Warnings: If you thought Zack had a mouth on him, wait 'til you hear Barret

Chapter 22 : Hello Tomorrow

Sephiroth was filled with conflicting desires. He wanted to shake 'C'—gently, for saying he's a 'bad thing' but he also wanted to shout with joy because the aspect had identified himself as a person rather than a specimen. 'I left him' he'd said, 'I'm a bad thing.'

"You did what you needed to survive."

'C' rocked while he considered this idea. "Alive?"

"Yes, Zack's alive. The Corporal has seen him." Sephiroth thought it would be okay to bring the sturdy NCO into the conversation because 'C' obviously trusted him.

"I've seen him," the Corporal confirmed. "He hasn't changed much."

'C' tried to swivel his head all the way around to look at the NCO. Both Sephiroth and the soldier had to tighten their grips to keep 'C' upright. The General didn't mind as it meant that 'C' was very nearly enfolded in his arms.

"Safe." The aspect said it as if it were a completely alien concept which, for him, perhaps it was. "No pain?"

Ah, Sephiroth thought, that is a tricky question. "Small pains only. He's a soldier. We're in a war. He can get hurt but not… not tortured like before."

"'Nd, and me?"

"You're a soldier, too, so the risks are the same," the General confirmed.

"Over?" the small aspect's voice was barely a whisper, a lost, hopeful little voice, "All over?"

"Yes, caro mio, it's over," Sephiroth barely noticed the Costan endearment slip from his lips, "If you want it to be."

There was no verbal response, just the normal rocking and twitching. Then Sephiroth noticed that 'C' was making an odd coughing sound, except that it wasn't coughing. 'C' was crying. Helpless, choked sounds as if he were frightened of making any noise. He probably was. As a former lab experiment of Hojo's, Sephiroth knew all too well what the madman considered 'unacceptable' behaviour. The General decided he'd been patient enough. He needed to hold this part of his lover. He took out the handkerchief and gathered the small, bent body close and let 'C' cry.

As if that were a trigger, 'C's tears changed from embarrassed, near-silent chuffing sounds to body wracking sobs. He cried for the all the needless pain, and all the wasteful deaths. He wept for all the lost, agonizing years. It was for himself and all his fellow aspects. There were tears for Zack, and for the unnamed lab-tech with the pretty smile and gentle heart. There were sobs for the murder of Nibelheim, for his mother and for close-minded Gruber Junior who would never inherit his great-great-grandfather's inn. Somehow, 'C' also wept for the kidnapped and mutated people of Kalm and Rocket Town and Costa del Sol and all the people lost to one madman's dream. He cried Gaia's despair and a Cetra's loneliness.

The damaged aspect's emotions were so strong, Sephiroth felt like he could surrounded by them. A wave of yearning hit the General. Not from 'C' but from the personas stuck in the house and wanting to sooth their other self.

"He can take it now, General," the Corporal said quietly, his hand softly stroking over stubble and stitches.

"Very well, Corporal," Sephiroth agreed. He lifted 'C' straight up. He was so light he felt like Raincloud, he felt like death. For a panicked moment, Sephiroth wondered what would have happened to Cloud if one of his aspects had died. Would he have ever been able to come back to the real world? That didn't matter, they were all here, and they were all alive. It would be okay.

He walked into the small cottage that contained Cloud's soul and stood in the middle of the living room so that the others could surround them, and they did. They reached out with soft hands and loving voices to reassure, to thank and to soothe. Nobody tried to make him stop. Nobody mocked him or accused him of being 'unmanly'—as if they could with all the scars layering his body. They just let him cry.

But all storms pass and 'C's tears gradually slowed and then finally stopped, except for the odd hiccup. The Corporal passed Sephiroth another handkerchief, this one with brightly coloured chocobos on it, and the silver-haired warrior once again cleaned 'C's face. The Corporal also gave cloths to Spike and Weirdo. Unlike the one the General had been given, theirs were plain, undecorated white squares. He looked narrowly at the bland face of the NCO.

The aura of despair and failure and self-loathing that had surrounded 'C' had dissipated to almost nothing, replaced by awe and surprise and a tentative bit of happiness. There was still pain and fear but Sephiroth knew healing Cloud's mental wounds would take much, much longer than healing the physical.

He knew what he wanted to call 'C'... if the aspect would let him.

He dropped a quick kiss on 'C's bristly scalp then another on a bumpy forehead. He bent down even further and planted a light kiss on his lover's flattened nose. Finally, holding the small personas face only loosely and giving him plenty of time to pull away, Sephiroth bent down and kissed his misshapen lips. He licked and nibbled just as he would if it had been Niisan or Spike or even the Corporal. 'C's moans weren't of loneliness or fear but seemed to be that of baffled arousal.

"May I give you a name?" Sephiroth asked this, the final part of his Cloud. 'C' stared at the tall warrior. He blinked a couple times, twitched only a little, before looking away and nodding his head. Sephiroth gave his little smile, "Then I shall call you 'Caro'," he announced. It seemed the whole cottage froze, waiting. It was an almost physical pressure, like being underwater and holding your breath for just those few seconds more. They all watched 'C', waiting for him to react. Would he accept the name and the attachments that went with it, or would he reject it and remain lost in his guilt and shame?

The young man rubbed fisted hands over head and face, twisting in the group's loose hold, obviously thinking about it. Finally, he nodded once. "'Kay," he said and, just like when he'd accepted the password in Zack's house, Sephiroth felt a 'click' in the atmosphere as if something had settled into place.

The other aspects immediately made use of it. Niisan even managed to work in kisses; on the cheek for Caro, on the lips for the General—Sephiroth's was longer. The silver-haired warrior released a breath he hadn't known he was holding, only now realizing he'd been worried about the silver-haired aspect's reaction to the new addition. He heard the Corporal's breath quietly whoosh out so he hadn't been alone in his fears.

With Niisan in a good mood it made it easier for the others to pet and talk to their fellow persona. They babbled and touched and tried to make him feel welcome. Caro managed very well, considering, but he was bewildered by all the attention. Sephiroth monitored Caro's tension and when it got close to breaking he shooed them away. Spike and Weirdo went for the food and began stuffing themselves but the others stood close to each other and chattered quietly. Only the Corporal remained close, helping the General balance Caro as he twisted and shuddered in the aftermath. Only the Corporal, with his calm, undemanding presence, didn't add to the pressure Caro was feeling.

It was obvious that the damaged aspect wanted to say something, he was making those odd strangled noises again, but it took some time for him to say it. Sephiroth waited patiently, rubbing bony arms and shoulders, letting his hands be moved as Caro twitched this way and that.

"No' mad a' me," he stated. His tone was a mix of statement, question and doubt.

"No, they're not mad at you. They know what you saved them from and they're grateful for your sacrifice."

Hum and twist. "No' sick."

Who wasn't sick? Did Caro mean mako sickness? The General didn't understand but Caro hadn't finished. "'M ugly. Ugly thing. Don' look," he was covering his head again, twitching harder. "Nnnng. Make you sick."

Sephiroth quickly suppressed the wave of fury that ignited within him. He recognized that phrase as one of Hojo's. The so-called scientist delighted in making his subjects feel ugly and small and unworthy. That way they'd be grateful at the smallest scrap of attention even if it was only more torture.

"No, Caro. They don't feel sick when they look at you," he said reassuringly, "Neither do I." He dropped a light kiss on the young man's scar-covered head, and held him while Caro rocked. The damaged aspect was still agitated. Sephiroth did his best to sooth Caro with words, but mostly he just let him move as he needed even when one flailing wing remnant clipped him in the chin or a twisting elbow dug into his ribs.

"Hnngn," Caro mumbled, "Too many."

"You mean the aspects? Spike, Niisan, the Corporal and the rest," Sephiroth clarified.

Caro nodded his head, talking in rhythm with his movement, "Not togeffer. Shoul' be togeffer. One, no more. Only Corp'ral. Just Corp'ral."

Sephiroth frowned in confusion. It was a long speech for Caro, and he was excited that the injured man was trying so hard to communicate, but he couldn't understand it. The Corporal saw his confusion and decided to help. "I was the first to appear," he stated, "The only other aspect he, um, ever saw."

"But surely he was aware when the others appeared. I've heard about your awareness of each other."

The Corporal shifted a little, a sign that the NCO was very anxious if Sephiroth understood him correctly. "We were aware of him but we don't know how much awareness 'C', I mean Caro, had of us. Maybe I should tell you the whole story." He didn't look happy about it but, with one last frowning glance at Caro twisting in the General's arms, he set himself to explain their history. Sephiroth noticed how he prepared himself, setting his stance, focussing his gaze, centering himself. The Corporal was going into formal report mode—distancing himself from the emotions in what he was going to say.

"What I remember is the sound of breaking glass," his voice was flat, unemotional, "The cottage was under attack by something and Caro was being overwhelmed by all the damage. I immediately assisted him in trying to keep the cottage fixed. It wasn't going well and the damage was accumulating. Both of us were getting tired but we just kept working. There was a pause in the attack and that's when Caro looked at me and told me to take care of the house. He said he was going to go out and draw the attack away from the cottage. I was to repair what I could and protect it from collecting any more damage. He said he'd be back when the attack was over. Before I could stop him, he'd slipped out the door and disappeared. I regret," his voice hitched, the first sign of emotion the Corporal had shown, "I regret that I was quicker, Sir."

Did the Corporal feel somehow responsible for what had happened to Caro? "It couldn't be helped, Corporal. You did your best in an unknown situation," Sephiroth reassured him, for it would have been hard, tossed in unprepared, knowing nothing. In fact, one could say that, the Corporal had been born in the middle of battle.

"Thank you, Sir." The NCO gathered up his story once again, "The next attacks came soon after. During one of them Raincloud showed up. He was an easy child to take care of but not much help keeping the cottage together. It was... pleasant to have someone else there." A microscopic shift in the Corporal's stance was all the embarrassment he would show. Sephiroth hoped the soldier didn't think he'd willed the other aspects into being.

"So you're saying, Caro was the first and you all came from him?" Sephiroth asked, already knowing that it was somehow the truth. Caro was what was left of his Cloud's soul. He'd splintered off parts of himself to keep them safe until he wasn't Cloud anymore.

"My fault, nngh. Broken. Weak." Caro snuffled a bit, covering his head.

"Weak, no. Broken, yes, but broken can be fixed," Sephiroth stated firmly. Even though the aspect's words hadn't held the enormous guilt that his previous self-condemnation had, the General felt it important to emphasize that he could be healed.

The Corporal continued, "I looked for Caro in between attacks but they were so close together. During subsequent attacks, the others showed up. I knew that meant Caro was being hurt but I had to look after the cottage. Weirdo was next then Niisan then, last of all, Spike. We should have stayed in the cottage, I realize that, Sir, but they're all healthy, curious boys."

"More energy than sense?" the General suggested.

"Could say that, Sir," the Corporal agreed then he straightened, as if shouldering a burden. "It's my fault, Sir. I couldn't stop them from appearing and then, once here, I couldn't keep them together. I spent more time digging them out of the Lifestream than I should. I should've concentrated on finding and rescuing Caro."

Sephiroth's brow rose. "I think the person we should blame for what happened is Professor Hojo and his assistants. You, all of you," he looked around the room making sure to include all the aspects, "did the best you could under extreme circumstances. No one expected you to be undamaged or unchanged... no one sensible that is," he corrected himself. "I'm proud of all of you. Look at what you've built," he waved a hand to indicate the cottage. "It is a beautiful home."

They all glanced around, shuffling their feet and even blushing a bit.

"We should take a picture," Weirdo said, "before we mess the place up."

"Yeah!" Spike agreed enthusiastically. He lifted Raincloud, tossing him high into the air before settling the youngest Cloud on his hip. Niisan wasn't going to be left out so he agreed as long as he got to stand beside the General. Spike ruffled his hair, "I think you should stand at the other end as him, so your hair balances out the picture."

Niisan ducked away, frowning and trying to straighten out his hair. "No! I'm standing next to Sephiroth."

Spike just grinned. "Or you guys can put me in the middle; blond hair in the middle, everybody in black. It'll look great."

"Wha' happ'ning?" the oldest persona asked Sephiroth, sounding a little panicked, and peeking at the commotion before burying his face under his arm once again.

Niisan frowned harder. "I don't want to stand next to a giant lummox like you!" he spat out.

"They want to take a photograph of all of us," Sephiroth replied, one hand on Caro's waist, the other ready to grab on if needed. The wounded aspect didn't seem to like all the noise. He flinched when Spike laughed.

"Lummox? That's a big word for a runt like you, or," he trailed off suggestively, "is that just another name for a guy's—"

"I think that's enough out of you two," the Corporal interrupted, his voice flat enough to squish their conversation dead. Niisan glared poison daggers at Spike who just grinned even wider.

With a final, disdainful sniff, the silver-haired diva took his place beside the General. He looked over at his bewildered fellow aspect and patted the skeletal arm. "Ignore that baka tare. No one's going to make you move." Spike just grinned. He obviously found it lots of fun to tease the temperamental young aspect and Niisan's insults rolled off his back. He probably would have continued except now Caro was involved and even he, the dimmest of the aspects, knew not to upset his wounded brother.

Caro jerked. "Photo... is picture."

"Yes," the General confirmed, as the aspects arranged themselves around the two of them. Niisan had snugged himself in closer, right under Sephiroth's arm. With his cat-slit eyes, he looked like the proverbial cat with the bowl of cream. He very deliberately placed his hand on the strip of bare belly exposed by Sephiroth's long coat. The fact that he would also be touching Caro could have been accidental but the General had a feeling that it wasn't. Spike, holding Raincloud and his dragon, stood behind the silver-haired diva. He had two finger raised in a 'V' behind Niisan's head, in the photographic insult performed by children everywhere

"Me too?"

"Of course," Sephiroth stated, "You're one of them so you have to be included in the picture."

It didn't make sense to Caro but everyone was a lot quieter now so he stood quietly while the others settled themselves. He didn't like it though. He buried his face against Sephiroth's chest and tried to ignore the whole thing. The Corporal stood beside him, one strong, reassuring hand resting low on Caro's back.

Weirdo, as instigator and resident technogeek, stood in front of them setting up the camera. He'd already pulled everything they'd need from his magic bag: camera, tripod, flash, and timer. His stuffed backpack had even disgorged a photography 'how-to' book which the aspect had read diligently while everyone else organized themselves.

"Is everyone ready?" the young teen asked. When everyone answered positively, Weirdo pushed the button and started a beeping countdown. He dashed around the tri-pod and skidded around to the group, overbalancing and landing on his knees in front of them all. He managed to twist and wave at the camera before the flash went off.

It was very bright.

Sephiroth was used to having flashes go off right in front of him. They had been bright, often blinding.

This flash was immeasurably stronger than those lights; like a firefly to the sun. It was so bright that it was painful but he couldn't blink or wince away from it. It held him frozen, breathless and immobile. It burned him, down through his skin into his bones. It was cold heat. It was flames running along his nerves. It was endless and infinite, stretching and compressing his body even as his mind stepped back and watched. Sound was dull, far away but then, he could feel it, rushing toward him. He would be hit. He was hit. It was an explosion of sound and force and nothing and everything being pushed into him, pushed out of him and then, with one final squeeze, he felt like himself again.

It was over.

When his eyes finally recovered he saw the redesigned and redecorated living room empty of Weirdo's books and camera equipment. Raincloud's comics and drawings were gone. There was no group of Clouds standing beside him. Spike wasn't holding up two fingers above Niisan's head to make rabbit ears. The Corporal wasn't standing, sturdy and dependable, behind the shaking Caro. They were gone.

In true romantic fashion, all that remained was a full-sized glossy photo floating gracefully to the floor... and the sturdy blond warrior that looked up at him in surprise. Two large blue eyes blinked at him then rolled to white as Cloud collapsed in a dead faint.

Luckily for Sephiroth's nerves, Cloud didn't remain unconscious long. "Cloud?" he called, wondering even as he said it, if that was the proper name for this incarnation of his lover. It felt like his Cloud. The body in his arms was slender but solid, maybe a hand-span less in height than the General but the soft, waving hair made up for it. It felt almost exactly like it had in the real world except that he didn't have his wings out.

"Um, yeah?" the blond mumbled in response. His voice was a little thin and wavery. Eyelids fluttered but didn't open. "Ow," his lover muttered. Hands came up to grip Sephiroth's arms but they were tentative and weak.

"Cloud, how do you feel?" The silver-haired warrior tried to keep his tone calm, like a general rather than a lover, but nothing could stop him from lifting the young soldier's face in his hands and anxiously examining it. Cloud's skin was pale and clammy. Slowly, dusky eyelashes rose revealing large blue eyes. Those eyes were wide and the pupils expanded and contracted seemingly at random but there were two of them. Sephiroth leaned down to drop thankful kisses on them. "Cloud," he insisted.

Cloud blinked, squeezing his eyelids tight together for a long moment. When he opened them both those beautiful blue eyes almost focussed on the General. "I feel all wrong," he whispered, "Really weird."

"Can you be more specific?" Sephiroth frowned.

"Umm... too tall? But, uh, kinda too short too. The ground's too far away… I think." He blinked some more. Cloud held out his hand, stretching his arm, flexing his fingers and twirling his wrist. He watched intently as if it he'd never experienced it before. "My arms don't go the right distance."

"Hmmm." Sephiroth realized that they should have expected something like this. Cloud had been splintered for more than a year. To bring all his awareness back into one body would, of course, require adjustments in the blond's perceptions. Sephiroth stroked delicately sculpted cheekbones and wondered how he could help.

"I'm going to be sick."

In an instant, the modified warrior had Cloud on the sofa, head between his knees. He went into the tasteful, new kitchen and ran cold water over a cloth, returning to his lover to drape it over the back of his slim neck. He'd also had the foresight to grab a bowl and he placed it between Cloud's feet, just in case.

While he held the cloth in place as the blond struggled to control his body, the General took stock of this integrated Cloud. He was wearing First Class black—his pants and boots were certainly SOLDIER issue, but it wasn't Zack's uniform. For one thing, he was wearing an asymmetrical length of fabric that covered his left leg. The top was different too. He wore a sleeveless, knit zip-up that definitely wasn't ShinRa issue. The zipper was pulled down a little and Cloud was flashing enough chest to be intriguing—there were muscles on that body. The General decided he liked the style very much.

The oddest item Cloud was wearing was the intricate multi-weapon harness, which looked like something Weirdo would have devised after reading a book on ancient Mideelian weaving techniques. All the slots were empty but the silver-haired warrior was very curious about what was supposed to fill them. It could be swords but it could also be other types of bladed weapon. It was intriguing in a different way, Sephiroth decided. As a trooper, Cloud had only learned the basics of sword word. His main weapon had been the machine gun. Somewhere, somehow, in the three years he'd been Hojo's experiment, Cloud believed he'd become a swordsman.

He lightly stroked Cloud's hands; strong hands, elegant hands that were tightly gripping his head as if to keep it from falling apart. There were some small scars that the General remembered from before but there was no sign of the massive damage Caro had sustained. Were these the hands of a swordsman?

Cloud slowly leaned back, tilting his head to look up at the ceiling. "I think, it's just going to take some time." His voice was getting stronger. Now, he just sounded tired rather than near death.

"Would milk help, or perhaps a carbonated beverage?"

Cloud slowly shook his head, "I feel like everything is stretching and shrinking at the same time. Like my bones are going to fall through my skin they're so heavy but, at the same time, I feel like I can just float."

Sephiroth listened quietly, not touching but certainly looking. Cloud was whole, although not undamaged. He had a pale sickly colour to his skin but that could be the shock of being reintegrated rather than from the damage Caro had carried. Aside from the colour, Cloud's body appeared toned and strong, with broad shoulders and nicely shaped arms. He had only one shoulder-guard and it was fitted with an odd half-lion/half-wolf decoration and a small matching earring. Little Raincloud adding his essence to the whole, he wondered?

He wanted to suck on that ear, catch that piece of jewellery in his teeth and pull on it a little; just to hear Cloud make helpless, sexy noisy, and he really was a selfish beast. The blond soldier had barely recovered all of himself and Sephiroth wanted to strip him and ravish him. Sephiroth nervously cleared his throat. "Perhaps you should lie down," the General suggested.

Cloud turned large eyes on him, his gaze was speculative and Sephiroth wondered if the soldier realized what the silver-haired warrior was thinking. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he said after a few heart-stopping seconds. "Why don't we go to bed."

Cloud couldn't have meant it the way Sephiroth heard it. It was too soon. Although, the younger blond was certainly looking better than he had, but still... Sephiroth knew he had to be stronger than this. Until he knew for certain that he wouldn't make his lover's struggle to regain himself any worse, he would have to exercise rigid self-control. He was good at that usually.

It didn't help the General control his libido any when he saw, just for a moment, Cloud's pupils change into Niisan's seductive cat-slits.

Breakfast was easier than Vincent had expected. Most of the curious were content to direct their conversations to the friendly fighter while stealing glimpses of the intimidating gunman. When he was approached, all he had to do was make a dark and depressing comment and even the bravest would back away in bewildered horror. It made Chaos laugh in delight.

When not discouraging social interaction, Vincent's listened to the conversations going on around him. Chaos' actions last night had him somewhat worried. Something big had happened and Vincent hoped that camp gossip was already spreading the story. Unfortunately, the biggest topic right now was him. Some had gotten the story close to right; a resurrected fighter from SOLDIER's early days frozen by Hojo and revived by the General. Others had, to his great disgust, gone with Tifa's vampire explanation.

*If they annoy us enough, maybe we can get Galian to bite them. That would be fun, wouldn't it,* Chaos snickered.

'Not in the slightest,' Vincent answered his guest repressively.

The latest to sit down at their table was a huge, black man with a gun instead of a right hand. His name was Barrett and he'd been an environmental terrorist in the same group as Tifa. He had a little girl he was looking after and Vincent had been forced to look at an uninspired picture of a small, dark haired girl who looked nothing like the man sitting in front of him. Vincent was sure there was a story behind Barrett and his daughter, Marlene. He was equally sure he wasn't interested in learning it. He went back to the surprising good scrambled eggs.

"You're going back to Junon then?" Tifa asked her large companion while Vincent listened to the gossip running around the tent.

...found in Hojo's lab, frozen in mako. He's, like, a hundred years old, or something... Inaccurate and useless. Vincent ignored it.

"Shit, yeah. Ain't gonna fuckin' miss Marlene's birthday again. 'Specially as it's all she asked for."

...he showed up in camp this morning with that talking cat thing. Think they were getting it on? Vincent's lips curled in disgust.

"I'll have to grab her present from my tent before you go. Remind me, okay?"

…I heard all three of them shared one bed, and that fucking homo is supposed to be our Commander? Sephiroth, and his recovered companions, were the second most talked about event. Obviously, not everyone shared the general view that the tale was romantic. Vincent didn't think the trooper's prejudice would bother ShinRa's General much.

"Oh Teef, dat's a great present. Marlene'll fuckin' love it!"

...Fergus, do you think she'd go out with me if I asked her? …Forget that, Brian, do you think he'd go out with me? Vincent paused with the fork halfway to his mouth. Hadn't those two guys been talking about him and Tifa? But… they were men, he was sure of it. Did that mean some guy wanted to… to have sex… with him?

He resisted the urge to turn around and look, just as he ignored Chaos' teasing cackle and the vivid images the demon poured into his mind. They were memories of things that had happened long before Lucrecia, long before ShinRa, before the creature had been trapped in the mako. When it had been unbound and the world had been a little less tamed and Vincent didn't want to know what his 'guest' used to get up to.

Chaos sighed, *You're so boring, my immortalis. It will be nice to be free of you once this current drama is over.* Vincent wanted to ask 'what drama' but he knew Chaos would only begin its annoying chant again so he didn't. Instead, he picked up his fork and resumed eating.

…'eye's only' message sent to the General this morning. I'm telling ya, things are going to start heating up now. There! Vincent focussed in on that speaker and his friends. Something had changed. Perhaps it was the something that had made Chaos so happy last night.

"Are you going to go see the rest of the guys?"

…I hear that big guy, the one they rescued, is now the General's SiC and he took the message. D'ya think they were lovers… Again, irrelevant but it was interesting that the General must have completed the paperwork before he'd begun the rescue. Maybe there was an element of romance to the tale.

"Nah. Dey're just a bunch of assholes who can't tell what's really fuckin' important. Our fight ain't wit' dem bastards at ShinRa anymore but dey can't fuckin' see dat." The big man slammed his fist down on the table making the plates jump. "We're tryin' t'save de whole fuckin' world and dey're pissin' 'round blowin' up power lines dat're already dead. Stupid fucks." His mutter would be anyone else's normal level of conversation.

…already living like a king in that effing big tent. Meals sent in, more coffee, people running around obeying him as if he were the General himself. Of course they're fucking… Vincent sighed. It seemed the only thing these people cared about was everybody else's sex life.

It was depressing to realize how little people had changed in the thirty-odd years he'd been enclosed in the caves. The world had always been like this. Even in the lab, when there were barely twenty staff members, they'd spent most of their free time gossiping about who was sleeping with whom, and who was splitting up; same with his time in the ShinRa offices.

When he thought of all the changes that had been occurring then, big changes: Jenova had been discovered on the Northern Continent. No one knew what she was yet ShinRa was allowing the Science Department to begin human experimentation using her cells. Old man Shinra had co-opted or killed the elected governments of most of the countries and city-states so that he was running two-thirds of the known world. Only Wutai had resisted but the ShinRa media complex had already started to churn out the propaganda that made everyone believe they were a threat. Half of Wutai's 'terrorist' attacks in the eastern continents had been organized by ShinRa.

Basic human rights and freedoms had been disappearing daily yet all the public cared about were the sex lives of people they had never met and would likely never, ever meet. Were human beings really that shallow?

*Maybe they just have a better understanding of how short human life is than you do, my immortalis. It's been a long time since you had to worry about dying, after all.* The demon's voice was caustic. Brooding, it believed, was a waste of time and it had little patience for its host's gloomy nature.

Thankfully, Tifa interrupted sparing Vincent the necessity of having to respond. "Vincent!" she shouted. Perhaps it wasn't the first time she'd called him. Vincent noted that her terrorist friend had already left.

"Are you ready to spar with me?" He did an internal check on his control of his inner beasts. It seemed good so he gave a short nod. She smiled, "Excellent. I think we should go to the airstrip. It's wide open, giving us lots of room to move and there'll be fewer people around to get hurt… or to stare, which I'm sure you think is the worse of the two."

"I am hardly self-conscious," he protested as he rose to his feet, collecting their dirty trays so he could drop them off on their way out.

"No, but you're not Genesis Rhapsodis either." She was walking very lightly, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. It was easy to tell that she was looking forward to the fight. Vincent ignored Chaos' observation on how the fighter's actions affected certain outstanding portions of her body. He didn't need to be prompted.

"How much damage can you sustain?" he asked. She'd been surprisingly strong earlier but it had been a long time since he fought with someone he wasn't trying to kill.

"Less than a SOLDIER Second Class but a lot more than a normal human. Something about growing up in Nibelheim with all its open mako pools. The doctors think the water supply may have been contaminated," she explained.

He'd heard of the pools around the village but had never bothered to think what that might mean to the residents. Untreated mako was unpredictable in its effects on living creatures… Where had he heard that? It hadn't been as a Turk.

*It was that smelly, pseudo-scientist who foisted those other beasts upon us,* Chaos informed him. Although the demon reserved a special level of hatred for the female that had entrapped it in Vincent's body, it wasn't fond of Hojo either. Hojo had created and embedded the three other creatures that shared Vincent's body. It tolerated Galian because the Galian Beast was 'fun', it said, but it had nothing but contempt for Gigas' brainlessness or Hellmasker's predictability and had commented, often, that they resembled their creator. The tall gunman ignored his guest's second favourite rant with ease.

"You will tell me if I hurt you," Vincent asked. She may have some enhancements but she was still quite small. Tifa smiled like she knew what he was thinking. She did, of course. It was common among male fighters to underestimate her because of her size or, in some cases, her gender. If this had been a real battle, she wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of that misperception and maybe she still wouldn't. So she smiled at him and winked, "Only if you promise the same."

Then she walked jauntily through the camp, her blood thrumming in anticipation. This was going to be more fun than she'd thought, she just knew it.

AN: I've received the gift of some more fan art. You'll have to tidy up the links, as usual, but here they are:

(http://) phoneix-faerie(dot)deviantart(dot)com/ art/ Mad-World-Group-117065569
(http://) colletterain11(dot)deviantart(dot)com/ art/ recovered-prototype-116973640

This last one is mature-locked so you have to be a member of deviantArt to view it. Membership is free but it's up to you. It's rough and a bit grim, but it is of Caro so it fits.

(http://) draculina17(dot)deviantart(dot)com/ art/ Specimen-C-116684315