Author's Note: I'm sorry this has taken so long, but I've had much to do. But here, as promised, is the new chapter.

Questions of Fate

Chapter 3 – Birth of a God

March 17, 1968

It was a pleasant surprise to wake and find herself still in the bed that the Rhapsodos' had given her. She'd been a little afraid that it would all turn out to be some cruel illusion and she would wake once more ensconced in her crystal. But thankfully that was not the case.

She woke in much the same position as she had fallen asleep. On her side, her knees bent beneath her belly. The warm blankets were tousseled; evidence that she had, at some point, moved.

Excitement hit her a moment later. Today was the day her son would be born. She checked the clock. 8:30 AM. She had about four hours before she would go into labour. Albeit, under such radically different circumstances, that was subject to change.

She couldn't wait.

As if in answer to her thought, Sephiroth fidgeted, stretching his limbs restlessly.

"There, there. You'll be free soon enough."

Lucrecia could hear movement downstairs, and she carefully eased herself out of bed. She wanted to talk to Gillian Hewley; preferably before she went into labour.

She hadn't bothered unpacking before she'd gone to sleep the night before, so all her clothes were still stuffed in her suitcase. She didn't get fussy with her dress; grabbing whichever garments were on top and slipping into them. She made quick work of washing up and headed out into the hall.

She could hear laughter downstairs, and as she made her way down the staircase delighted squeals erupted from the general vicinity of the dining room. The squeals of a baby.

When Lucrecia entered the dining room she spotted the source immediately. Little Genesis was sitting on the table; his short, chubby legs curled in front of him. Siobhan played as she fed him, making the zooming sound of a car as she guided the spoon into his mouth. Each time he swallowed he would howl with delight.

"Good morning, Lucrecia." Arthur looked up from the newspaper. "Coffee? Tea?"

"Coffee, thanks."

Lucrecia moved around the solid oak table, sitting down next to Siobhan. Genesis turned, smiling again as he looked at her.

"Lively this morning, isn't he?" Lucrecia remarked.

"And still smitten with you, I see," Siobhan replied, pinching Genesis' nose playfully, eliciting a giggle.

"Maybe he just knows I'm a mom."

Arthur returned to the table, passing Lucrecia a cup of steaming coffee and patting his son's head.

Lucrecia took the cup. "Thanks."

"So, I've been thinking," Arthur began. "Shinra will probably hunt you night and day for at least a few months, maybe a year or so. After that things should die down. I mean, don't get me wrong, they'll never stop looking for you, but the active hunt will only last so long."

"I suspected as much," Lucrecia replied.

"So I reckon that in a few months it should be safe to have a place built for you in the town. You'd be on the records under a false name of course."

"Sounds great."

"And besides. You and your boy won't be able to stay cooped up in one little room forever. And I expect you'll want a lab to work in."

Lucrecia smiled. It had been a while since she'd actually worked on any projects. The idea of having her own lab was more than she'd hoped for.

"That would be nice," she replied.

"I'll see what I can arrange. In the meantime," Arthur put his mug down on the table. "Would you like a tour of Banora? It's a beautiful morning."

Lucrecia smiled. "I would."

The village was truly as beautiful as she'd imagined. The wood and plaster houses sprung up amidst tall palm trees. Ferns grew around fences and in corners. Each house had a well, which she suspected was for watering gardens seeing as they all had plumbing. The tallest structure was the windmill, which towered over the entire town; even the Rhapsodos Manor.

"And this is the Hewleys'." Arthur gestured toward the house on their left as they made their way through the square.

"Could you introduce me?" She asked, nearly adding that she would like to meet the mother of one of her son's only friends, but corrected herself.

"Of course." Bypassing the door, Arthur made his way to the open window on the house's side—through which Lucrecia could hear This Old Heart of Mine playing on the radio—and poking his head in. "Hey there, Gill."

A gasp sounded from the inside, followed by a young voice, terse and scolding.

"You could try knocking, Arthur."

There was no mistaking the laughter in Arthur's voice. "Oh, you know me and doors."

"No. I don't know you and doors. You do, however, seem quite fond of windows." Lucrecia heard dishes clink before Gillian continued. "Now, is there a reason you're hanging through my kitchen window or did you just feel like it?" Even Gillian was chuckling now. Lucrecia couldn't help but notice how very much they were like Angeal and Genesis.

"Yup. I've got someone who'd like to meet you."

"Who?"

"Lucrecia Crescent."

There was a long silence before Lucrecia heard Gillian putting cutlery back in the sink. "Come in," she said, her voice quite suddenly serious.

Lucrecia followed Arthur through Gillian's front door and into the moderately-lit main room. In the centre of the space was a large table with four chairs. Beside the table stood Gillian.

She was younger than she had been when Lucrecia had seen her in one of the many visions she's received in her crystal. Her hair was darker—as black as Angeal's—and draped around her face in curls. Her skin was smoother, her face rounder. She couldn't have been much older than Lucrecia herself.

Gillian's lavender eyes swept Lucrecia with a tinge of suspicion. Understandable considering who Lucrecia had once worked with.

"What a surprise," Gillian said by way of greeting. "I'm astounded Hojo let you out of his sight." There was venom in her voice.

"He didn't. I left."

Gillian's eyes darted to Arthur, looking for confirmation. When he nodded she returned her gaze to Lucrecia.

"I take it you have a plan for when he finds you."

"I don't intend for him to find me. I'm not going back to Shinra."

Gillian stared for a moment, dumbfounded, before she laughed. "You're madder than I thought, Dr. Crescent."

"As a hatter," Lucrecia replied with a grin. It's nice to finally meet you, Gillian."

"Good to see you coming to your senses," Gillian replied, extending her hand to shake Lucrecia's. "Come on in. I was about to give Angeal his breakfast."

"So what ever happened to that gorgeous Turk you were dating?"

Lucrecia swallowed the last of her apple—fresh from the tree no less—and swigged a bit of her water. It wasn't exactly her favorite story to tell, but knowing that things were going to be different this time made it a bit easier to begin the tale.

"He's dead," she replied after a moment's hesitation. "Technically."

"Technically?" Gillian looked up quizzically from where Angeal was peacefully nursing.

"He's currently in a deep, hibernative sort of sleep in the Nibelheim labs. Hojo killed him in an argument but I used my research to… reanimate him."

"So he's a zombie?" Arthur chuckled.

"No, I fused him with Chaos." She knew better than to expect chuckles at that. She may as well have told them she had opened a gateway to Ifrit's hell. Two blank stares met Lucrecia's declaration; Arthur's confused, Gillian's vaguely horrified.

"Chaos isn't real…" Arthur insisted, only to be shushed by Gillian.

"You trapped a beast like that in a Turk? You realize it will have erased any sense of self the boy had?"

Vincent's body twitched, his eyes opening—blank at first, but soon illuminated from within by a fiery gold light. His nails started to lengthen, turning black and sharp. His teeth changed too, growing long and sharp like a great cat. She didn't have much time.

Plucking a softly glowing materia from the lab table, Lucrecia carefully placed it between Vincent's heart and his right lung.

With a groan of frustration, Chaos receded, leaving Vincent as he had been. Human—at least mostly.

"That's what the Protomateria is for. It keeps Chaos under Vincent's control."

Gillian looked even more gobsmacked than before… if that was even possible.

"You had Chaos and the Protomateria and you didn't reveal any of it to the scientific community?" Gillian looked baffled.

Lucrecia shrugged. "I didn't want Hojo to know."

"So this guy is still sleeping in Nibelheim?" Arthur asked. "Sharing his body with a demon to stay alive."

"Four actually."

Gillian's face was an odd combination of shock and the look of someone who was vaguely ill.

"Four. Chaos, Galian Beast, Hellmasker and Death Gigas."

"Goddess…" Gillian breathed.

"You put four hellspawn in your boyfriend?"

Lucrecia nodded at Arthur's incredulous tone. "To save his life. His father had already died because of my mistake in the lab. I wasn't going to let Hojo take away the father of my child."

"Now that's some dedication. I mean, Siobhan threw a firaga in another girl's face fighting over me back in high school…"

Oh yes, Lucrecia thought. Genesis is certainly his mother's son.

"How did you know it would work?"

She smiled, meeting Gillian's scrutinizing gaze. "I didn't. But neither of us had anything to lose."

"I suppose."

It was nearly noon when Arthur and Lucrecia made their way into the expansive Rhapsodos orchard. The smell of apple blossoms floated on the air like heady perfume; plump, ripe fruit hanging low on drooping branches.

They'd left Gillian to her work an hour ago, meandering through the rest of the town. The biggest surprise had lay beyond a short wooded path. Arthur had explained that every summer there was a country fair, where people from all over the continent came for a midway, rodeo, craft show, livestock auction and dance. The fairground that had been hidden behind a tall hill very nearly dwarfed Banora itself. It would have, had it not been for the orchards. Lucrecia had heard about the fair before. She was certain that it had been Grimoire that had mentioned it. But she'd never been. She supposed she'd find out what it was like soon enough.

"Ah, here she is," Arthur crooned, a few steps ahead of Lucrecia as they neared a small picnic table amongst the trees. "The apple of my eye."

"Oh, don't you dare," Siobhan ordered, rolling her eyes. "That's awful."

"It worked when we were younger."

"Oh, to be young and stupid."

"Darling, you wound me."

Lucrecia snickered along with Siobhan as Arthur dramatically clutched his heart. Now she knew where Genesis got his theatrical streak.

"I'm sorry, Lucrecia. I'm afraid he's always like this."

"Incorrigible?"

"Mm. That's one word."

The challenge in Siobhan's eye was unmistakable as she smirked at Arthur.

"My friend, the fates are cruel," Arthur wistfully muttered.

"Sit down and eat your lunch, Romeo." Siobhan pushed a sandwich across the table. "I wasn't sure what you like in yours, Lucrecia, so I hope you like ham, lettuce and tomato."

"Sounds perfect to me," she replied, taking the proffered lunch. It looked ten times better than anything in the Shinra cafeteria. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to have real food. So much so that she was unable to restrain an appreciative sound upon her first mouthful. "Oh, that is good."

"Do they not feed you in Midgar?" Siobhan joked.

"Shinra is the land of the cheap and the microwaved."

"And they say it's the land of milk and honey!" Arthur added, his sarcasm palpable.

"Well, I think I've found the real land of milk and honey." Lucrecia's smile was echoed by both of her hosts.

Half and hour after lunch began, Lucrecia's water broke. Arthur and Siobhan whisked her from the orchard to the town Doctor—Gwyneth McCairn, a jolly, ginger-haired woman in her fifties. Arthur assured her that Gwyn had delivered more babies in her time than there were people in Banora. Not that Lucrecia hadn't trusted her. She trusted the woman more than she'd ever trusted Hojo.

Eight hours later, Dr. McCairn triumphantly announced "It's a boy," to the room and handed a tiny bundle to Lucrecia. The first time around it had startled her how quiet her son was. But this time she simply smiled down at his wide, inquisitive sea-green eyes as they gazed right back at her. He already had a thick head of silvery hair that was unbelievably soft under her fingers. Both Siobhan and Gwyneth were in awe of his unusual hair and eyes, but all that was on Lucrecia's mind was that she had already held him longer than Hojo had allowed her to the first time around.

Oh, how things were going to change…