Hello again everyone!

This chapter really did not want to be written, for some reason. I started it about three times before it finally went in a direction that I liked. It's hard for me to write longer chapters when I'm focusing on Vincent, since he's always struck me as a 'short-and-sweet, spit it out and move on' type character, but I think from here on out it shouldn't be as much of a problem. This chapter is almost twice the length of the first, I hope you all like it!

School is going to be starting again in a week and a half, so I don't know if I'm going to be updating regularly, though I would like to. Once I figure out what my schoolwork is going to be like, I'm going to try to work out a writing schedule for this story, and we'll see how it goes.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far!

Chapter 2

So I bare my skin

And I count my sins

And I close my eyes

And I take it in

I'm bleeding out

I'm bleeding out for you, for you.

The woods surrounding the Temple of the Ancients were eerily silent. It seemed as if the entire forest was holding its breath, waiting. The atmosphere was putting Vincent on edge even more than usual, and he gritted his teeth as he attempted to calm himself.

His friends had always teased him about how little emotion he showed, which was partially a result of his Turk training. He had learned to always have control of his emotions and never show any feelings unintentionally. However, the past two years had taken their toll, and he no longer possessed the same iron grip that he used to when it came to his feelings. Yuffie would laugh if she knew how much her absence was affecting him.

Vincent shook his head in an attempt to push away the distracting thoughts of Yuffie. He had left Edge hours before the sun rose, unable to sleep after the dream had woken him. Something about it had felt strange, different from any other dream from the past two years. Vincent didn't know what to think of it, but he did know that the renewed hope it had brought to him was enough to keep him going, if only for a little while longer. The sun was dipping below the horizon now, and he sighed at the thought of trying to sleep.

He took a moment to study the sky and decided that he would make his way toward Mideel. It had been a few months since he last searched that area, and even though Reeve had posted a handful of WRO operatives in the town, Vincent still felt the need to check it personally. There were a handful of small settlements to the south of his current location, so it shouldn't be too difficult for him to find someone with a boat who would be willing to take him across the small expanse of sea that kept him from going the entire way on foot.

Barely half an hour later, Vincent's phone rang while he was haggling with an old fisherman over an acceptable price for a trip to a little bay just north of Mideel. Vincent excused himself and walked off a few paces before answering.

"Valentine."

"Vincent!" Reeve sounded more cheerful than he had for a long time, and Vincent perked up. "I have some news that might be useful. Mind you, I won't know for certain until a team goes to search the area, but there have been reports of a disturbance near the Forgotten City. Cid is willing to pick you up in the Shera and take you there if you'd like." Vincent closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Don't get your hopes up, Valentine, it's probably nothing. "What do you say?"

"Tell Cid that I'm in one of the fishing villages just south of the Temple of the Ancients," Vincent replied, keeping his tone decidedly neutral.

"All right, I'll call him now. You shouldn't be waiting long, he was dropping supplies to the WRO operatives in Gongaga, so be ready."

"Understood." The call cut out and Vincent let his head fall back as he stared up at the darkening sky. The Forgotten City … nothing good ever came of going there. First Aerith's death, then the Remnants used it as a base during the Geostigma incident. What would happen this time?

As he settled into a comfortable position at the edge of the village, he thought back to the last time he had been in the Forgotten City, when he rescued Cloud.

The sound of gunshots and clashing swords could be heard some distance away, and Vincent quickened his pace as he wondered what sort of situation he would find on the other side of the glowing white trees. Just as he'd thought, Cloud was fighting with the three Remnants, and didn't seem to be doing well. His movements suggested that he was slightly disoriented, not enough for most people to notice, but Vincent knew his friend's fighting style. Cloud leapt toward the lead Remnant, Kadaj, and Vincent almost reconsidered his assessment that Cloud was off his game. Then Cloud hesitated just enough to give Kadaj an opening and the silver-haired man jumped at the chance.

Vincent filed Cloud's odd behavior away for later and joined in the fray, knocking Cloud and Kadaj apart and hauling Cloud away before he suffered any serious damage. This was a fight for another day.

When they were well out of range of the city, they stopped along the stream to talk.

"See? I knew I'd be no help," Cloud muttered, a note of despair in his voice. Vincent studied him from behind the high collar of his cloak and realized what was causing the change in Cloud's behavior. "Vincent, what do you know about this?"

Vincent stood leaning against a tree, trying to organize his thoughts and decide how much he should tell Cloud. "I come here often," he admitted, straightening with a swish of his cloak. "I've seen what Kadaj's group is doing," he crouched beside Cloud and grabbed his left arm, causing Cloud to gasp, "the Stigma." Cloud grimaced and looked away. "It's a symptom of alien matter infesting the body. The body tries to eliminate it and overcompensates." He released Cloud and stood again, pacing slowly along the water's edge. "Inside our bodies is a current like the lifestream. That current is what fights off any malevolent intruders." He looked back over his shoulder at Cloud, waiting for the younger man to comment.

Cloud ducked his head. "What do you mean by intruders?"

"The Sephiroth-gene. Jenova's memetic legacy. Call it what you want."

Cloud sat silently for another moment, processing. Vincent knew that the information wouldn't be easy for him to hear. "You're well informed," he finally said, staring off into the distance.

"Tseng and Elena. They were brought here half dead. They must have been brutally tortured. I did what I could to save them, but ... well, we'll see." Vincent thought back to the sight of the two Turks, Tseng unconscious and Elena nearly so, both with blood-soaked clothes and more than just physical injuries. Whoever had taught Kadaj how to torture someone had known how to break mind as well as body.

"Tortured?"

"They had it coming," he said, giving Cloud a sharp look. "They got their hands on Jenova's head."

"Then when Kadaj says he's looking for 'mother,'" Cloud said, understanding beginning to dawn.

"Heaven's dark harbinger, the calamity, Jenova." Vincent let the words hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "If they wanted to, they could recreate Sephiroth."

"Kadaj … what is he?"

Vincent had an idea, but all the same, "I'd rather not know."

A rustling in the trees made them both jump to attention. Marlene came barreling out of the underbrush and straight to Cloud, reminding Vincent in a very roundabout way of Yuffie. He wondered what the young ninja was doing, and hoped that the Stigma hadn't claimed her as one of its victims. The planet would be a much darker place without the self proclaimed Single White Rose of Wutai. Vincent blinked and wondered why he had thought such things.

"May I?" Marlene's hesitant question jarred him back into the present. It took him a moment to realize what she was asking. He held his cape out to the side showing her that her request was pointless. "You don't have a phone?!" Her shocked gasp was yet another reminder of Yuffie and he wondered again why the ninja had jumped so easily to the front of his mind.

When Cloud asked him to look after Marlene, he felt a tendril of panic rising in his chest. "I can't do that," he said, shaking his head to emphasize the point. He forced himself to ignore the young girl and her argument with Cloud, until she ran to him and hid behind his cloak. He was surprised, to say the least, but she didn't stay there long.

As she and Cloud walked away hand in hand, Vincent thought about Cloud's last question.

Are sins ever forgiven? There was a question, if ever there was one. He had spent years in his coffin as punishment for his sins. And now he spent his time in atonement for them. But he had never considered seeking forgiveness. If anyone deserved such forgiveness, and the peace that it would surely bring, it was Cloud. Someone like Vincent, on the other hand … best not to think about it.

Later, though, standing inside the church in the slums as they watched Cloud help the children with the Stigma into the healing water, Vincent let himself consider what it would be like. It wasn't hard to see that Cloud had found some form of peace. Vincent felt envious of his friend and immediately guilty as a result. Yet another sin to add to the list, begrudging someone of their new found peace. Would it ever end?

The party celebrating the end of this latest crisis lasted well into the wee hours of the morning, the members of AVALANCHE crashing one by one in various places throughout Seventh Heaven. Vincent slunk out into the city when no one was watching, determined not to be pulled in to the next world crisis. He was tired of being hailed as a hero when he was no better than the villains they worked to defeat. A nice, long rest, that's what he needed, he told himself, full of reflection on his past sins and what he could have done to make them right. The coffin was sounding better and better by the minute, and he set out for Nibelheim.

Aboard the Shera, WRO operatives and crew members scrambled around frantically in their duties. As Vincent made his way through the narrow corridors they were all very careful to look away from him. While this would normally have made him a bit self conscious, Vincent ignored them and swept onto the bridge just as Cid finished screaming at the men standing at the back of the room.

"Ah, there ya are, Vince," the pilot still sounded irritated. "You'd think at least one of these boys'd know how to make a decent pot of tea," the last word was punctuated by a glare that sent them scurrying off, presumably to the airship's kitchens. "So, how've ya been, Vince?" Cid turned back to Vincent, his unlit cigarette dangling haphazardly from the corner of his mouth. "Shera's been asking about you."

Vincent considered several replies before saying, "I've been better." Cid snorted and gave him a look. "I have also been much worse, so there is no need for concern." Cid was quiet for a moment, and Vincent turned to look out of the large windows at the front of the bridge, eager to change the subject. "What do you know about this disturbance?"

"Not much," Cid shook his head, "Reeve said someone heard fighting, but they didn't stay to find out who it was, just got the hell out of there and reported it once they were far enough away. Who knows what kinda shit we'll be flying into."

Vincent 'hmm'ed in acknowledgement. He could feel Cid's eyes on him, knew the other man was taking note of the subtle changes, results of not properly caring for himself over the past two years. "How long until we reach the City?"

Cid shrugged, "Coupla hours. Maybe just after midnight, it's hard ta say. Radar shows a storm forming in the area, that might slow us down if it's bad." One of the crewmen who had run off earlier returned, carrying a tea tray. "It's about goddamn time!" He reached for one of the cups. "I don't suppose you wanna hang around up here with all these numskulls," Cid gestured to the crew, and Vincent ducked his head to hide his amused smirk at the sight of the gruff pilot waving his hand around while holding a china teacup. "I'll call ya back up here once we're closer. In the meantime, you can use one of the cabins, catch up on some sleep," Cid gave the gunman a stern look, "you look like you could use some rest. So get yer ass down there and sleep. Captain's orders."

Vincent inclined his head and walked down the stairs just in time to avoid the spray as Cid spit out a mouthful of tea. The teacup went flying across the bridge with a crash, and the last thing Vincent heard as the Shera's door closed behind him was the pilot screaming again.

"WHAT THE % #& IS THAT? ARE YOU TRYING TO POISON ME?!"

The dim lights in his cabin were easily ignored, and Vincent lay staring up at the ceiling as he tried to relax. He could hear rain bouncing off of the airship and the occasional boom of thunder. His thoughts were drawn to another thunder storm, nearly three years ago, when he had been in the Shinra Manor. He had been worried about Yuffie on that night, too.

Lightning crashed outside of the Shinra Manor, and for a brief moment the room was illuminated with a blinding white light. Vincent sat up with a gasp, reaching for Cerberus as he searched the room for any possible threats. After the incident with Deepground and Omega, he'd moved back to the Manor with the intention of fixing it up and staying there indefinitely.

When he had informed the others of his decision they had responded with varying degrees of acceptance. Cloud had simply nodded while Tifa asked if he was sure that he didn't want to stay with them at Seventh Heaven. Reeve had wished him well and asked if he might still help the WRO on occasion, to which he replied that he wasn't sure. Barret and Cid had each let out a string of curses before telling him to take care of himself. Shelke had simply said goodbye in her mechanical voice. And Yuffie hadn't said anything at all.

He had intended to leave immediately, but instead spent the rest of the day trying to corner the young ninja to ask her what was wrong. She always had something to say, and her silence bothered him more than he liked to admit. He finally caught her after the others went to bed, sneaking through a second story window.

"Yuffie," he murmured as he came toward her. "Where have you been?"

She stared up at him for a moment, so many emotions flashing through her eyes before she turned away. "What do you care? Go back to your coffin in that stinky old mansion, Vincent. It's what you were planning to do, no matter what you told the others." She turned and glared at him. "You know, you're not being fair to us. You need to stop living in the past. You have friends, here and now, who care about you. Do you really think it was easy for us, while you were gone? We spent weeks looking for you, worrying that you might have died, and there you were, safe and sound and spending some quality time with Miss Popsicle Chick." Vincent was surprised at how detached she sounded. It was not a good sign. "But that doesn't matter to you. So go. Go 'atone for your sins.'" Then she slammed the door to her room in his face.

He stood outside of her room for some time before turning away and leaving.

Now he sat watching the rain pound against the window and he wondered what she was doing right now. The thundering gray clouds matched the shade of her eyes when she had yelled at him, and he sighed. Her words that night had hurt him more than he would have expected.

If only there was some way that he could make her understand. He wasn't here to dwell on the past, at least not in the way that she thought. This place represented everything that he hated about himself. The gloomy, depressing attitude, the twisted and broken form, right down to the monsters lurking in the shadows. There was the slightest hope in the back of his mind that, while he fixed the Manor, he would find a way to fix himself.

Vincent set Cerberus back down on the nightstand and stood, walking across the room in search of his phone. He considered sending a text directly to Yuffie, but changed his mind, not wanting to encourage her to resume her previous barrage of texts and calls. Tifa would get the wrong idea from his request, but perhaps Cloud would understand. He knew that Vincent had a soft spot for the ninja, despite his insistence that she was an unwelcome annoyance at times. Yes, Cloud would do what he asked.

He hesitated again over the wording. It was more difficult than it ought to be, but he finally settled on 'Cloud, I imagine you are tired of the trouble that certain persons tend to cause. Perhaps you might suggest to them that they check up on other friends? Company would not be unwelcome here.'

He ran a hand through his tangled hair and looked out the window again. It was unlikely that he would get anymore sleep this night, so he settled into a chair and watched the rain fall.

"Vincent! Get yer ass up to the bridge! You need to see this!" Cid's voice blared over the ship's intercom, jolting Vincent out of his thoughts.

I know that Cid was also in Kingdom Hearts, but I left him out of Eyes Open for the sake of my sanity. So we're going to say that this is a bit AU, he was never in KH :)

That last flashback is an extended version of my short story Lightning Strike. I was really pleased with it, and I had to include it in this story somewhere.