By Kristen Gupton-Williams

With the plane safely into the air, Vincent leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. His thoughts wandered as the drone of the engines combined with the alcohol in his blood to make him tired.

Cid looked over and saw Vincent starting to drift off. "Hey, don’t you dare fall asleep. I have no fucking idea where we’re going so stay up."

Vincent opened his eyes and turned to stare at his companion. "Head towards the mountains."

"Why?" Cid knew that this was most likely a pointless attempt, but still gave it a shot.

"You’ll see when we get there." Vincent sighed, resolving that he would have to cope with his slight drunkenness awake.

"Come on man." Cid nagged, growing a bit annoyed. "You’ve pulled me onto this plane shit faced drunk, I think I deserve at least a little explanation. Maybe Tifa goes for this mysterious crap, but it does nothing for me."

"If you had to guess, where do you think I’d have you take me?" Vincent asked, deciding to play a bit with the crass pilot.

Cid rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Oh fuck Sunshine, how should I know? From Tifa’s accounts, you hate Wutai so we ain’t going there, right?"

"Correct." He replied, enjoying Cid’s attempt at thought.

"All right." Cid thought for a moment. "Well you want to go somewhere that you don’t want Tifa to find out about, so that leaves just one possibility."

"And that is?" Vincent was actually becoming intrigued at the pilot’s understanding of him.

"Well, if a man wants to go somewhere without his girl knowing, that means he’s going to see some other chick." Cid smiled to himself, fully confident that he was on the right track. "And since you are Mr. Pure, I know you ain’t been cheating on Tifa which leaves only one possibility."

"And?" Vincent pried on.

"We’re going to the waterfall in the mountains, aren’t we?" Cid laughed. "So you can go see if Lucretia’s ghost is spooking around."

Vincent raised his eyebrows, thoroughly impressed. "Very good, I didn’t think that you would nail that one."

"Yeah well I ain’t as stupid as you think, kid." Cid put a second piece of gum in his mouth. "So that just leaves the question of why are we going there?"

"Well," Vincent turned his eyes to look out the window, "if she’s there, I just want to make sure she’s okay with everything."

"You think you need a dead woman’s blessing to be with Tifa?" Cid asked.

"No, it’s not about my relationship with Tifa, it’s about something else." Vincent sunk into the seat.

Cid saw the cloud descend around Vincent and knew that the conversation was dead. Whatever it was that was driving Vincent on this pilgrimage was obviously important to him and he had won the bet fairly to get this trip. Cid would just have to wait and see.

Now knowing where they were headed, Cid corrected the plane’s course to get them their quickly. Where in the hell he was going to land a plane in the mountains he did not know. As he thought about it he started to remember that there were some trails up there and if luck was with them, one of said trails should be all right for landing the small craft. By the next time that Cid looked over at Vincent, he saw that his companion had managed to drift off into sleep.

After about an hour and a half, Cid started weaving the plane through the mountains, searching for someplace to set down. After several passes, he decided that there was actually just enough length of beach near the falls to allow him to comfortably land. He descended sharply, needing to get the plane into position in the limited space in the valley.

As the plane dropped, Vincent picked up on the motion and was roused from his sleep. He became completely coherent just as the landing gear hit the sand and the plane bounced to a stop. "That was fast."

"No, Princess, you’ve been asleep." Cid scoffed as he unhooked his belt and crawled from his seat. "Go do whatever it is you’ve come here to do and then get back to the plane, I’m gonna wait here after I take care of something."

Vincent got from his seat and moved to get out of the plane. "Okay, but what are you going to do?"

Cid frowned in annoyance as he opened the door. "I drank myself blue a few hours ago, nature calls."

Vincent didn’t respond, knowing that he should have figured it out for himself. As he got used to the feeling of solid earth underneath him again, he saw Cid scamper off toward some brush. Sighing to himself, he started to make his way toward the waterfall a few hundred yards off.

As he walked, he did his best to keep his mind devoid of thought. Over the last seven years, he had come here one time since seeing Lucretia’s ghost with the AVALANCHE group. That last time that he had come, she hadn’t shown up despite the fact that he remained within the cave for well over a week, hoping that she would come. Maybe she had finally gone to join the Lifestream and wouldn’t be here ever again, but that was a risk he was willing to face. If she was here still though, he did have a very important question for her.

Once standing before the waterfall, he felt the cold mist wash over him in waves as he gathered his courage before entering the cave that was hidden behind the water. He took one last breath and steeled himself before going forward.

The interior of the cave was dark, save the blue glow from the outcropping of Mako and Materia in the back of the chamber. The air inside was damp and smelled of the Lifestream, and Vincent found himself holding his breath trying to not pull the sickly air into his lungs.

Vincent stopped in the center of the chamber and stared up at the alter-like formation before him. "I need to ask you something, if you’re still here."

The echo of Vincent’s own voice filled the cave, tempered only by the roar of the rushing water outside. There was no display of ghostly activity or supernatural sign to reward Vincent’s trip.

After several minutes of nothing, Vincent hung his head and sighed. Either she wasn’t here or she didn’t want to see him and it stung something within his heart. Reluctantly he turned and started to walk out.

"Vincent, wait…" An all too familiar voice beckoned out to him.

He spun in surprise, coming to see the faint spectral form of his long lost love. After running forward to his original place, Vincent fell to his knees. "Lucretia, I thought you weren’t here anymore."

Her sad translucent features formed a weak smile. "I am being pulled by the Lifestream, and it becomes harder and harder to be seen."

"Last time I was here you never came." Vincent said, his voice hushed.

"I needed to save my remaining energy for a time when I thought you needed me." She moved a little closer to him. "I felt that now was such a time. After this I will become one with the Lifestream."

Vincent was speechless for a moment. "Then you will be at peace?"

"Vincent, I already am at peace." Her smile turned warm. "My son is alive and has a normal life, you have been reunited with him, and Hojo has received his just punishment. All that I could ever have hoped for has come to pass."

"You…you know all that?" Vincent was amazed.

"There are benefits to being dead." Her voice lilted into a quiet laugh. "So now, it’s time for you to also be happy."

Vincent dropped his gaze, his past failures washing over him. "I do have happiness, even in spite of what Hojo has done to my body. There might be a way for me to have a normal body again if things work out right, but I don’t know…"

"You don’t know what?" She became confused. "If there is a chance for you to have a normal body, then I should think you would be elated."

"The thought of being complete again is more than I could ever want," he sighed deeply, "but do I deserve it Lucretia?"

"What do you mean do you deserve it?" She came even closer.

"My guilt…my failures…I’ve always thought of my body’s alterations as my earned punishment." He looked back up at her. "Do I deserve to be whole again?"

Lucretia came all the way before him and knelt down to be on his level. "Vincent, you deserve to be happy. You’ve always deserved to be happy. No one person with the exception of Hojo bears any responsibility for what happened."

Tears came to his eyes as he looked at her. Her words were touching something deep inside him, comforting what had been aching for nearly forty years.

Seeing the expression on his face, she went on. "Vincent, you have suffered enough of guilt’s cost, even though you bore no blame. It cannot remain the driving force in your life."

"You forgive me?" Vincent’s voice trembled.

"I never needed to forgive you, Vincent, because I never blamed you." She reached out a ghostly hand and touched Vincent’s cheek.

He closed his eyes as he felt the chill of her touch run through him. "Lucretia, I love you."

"I know, and I love you, too." She slowly pulled away from him. "Now, go and be happy. If you think of me from now on, know that I am well and again one with the planet. You still have much ahead of you and no matter what, I will be looking after you and those you love. You belong to Tifa now, she loves you dearly and I am so happy that you found her."

Vincent watched as she slowly faded from view. "Thank you, Lucretia…"