Blood: 26

Pain

Nibelheim: A small village nestling quietly at the foot of the Nibel mountain range, notable for the lack of anything ever having happened there. Just the sort of place Marlon J Kennedy would want to spend several months looking after scientists. Surprisingly enough there was a spring in his step as he climbed the steps to the mansion, lugging his suitcase with him.

He had to stop and admire the view, leaning on the iron gate and looking the mansion over with an appreciative eye. Quite impressive compared to the concrete high rises back in Midgar. Admittedly he had always had an eye for old-style architecture – real stone and timber, so getting away to this place was a rare treat.

'Enough of that,' he scolded himself, 'This isn't a vacation. I'm here to work.' He had sent request after request to Heidegger, asking to be assigned to protection duties at Nibelheim with Vincent. Eventually, he had been summoned to the Peace Preservation department.

"Marlon, if I let you go, will you promise not to bother me for at least six months when you get back?"

"Of course, sir. Your wish is my command."

"Excellent. Get lost and take your time coming back."

For some reason Heidegger's eagerness to get rid of him felt like a compliment. Possibly to his nagging abilities, but whatever. It had to be done; the weekly phone calls from Vincent having subsided for a time, then started again, becoming more frequent until there was one almost every day. Why Vincent should be so interested in what went on back at Midgar, Marlon had no idea. He supposed his friend was just sick for friendly company or something. 'After all, since Trey left the place has been a bit dead. As much as I love Veld, he's too serious about everything.'

Grinning at the thought of Veld awash in seas of unnecessary paperwork, Marlon pushed the gate open, surprised as it gave a high-pitched squeak. Amused, he closed it and opened it again, grinning at the sound.

"Some people are easily pleased."

Startled, he looked around, focusing on Vincent leaning against the fir tree in the garden. Embarrassed, Marlon cleared his throat and adjusted his grip on his suitcase. "Sorry, Vince. You know me and squeaky things."

"Unfortunately." The venom in his tone surprised Marlon.

"'Scuse me, but is something wrong?"

"Nothing for you to concern yourself over." Vincent sighed suddenly, realising that he should moderate his behaviour. "Sorry Marlon. It's been a rough couple of weeks."

"Oh. Want to talk about it?"

"No." He started towards the mansion, arms still folded tight across his chest. "Come on."

Without a word, Marlon opened the gate and followed, his light mood lost in the dark cloud following Vincent around. This whole thing suddenly felt like a bad idea and he wished he'd never thought of it.

---------

The mansion's interior was surprisingly drab, dragging Marlon's mood down even further. He supposed there was no point in decorating a research facility in bright, airy colours when all it would be used for was work. "Trey's in hospital." He told Vincent, the two of them climbing the stairs.

"Do I really care what he's done to himself this time?"

"He hasn't done anything to himself. We were called out with a team of Military Police to scrape him off the ground." Vincent looked over his shoulder down the stairs at his friend, apparently taking interest. Marlon took it as cue to continue. "I didn't know what to expect, just that it had something to do with us Turks. I thought that meant Trey alone, except when we got there, Trey was on the floor against that lamppost outside his building, with Richards unconscious on the floor in front of him." That was enough to stop Vincent on the top stair. He leant against the banister, clearly shocked at the news.

"What happened?"

"Simple. Trey pulverised him."

"How?"

"No one's sure. Trey's not saying much and Richards can't say anything at all yet. He's not woken up."

"Hell." Vincent wasn't sure what to say. He couldn't imagine what the fight must have been like. It had been threatening to happen for years, but now? Of course. Trey was a civilian, there was nothing protecting his life that Richards couldn't bypass. "What's wrong with Trey?"

"First degree burns to one of his hands. God only knows what they were doing, but I'm guessing it involved one of Richards' firecrackers. Like I said, no one can get anything out of Trey about what went on. We can only guess."

"When Richards does wake up, there's going to be hell to pay."

"And Trey's the one in debt."

This was bad news. If Trey and Richards had both finally snapped, then this feud would not simply go away. Neither man was known for even temperedness and forgiveness. Whatever Trey had started, it would get worse before it got better. Nobody had even lain Richards out before; when he woke up he would be outraged. There was no better way to get under his skin that to undermine his authority, or even worse, make him look weak.

These thoughts troubled Vincent all the way down the corridor to his bedroom. Though he liked to pretend otherwise, he had a lot of respect for Trey, stemming more from the way he could bounce back from anything and seem indestructible than his longer service with the Company. How could someone survive such dangerous situations time and again and come away with minor injuries compared to potential damage?

He wanted to shake his head just thinking about it, but chose to hide his feelings. Marlon didn't need to know what he really thought of Trey. Without a word, he opened his bedroom door and crossed to his own bed, collapsing on his back and clasping his hands on his belly. "This is my bed. Remember that." He told Marlon in a slightly strained voice as he fought off a yawn.

"Uh huh." Marlon tossed his case on the end of the spare bed and gazed at his friend. Now that I'm all settled in, you going to tell me what's wrong with you?"

"Why should something be wrong?"

Vincent's innocent little question took Marlon by surprise. "Because if I didn't know you I'd just think you were a grumpy bastard." He took a seat on his bed, drawing his knees up to his chest. "What's happened?"

Vincent rolled over, leaning up on his elbow to glare full force at his friend. "I told you. Nothing is wrong. Now please stop asking."

"Vince-"

"Nothing is wrong! Why do you have to be so pig-headed? If I say stop asking, damn well stop it!" With that, he turned over and tucked his hands under the pillow.

Marlon took a breath and straightened his jacket. Whatever was on Vincent's mind must be a doozy to strip him of his patience. The man had the patience of a saint normally, but tended to let things eat away at him; bottle his feelings up inside until there was no more space and they all burst out in a fit of rage.

There used to be a glass coffee table in the Turks' office. No longer as one of Vincent's temper tantrums ended with his fist bandaged and splinters of glass in the carpet...

"She rejected me." Nothing more than a whisper - Marlon was unsure he heard anything.

"You said something, Vince?"

"Lucrecia. She rejected me." Sitting up, Vincent looked over at Marlon, his eyes redder than usual. "Lucrecia rejected me and went off with Hojo."

"Vince-"

"There's more." He cleared his throat, looking up at the ceiling to hide his tears, "She's pregnant, and they're going to use the baby as the test subject in this project."

"I..." Marlon didn't know what to say, staring at Vincent in disbelief. "Can they do that?"

"It's their child, they can do what they want with it, I suppose."

"Surely there's laws against this?" Vincent merely shrugged in answer, lying down on his side away from Marlon and closing his eyes. "What about you? Are you going to do anything about it?" The lack of answer surprised Marlon. In all Vincent's calls he would talk almost endlessly about Lucrecia. He had never said that they were together, but it was always implied and taken as true.

"As long as she's happy. That's all that matters to me."

"Vincent."

"She's a scientist, and this is what she wants. I wanted to know she was sure. She told me, 'if this only concerns me then yes, I'm sure.' What she does is up to her. I'm not going to get in the way of her ambitions."

"There's ambition, and then there's this."

Vincent sat up quickly, "You're questioning her? If she wants to go through with it then she can do what she wants! She knows what she's doing, she's not stupid!"

"I'm not saying she is-"

"Then what? That she's cruel!"

Marlon was silent for some time, staring at the bedspread, twisting it up between the fingers of one hand. At last he looked Vincent in the eye, "You need me to tell you? Look at yourself."

"You don't..." Vincent trailed off, lowering his eyes to the floorboards. What could he say? Right then his head agreed with Marlon, no matter what his heart wanted. Beaten, he rolled over to face the wall again. Marlon didn't know the whole story. He was looking at things with an outsider's eyes, he couldn't know what had happened, or why. 'She's blaming herself for something I've already forgiven her for. I can't stop her from doing that, anymore than I can stop her from doing this. I have no say in what they do. I'm just here to keep an eye on her. I can't protect her from herself.'

He looked round suddenly, the bedroom door closing snatching his attention. Marlon had left him to himself. Really and truly there was no blaming him. 'I acted like a bastard, but he has to understand. I love her, and there's nothing I can do about that. There's nothing I would do about it. I just want her to be happy. If that's at the expense of my own happiness, then so be it.' feeling warm tears on his cheeks, he drew his knees up to his chest and turned his face into the pillow.

(NOTE: I left out the whole 'It's all my fault' bit because we all know what happened, and probably why also by now. I will expand on it and go back to it in future chapters, but for now I wanted to deal more with the aftermath of Lucrecia's rejecting him. On a slightly lighter note, anybody spot the quote?

There's an up to date picture of Trey on deviantART for those that are interested. When I was colouring it earlier this evening, I suddenly realised that he is unbelievably sexy. I know he's supposed to be, but I didn't realise he was THAT sexy. I said to my friend Squirrel on MSN that I'd suffered a bit of a shock and told her what. She said 'You only JUST noticed?' I couldn't believe it! Anyway, enough from me tell me what you thought please.)