Vincent didn't talk. He didn't try to comfort Cloud or reach out to him in his grief. He just watched as the young blonde walked out to the cliff. This was just another regret on a long, long list. It wasn't the most severe and it wasn't the mildest.

Part of him cursed himself for bringing such an obviously innocent child to kill such a monster. But Cloud hadn't complained. He never demanded an explanation and for that Vincent was thankful. He didn't know if he could give one that wouldn't leave the child broken.

He was distracted from his thoughts by Cloud. He backed away from the edge and began spinning. It was such a childish thing to do. There were no words for how bewildered it made Vincent.

"Cloud?" he called. The blonde stopped and fell back into a snowbank, looking up at the sky. Vincent made himself go to him. "Cloud."

"Me and Seph and the others visited Wutai," Cloud mentioned abruptly. "There was this girl there that was really mean and bitter. During the war, SOLDIERs raped her."

"Cloud..."

"There's this man that lives somewhere on the mountain. He was thrown out of Wutai for raping young boys."

"Cloud...?"

"There's this scientist at Shinra that experiments on people. He hates Sephiroth and all of Seph's lovers.

"Cloud?"

"I'm fine," he shrugged it off. "I don't understand but I'm fine. I just... really want to get home. I was gonna have dinner with my mom for the first time in years."

"Then let's be off," Vincent agreed, walking away, leaving Cloud to peel himself out of the snow and jog to catch up.

-o-o-

Night was just falling over the town when Zack and Angeal made up their minds to go looking for their wayward lovers. They still had not heard anything from Sephiroth and Genesis and Vincent still had not arrived with Cloud.

"Maybe we could call them again," Zack suggested, tugging on his boots and snagging some materia from the packs. "Maybe they just got delayed."

"Maybe," Angeal agreed, hefting the Buster Sword onto his back and securing it. He was just reaching for the potions when they heard a small crash from downstairs.

"What was that?" Zack asked in alarm.

"It sounded like the front door," Angeal said unsurely. "Let's investigate, shall we?"

Zack didn't dignify that with an answer, too busy running toward the door already.

-o-o-

"Who are you?" the mayor demanded. "What's your name?"

"Cloud," Cloud volunteered, feeling unusually antagonistic. "I'm a Shinra cadet..."

"Shut up," the man snapped, shifting his attention back to the man in red. "I'll only ask once again, who are you?"

"I don't feel any desire to tell you," Vincent sighed. "Cloud, will you be alright from here?"

"Mmm," Cloud nodded. "We rented the room upstairs. Did you want to meet everybody?"

"Not particularly," he answered dryly. Cloud would have pressed the issue but he was quite suddenly busy with a SOLDIER running down the stairs.

"Cloud!" Zack greeted, eyes lighting up.

"Zack!" Cloud laughed back, jumping towards the man to hug him. Zack caught him and held him so tight he could barely breathe. Cloud didn't mind. That was just how Zack was.

Angeal descended with a soft smile at the sight of those two so intertwined. He frowned when his eyes moved to the stranger near the door. He refused to flinch at the garnet gaze of the man as he stared back impassively.

"Vincent, I assume?" Angeal asked and everyone in the room would later swear that the temperature dropped at least twenty degrees, just at the chilly look the man was sending to the stranger.

"You are correct," he inclined his head. "I have brought him back, as agreed."

Cloud looked between the two men, slightly surprised when Zack pulled him even closer. He heard a growl building in Zack's chest, inaudible to the majority of the room. Cloud only realized it because he was crushed so tightly against his chest.

"That doesn't change the fact that you kidnapped him," Angeal accused.

"I did not. We went for a walk up the mountain," Vincent reiterated. "And you were trespassing in the first place.

"We were not. It is a Shinra mansion for Shinra employees. We are among that group. You, however, are not. You just... took him from us."

"Angeal," Cloud frowned. "It's not that bad. He came through the door and there was a monster following him so he took me with him. Would you rather he had left me?"

Angeal growled and Cloud did his best not to recoil in shock. Angeal NEVER lost his temper.

"Cloud, he still took you. Monster or no, he could have simply returned you to us before going 'for a walk up the mountain.'"

The room was silent after that, neither man thinking of anything that would help his case.

On the inside, Vincent was surprised. He dragged Cloud up the mountain to see human depravity at its finest and yet he defended him. He really had no idea what to make of it.

The door opened and two men tumbling in, shaking fresh snow from their coats. Within moments they spotted Cloud and without warning rushed over. He was plucked from Zack's grasp and kissed and cuddled. Cloud squirmed and gave them a look that told them to put him down. They did not.

"Cloud," Sephiroth murmured, shifting him higher in his grip and kissing him on the head. "We missed you."

"You're the one who took him, then?" Genesis demanded, glaring at Vincent. Vincent gave up arguing and simply nodded. "...You returned him though. Thanks for that, at least."

"I said that I would," Vincent hedged blandly.

"Shut up," Genesis ordered. "I'm trying my best not to burn you to death where you stand, you could at least make it easier on yourself."

"In that case, I graciously accept your thanks," Vincent bowed his head and Genesis grunted. Sephiroth walked off with Cloud in tow, hoping it would prevent him from snapping and killing the man.

Vincent watched them go, taking note of the townspeople's expressions. They ranged from disapproving to angry. Not a one of them (save the Shinra group) seemed to be happy with what was going on.

Someone in the corner of them room underestimated SOLDIER hearing and muttered to whoever she was sitting with, "I don't see why he had to bring him back here."

The SOLDIERs all looked at the man and it seemed that Genesis was getting ready to throw a fit. Cloud's comforting and blissfully unaware presence soothed Sephiroth into just throwing the man a dark glare.

To everyone's surprise, it was Vincent that answered that comment.

"I do apologize that it is not clear to you that it does not matter what you believe. Neither I, nor any of these men, I expect, care anything about what you have to say. That being said, I thank you for keeping your small-town views to yourself," Vincent was calm as he spoke, eerily calm. Genesis, angry but satisfied, turned his attention back to the man.

"You'll be coming up with us. You kidnapped a SOLDIER cadet and distressed the General of Shinra's armed forces. You'll be taken to Midgar and handed over to the Turks for your crimes," the man announced.

None of the SOLDIERs or even Cloud looked surprised by this. Cloud gave him a glare but was whisked away before he could protest. After all, he had a dinner to get ready for. That thought alone flushed most of his worries away.

As Sephiroth was opening the door, Cloud still cradled in his grip, they heard a thunderous pounding on the stairs. He paused and the two looked towards the stairs to see Tifa emerge from the stairwell.

"Cloud! I was so worried! Are you alright?" she exclaimed, stepping forward. Cloud was pleasantly surprised to see that Sephiroth placed him on the ground before continuing inside. They were working on his overprotectiveness. It was progress.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was all just a huge mix up, I swear," Cloud smiled, resolving in the back of his mind to get Vincent out of the charges somehow. "Sorry I made you worry."

Tifa punched his arm and he yelped pathetically. "You better be! These guys just dropped me off here and took off! It was crazy."

"Yeah, sorry about that too," he apologized. "It's just that they're really protective of me."

"Majorly," Tifa agreed.

Cloud smiled and checked to see that Sephiroth had retreated to the bathroom and no one was coming up the stairs. He faced Tifa and whispered, "I actually really like it when they're protective. It makes me feel really good."

Tifa grinned and Cloud copied the action. It felt good to be here, sharing secrets with Tifa. She was his best friend these days and he was surprised at how easy it was to talk like this with the girl he literally chased over the mountain.

He didn't have that depraved desire for anything like friendship anymore and he was glad to realize that. He had enough friends to keep him from wanting anything more. He had four lovers, two of which he was sure would be there for him forever, and a new brother figure that seemed to brighten his day whenever they were around eachother.

Cloud was a little stunned at the realization that it was okay. His life hadn't been good before he went to Midgar and now it was better than good.

He hugged Tifa, wanting to convey some of the joy he was feeling right then.

He had SOLDIER exams coming up and a cursed sword with a dubious history. He had to find a way to get his overprotective lovers to drop the charges on Vincent and he had to catch up with Reno sometime soon.

But all that was okay.

He could finally say for certain.

"Tifa, I think everything's finally gonna be okay."

-o-o-

"What did you do to Cloud?" Genesis grilled.

The three men had taken Vincent far enough into the woods to ensure they wouldn't be overheard but not far enough to lose their sense of direction. Sephiroth had abandoned the man in his agitation and when Tifa ran into the Inn, they didn't try to stop her. Sephiroth seemed pretty content with the girl.

"I didn't do anything." Vincent's response never changed.

"Why don't you explain from the beginning?" Angeal suggested.

"Why don't you tell us who you are first, Vincent?" Zack suggested, an icy edge to his voice. Angeal shifted in discomfort. He had never seen Zack so angry or cold.

"You three seem to be in rather high positions of Shinra," Vincent observed. "Alright. I will tell you who I am.

"I am Vincent Valentine. I am close to fifty years old now. I slept in a coffin in the basement of the Shinra Mansion for almost twenty-four years. I was formerly a Turk."

The group was silent, digesting this. None of them questioned his age. They knew what kinds of things were done to Shinra employees.

"I was a guard for Lucrecia Crescent," Vincent said quietly. "She was involved in the study of Jenova... She eventually used her own body to further the research and I confronted Hojo about it. I was shot and she saved me by injecting me with an unstable strain of mako."

There, let them make what they want from that. He didn't mention that Lucrecia gave birth to Sephiroth, didn't mention that Jenova was the reason they were human science experiments.

"When you all entered the mansion, it woke me. I felt as if I had slept long enough to atone for some of my sins and I took up arms again to kill Jenova and atone for my biggest sin. There was a monster in the chamber I was in and rather than fight it, taking time I didn't want to give, I fled. I intended to flee out a window but Cloud was there. I took him with me.

"As I have said, I was not in the mood to waste time so I continued on with Cloud. He didn't put up much of a fuss about it. We got to the reactor and... Things went wrong."

They were silent, listening. Zack felt as if the story was true and Genesis and Angeal didn't discount it.

"What happened to Cloud?" Angeal asked levelly.

"Jenova was not there, in her traditional mantle. However, there was another scientist, one that worked on a similar project, still with Jenova cells. He seemed to be hiding there. I left Cloud in the front room, with the mutations and I went into Jenova's chamber to confront him.

"Cloud... got curious. He followed me and watched me shoot the man point blank in the head. He was quiet as I disposed of the body and left. He didn't talk until we were about halfway down the mountain. He assured me that he was okay, that he wasn't running from it."

They were still silent. Zack sighed first.

"It seems plausible. I believe him," Zack told them. Genesis, surprisingly, agreed almost instantly.

"I don't oppose your story," Angeal conceded. "But please, what was the scientist's name?"

"He was Hojo's rival. His name was Hollander."

-o-o-

Sorry for the wait! I know, it's short, but it's all I have right now. I promise another update as soon as Tuesday.

At least Vincent got a chance to tell his story (let me know if I got anything wrong, I wrote it really quick).