Greetings people! I hope to find you well! The beginning of Act IV came later than I originally planned, but it's finally here! In these months I managed to complete an important stage of my life that, hopefully, will give me a little more time from now on to dedicate my stories. Let's move forward, slowly and steadily *laughs* Thank you for reading my work and I hope you like it!
The Price of Freedom
†
Beginning
Four Years Later
The woman walked into the bedroom and turned on the light absently, her brown eyes roaming the length of the scenario as her mind went through the list of all the items she needed to get to add to their suitcase.
Had she packed enough coats?
Two suitcases of clothes to each one of them would be enough to spend a few days away?
She knew Icicle's Inn now had a children's playground, she had called them earlier to ask, but they weren't going to stay there for long in favor of soon delving deeper into remote parts of the northern continent. She frowned as she walked inside and made a note to herself to pack some of her son's toys as well and grab three more coats and a blanket just to be safe.
The woman stopped in front of a nightstand and started digging through the drawers, looking for the box of tissues she was sure she had bought earlier in the month but couldn't find it, while at the same time thinking about other items on her list.
She had already taken their pajamas, their medicine, their personal hygiene items, her notebooks, her computer with the information of the current research, the four suitcases of clothes were also packed, as well as the luggage with extra blankets and shoes for snow; why in Gaia's name she couldn't find her tissues?!
When she opened the third and final drawer, Lucrecia stopped and her racing thoughts were completely silenced; her gaze rested on an object she hadn't seen in a long, long time.
With hands that trembled subtly, the scientist gently took the old frame with a certain reverence, her fingers brushing the dust of time that had accumulated on the glass, revealing fully the photograph it contained. It had been taken on the occasion of the celebration of her doctoral degree; although the ceremony was open to the public and the people in that photo had gathered together without giving it much thought at the time, now to the woman the photo looked almost like a family portrait.
On the left side were Grimoire and Gast, both dressed in their best suits and with big smiles on their faces; the head of Shinra's Science Department had an arm flung casually around his best friend's shoulders. In the center she stood in her long white silk dress, on her bosom the gold necklace with the small ruby stone; her hair was slightly disheveled from the hours she had spent in the salon, going from one side to the other, talking, laughing and dancing; her countenance glowed with light and her smile seemed to barely fit in her face; her eyes held as much joy as very few things in life at the present moment could truly give her these days.
Lucrecia felt her chest heave at the thought of how drastically things in her life had changed.
The woman in the photo had great optimism and hope for the future showing in her face, of how her work could one day contribute to the benefit of science and humanity; there were so many dreams, so many desires mixed with a will that was unstoppable and driven by naivety... Now she was no longer able to look at science in the same way, many of the dreams she had previously glimpsed in her daydreams had clumbled into dust and few were left to give meaning to her existence. Hope for better times still existed, although it was carried by apprehension and caution.
Lucrecia felt distant, as if she and the woman in the photo were completely different people… It looked as if the portrait had been taken decades ago, rather than just five years.
It was only then that her gaze fell on the last person standing on the right side of the photograph and her heart burned with the deep wound that still existed there, still struggling to heal itself. Her fingers caressed the icy glass where his figure lay, and it was only then that the scientist realized that it had been years since she'd last seen his face.
He was handsome, elegant, as he always did when wearing a suit; a few strands of black hair fell over his piercing crimson eyes; his face held a discreet smile, a slight curve at the right corner of his lips, but which she had learned over time was his way of showing that he was genuinely happy about something; he had always been a reserved man...
"Congratulations on your archievement, Dr. Crescent..." His amused voice whispered in her ear as if he were actually beside her.
"Hey, don't call me that!" Her own laughing voice answered him in her memories, and her chest ached with an pain that was all too familiar.
If only she could turn back time to live once more those nostalgic moments, when things seemed to be simpler and life hadn't yet charge her the price for her naivety and ambition...
A single tear fell on the glass above the photograph and the scientist quickly dried it with the sleeve of her blouse, and also wiped her own eyes that had become teary. At that moment a loud child's laugh echoed coming from the hallway and Lucrecia took a deep breath; composing herself, she put the portrait back in its resting place.
The woman left the room without managing to find what she was looking for and followed the sound of voices and laughter until she stopped at the second-floor parapet; she looked down and couldn't help the smile that took possession of her lips as she warmly watched the scene taking place in the living room.
The silver-haired boy grinned with mischief, suddenly running as fast as he could to take cover behind a couch, narrowly escaping his grandfather's grasp. Grimoire knelt and stretched as far as he could trying to catch his grandson, but the boy slunk to the opposite side and left his hiding place laughing the entire time.
"No, Sephiroth, come back here!"
The older scientist ran quickly on his knees the short distance toward the boy, but the child threw himself under a table, knocking the furniture's wooden foot and nearly knocking over a vase of flowers that the man managed to hold just before it crashed on the ground.
"Not under the table! My back can't take it anymore, boy, you know I'm too old to play this." Laughter erupted from under the wooden furniture and Grimoire chuckled as well.
He stood up at the same moment he saw a flash of silver creeping around the table's side and anticipating the boy's next move, the scientist got in his way and managed to grab his grandson with both hands on the exact moment Sephiroth shot out of his hiding place.
"And where do you think you're going?" the man asked, quickly lifting the child as high as he could.
Sephiroth screamed and then burst into laughter; his face turned red with mirth and he stretched his little arms.
"Up! Up!"
Grimoire chuckled and brought the boy down, holding him in his arms.
"What do you think I am, a scaffold?" The scientist tickled his grandson's belly and the boy squirmed in his grasp.
"No! stop! Grampa, stop!"
The man complied with the child's requests and gave in, still laughing; he ruffled the boy's short silver hair making it even messier.
"One day when you're big and strong, I'll make you carry me around, I tell you!"
Sephiroth stuck his tongue out at him and Grimoire stuck out his own back, and this time the laugh that echoed in the room was that of Lucrecia, who watched with amusement flickering in her brown eyes as her son hanging onto the shoulders of her former teacher like a silverish little monkey.
"But what is this now? Do I have two kids at home?" She joked, and when Sephiroth saw her, his face glowed.
"Mum!"
The scientist gave in to the boy's unspoken wish and set him down; as soon as his little feet hit the carpet, Sephiroth took off at a fast run up the stairs with such speed and dexterity that could put several SOLDIERS into shame and in less than ten seconds the four-year-old boy glued himself on his mother's legs.
Grimoire shook his head in disbelief.
"Where does he get so much energy from? He's been running around the house for half an hour while I can barely stay on my feet!"
Lucrecia watched her son with a raised eyebrow.
"Were you trying to escape bath again, Sephiroth?"
"No." The boy's large, beautiful and unusual green eyes stared up at her with innocence and the woman shook her head in exasperation.
"Don't try making that face at me, young man; let's go to the bathroom now because tomorrow we have to leave very early."
The child pouted but obeyed his mother; Lucrecia cast one last amused glance at Grimoire as he collapsed exhausted into an armchair before walking away, taking her son with her.
An hour later Grimoire found them in the boy's bedroom; standing in the doorway, the man leaned against the doorframe and watched as Lucrecia put his grandson to sleep. The four year old was already tucked under the covers and with his mother's constant humming, his green eyes struggled against heavy lids that insisted on closing, but he was losing the fight against sleep and within seconds Sephiroth was completely out.
"Did you give him his medicine?" Grimoire asked her quietly from where he was standing and he saw Lucrecia nod in affirmation followed by a sigh.
"I am saddened by this situation, Grimoire... In order for my son to get a good night's sleep he has to depend on medicine... I don't understand why he has so many nightmares and why they never stop."
"Sephiroth... is no ordinary child, he is a special boy, you know that, my dear..." Her former teacher's fatherly gaze fell on her and the man spoke softly his next words. "I thought a lot about what could be the cause of this, Lucrecia, you... once told me that during your pregnancy you had strange visions and dreams... maybe it wasn't you who had them, but Sephiroth, and you saw them too because you were directly connected."
It was a plausible argument and it could be true, she had never really thought about that possibility... The scientist with long brown hair looked down at her son tenderly and stroked his short silver hair, and the boy sighed contentedly in his sleep and cuddled up at her touch. Lucrecia leaned down and kissed her son's cheek, adjusted the covers better over his tiny frame, then walked away.
When her attention fell once more on Grimoire, the woman saw him looking at his grandson with a distant gaze; his crimson eyes gleamed with strong emotion. Suddenly noticing her questioning look, the man smiled and shook his head in a silently apologize; they both left Sephiroth's room and Lucrecia closed the door, then watched her former teacher with genuine concern.
"Are you okay, Grimoire?"
The older scientist nodded a little distractedly and he ran a hand over his face, trying to get the vivid memories of his past out of his mind.
"I... it's just..." His crimson eyes stared at the closed door with sadness. "Every time I look at Sephiroth, he reminds me of Vincent when he was just a boy... before I did the procedure that permanently altered his appearance... They..."
Grimoire sighed heavily, weariness and worry evident on his face.
"They look a lot alike..." He whispered, and his voice broke at the end.
Lucrecia supported him, took him by the shoulders and led him back to the first floor and into the living room, and they both sat on the sofa and were silent for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts.
When she had been completely destroyed in Nibelheim's hospital after living through the worst period of her life, trying to pick up her pieces to be able to care for her son, Grimoire was the first familiar face she had seen in days. An emergency call had been sent to Shinra's Science Department reporting that a terrible explosion had taken place in the laboratories that had resulted in the destruction of the mansion and the death of all the staff... in the official records she had been the only survivor.
When she looked into her former teacher's crimson eyes, so similar to his, Lucrecia broke down completely.
Grimoire supported her and her son; he brought them back to Midgar and with Gast's help, any proof of involvement of the boy with the research being conducted in Nibelheim was destroyed and Sephiroth was free to have a normal life like any other child.
But telling Vincent's father the whole truth about what had happened in those long months… It was the hardest thing she'd ever done in her entire life.
She hadn't been able to look into Grimoire's eyes when talking about Hojo's offer, about Sephiroth's conception and her discovery of Vincent's ancestral origin, as well as their last meeting in the hospital; the shame consumed her, as well as the despair and tears that always flowed, crashing in her extremely tired and tormented mind.
Grimoire, with his always paternal gaze, wiped away her tears, and with the same infinite patience that he had shown during the time he had guided her in her studies, he helped her to get back on her feet and gradually find the strength and courage to live again; for her son. He guided her through her first steps into motherhood, without ever accusing her of the terrible choices she had made or condemning her for the disappearance of his son; he also revealed to her his full knowledge of the cetras, his research on Chaos and Vincent's prophecy, as well as his concerns for the fate of his son and the world.
Together they leaned on each other to heal and rebuild their lives, and the little bundle of joy that was her son gave them the strength to keep moving on.
And in those years she came to live in the Valentine house, Grimoire's constant presence did a lot of good for her and for Sephiroth, who loved his grandfather dearly, and she helped the older scientist with the continuation of his research, as well as she deepened her own studies of the thesis she had developed, seeking to better understand Gaia, the Cetra, Chaos prophecy... and Vincent.
The years also made the pain in her heart lessen and her mind became stronger, allowing her to think clearly again; only then did she tentatively begin to cautiously revisit her bitter memories of Shinra Manor, and understand where her mistakes had been... And every time she thought of that night, when she had seen him with those haunting golden eyes, a great sadness invaded her for the words she had wished to say and which she never could.
How she regretted it...
It took a long time for her to be able to step back into Shinra's Science Department and resume her work as a scientist; she never did another fieldwork and never left Midgar... until that moment.
Lucrecia looked up and watched Grimoire, who was staring at the room in front of him without really seeing it.
They... never stopped looking for him.
Between the breaks they got from work and the gaps that Gast left on purpose, he was the only person besides Grimoire who also knew the whole truth, she and the eldest Valentine never stopped looking for him.
Recently, the equipment in the department noticed a curious and unusual alteration in one of the regions of the northern continent; it could be due to a weather storm or some terrestrial phenomenon coming from the Lifestream. But what caught Grimoire's attention was that it was located in what supposedly, in theory, had once been a ancient city of the cetra people. Later he also told her that that location was almost the exact spot where he had first met Vincent in the past.
In the official reports of the Science Department, it was a research aimed at studying in detail that strange phenomenon over the region and investigating if there is new information to be collected, and Gast used his field of formation and knowledge as a reason to accompany them personally, but in reality they were heading to the northern continent because of hope.
They hoped to find Vincent.
Grimoire returned to the present and his crimson eyes met hers; he gently squeezed her hands and smiled.
"You must rest, my dear, I will also retire to my quarters. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day and as Sephiroth's first trip out of Midgar, it is going to be terrible to hold him down."
Lucrecia laughed lightly and nodded in agreement.
"He's so full of life and dreams..." She spoke softly. "I... want my son to be happy; I hope that life isn't as hard for him as it had to be for me... that it never breaks his dreams, but may concede him the power to make them come true one day."
Grimoire's gaze softened.
"And Sephiroth will, Lucrecia, I'm sure of it... and if he needs it, he'll have us to help him..." The man nodded and his face filled with determination. "... Just like he has his father too. There's a reason for all this, I'm pretty sure. I know my son well, he would never have left if there hadn't been a strong motivation to do so, and it has to do with that Cetra prophecy..."
His hands shook subtly.
"Vincent knows he is Chaos, he knows the prophecy and he knows about his cetra origin... He knows much more than we do, but I feel he will need our help and the essences we have been searching and studying. We need to find him, Lucrecia..."
The woman wrapped Grimoire's trembling hands in her steady ones, and she gazed at him with the same determination that had dressed his countenance a few moments ago.
"And we'll find him." It was a promise.
To Grimoire.
To her son.
To herself.
They would find him.
...
"Mum!"
Lucrecia opened her eyes, still heavy with sleep, and looked at the small figure glowing in her bed, green eyes gazing down at her excitedly just a few inches from her face.
"Son..." She muttered wearily in a reproachful tone, but her hand came out from under the covers to stroke the boy's silver hair. "What did I say about waking people up early...?"
"But you said today was different, because we're going to travel!"
Sephiroth cocked his head slightly to the side, watching her with that puppy-like face that was hard to resist.
"I said, is it…?"
Lucrecia muttered, glancing at her clock; it was still an hour before the alarm went off, but the day had already brightened behind the window curtains, and maybe it really was a good idea to get up a earlier to make sure she didn't forget to pack anything.
In response to her question, her son nodded several times, bouncing on her bed like a ping-pong ball. Seriously, if she hadn't seen him fall asleep with her own eyes, she could have sworn the boy hadn't even slept that night.
"Did you have any bad dreams last night?" The woman inquired with slight concern, as she always did every morning and Sephiroth denied it, indicating to her that the medicine he was taking was working. "Okay then..."
She forced her body to move and sat up in bed; she watched Sephiroth with an amused gaze.
"Son, wake up your grandfather too, but please, be kind to him."
No sooner had she finished her sentence and her son shot faster than her sleepy eyes could follow out of her room, and three seconds later the excited "Grampa! Wake up! Grampa! Grampa! Grampa!" followed by Grimoire's painful groaning indicated to her that the older scientist was also awake, and she chuckled softly, shaking her head.
An hour and a half later the car dropped them off in front of Shinra's Science Department's private heliport where Gast was already waiting for them with the necessary equipment already aboard a small aircraft that was ready to depart; as soon as the chief scientist saw them, he waved enthusiastically in greeting and Sephiroth widened his eyes in wonder at the sight of the helicopter so close.
"We're gonna fly in it?!"
"But of course we will!" Gast grinned; he knelt in front of the silver-haired boy and gave him a sly wink. "And I've reserved a special place for you, Seph, right by the window! You'll be able to see the whole world from up there! Now, how about giving your favorite uncle a big hug before we get aboard?"
The silver-haired boy literally jumped into the scientist's arms and Gast laughed heartily; he hugged the child and then released him and indicated for him to wait near the aircraft, then he stood to pay attention to his two approaching friends.
"I was thinking of hiring you to babysit him at times when you're not busy at the labs, if you're interested." Grimoire spoke as Gast embraced Lucrecia; he stopped to watch his dark haired friend with eyes full of amusement.
"What happened to you, Grim? You look awful! Got hit by a hurricane?"
"Yes, he is silverish nd is called Sephiroth." Grimoire grumbled with some humor and hugged his friend.
Gast broke into an endless wave of laughter as the trio moved to the waiting aircraft.
"Why, I've seen that same melted butter face of yours a few years ago, and just like your son, Sephiroth has you right on his little finger to do his every wish, which is why I'll never have children!"
"I have to agree with him, Grimoire, you really do look like that." Lucrecia laughed softly.
"Oh, shut up you two." Grimoire shook his head in exasperation, but there was a suspicious smile on his lips.
They boarded the helicopter and within minutes they took off; on his mother's lap Sephiroth had his face pressed to the window's glass, his green eyes gleamed in wonder at the view of the sky, the city of Midgar disappearing in the distance and the expanse of ocean that separated the two continents.
Lucrecia could feel the joy radiating from her son with such force that it also enveloped her heart and filled it with joy, and as the journey progressed, she would indicate various spots on the landscape and tell the boy things she had learned during her researches. When Sephiroth first sighted the northern continent, his face filled with curiosity and Lucrecia gazed at the icy mountains in the distance with a strange growing unease in her heart.