave your head to get all those knots out!'

'Don't you dare! I'll kill you!' I hissed.

'I was only joking! Besides, I don't think you'd look good bald.' he gave me another playful smirk. My heart thumped in my chest at his expression, and I shook my head with a sigh.