Guilt’s Cost CXLIX

Decisions

Several days went by as Tifa and Vincent remained at Cid’s house. Their worries about his single parent coping skills were put to rest as it became clear to them that he was very much capable. When the baby would wake up at night, Cid got to him within minutes without complaining. He often would end up taking the infant to bed with him on particularly difficult nights. Tifa watched his actions and was very pleased with his progress over the past several weeks. Before this all had happened, if anyone had suggested to her that Cid could successfully raise a child alone she would have laughed but now she knew better.

Vincent and Cid also were getting along better, although at times they still did seem to enjoy making each other miserable just for the sake of doing so. There were times that Tifa would just leave the room when the two men started harassing each other, not able to bear their mutual stupidity.

Then one day while they were sitting at the kitchen table, Cid signaled them to be quiet. After listening for a few moments, he looked over at Vincent. "I think your ride is here."

Vincent got up and looked out the window as the sound grew louder. To his surprise, it was Tseng’s airship preparing to land just outside town. He turned back to face Tifa. "It’s Tseng’s ship."

She got up and came over to his side. "Why didn’t he call before sending it?"

"I don’t know, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough." He replied.

They made their way to the field where the airship was mooring and waited. When the door opened, they saw Tseng step out.

Excited to see his brother, Vincent ran over to him. "What are you doing here?"

Tseng smiled and placed a hand on Vincent’s shoulder. "We have much to discuss."

"What do you mean?" Vincent was confused. "What’s going on?"

Tseng smiled and shook his head. "Nothing bad. There have just been some developments that you need to know about."

"You should have called." Vincent frowned. "There was no need for you to fly all the way out here."

"No, Tsuvati, there are things that we need to talk about in person." Tseng motioned over to Tifa and Cid. "I think all of you should come onboard for a moment, all right?"

Vincent, unsure of what was transpiring waited for his wife and Cid to get closer. "Tseng wants us all to come on the ship for a moment."

Cid shifted the sleeping baby in his arms. "Fine. This bird probably needs to be checked out by a real pilot anyway."

They all boarded and followed as Tseng led them all to the briefing room on the ship. As the doors opened, Vincent immediately saw that Porter, Quigley, and Dr. Arlin were sitting at the table within. He went with Tifa and sat opposite to the others, while Cid had already managed to disappear, presumably making his way to the bridge.

Tseng landed in the seat at the head of the table and smiled over at his brother. "Quigley I believe has something to tell you."

Vincent felt a sweat break out across his skin as he turned his eyes to the scientist. "Really?"

Quigley smiled briefly before fishing through the disorganized pile of papers before him. After finding the right one he looked up. "As you know, I took a sample of your hair before you left in an attempt to find some normal DNA. Much to my surprise, I was able to find some unaltered sequences."

Tifa leaned forward. "So you can make him a new body?"

"Well, yeah." Quigley replied, tossing the paper he had been holding back onto the pile.

"Oh my God…" Vincent couldn’t believe it. In his shock he grabbed onto the edge of the table to steady himself.

Seeing the color drain from Vincent’s face, Tifa put her arms around him to help support him. "This is unbelievable!"

"No, just unlikely." Quigley responded. "Now, working with Porter here I’m pretty certain we can get a growth accelerator built. If Hojo’s research is right, the new accelerator design should be able to grow you a complete body within a matter of months, depending of course on how old you want to be."

"When you mean a ‘complete body’, what are we talking about here? Just replacing my limbs and torso or what?" Vincent asked, his voice quivering.

"A complete body as in the whole thing." Quigley ran a hand over the table’s surface. "If you want to be normal, completely normal, then we have to grow an entire body, minus of course a brain. If we just grafted what was missing onto what you are now, you would still continue to not age, and there is a possibility that your existing altered DNA would infect the new body. Therefore, we should only transplant into the new body those things made of cells that don’t for the most part reproduce, which would be your central nervous system."

Vincent was overwhelmed by this. They were talking about something from science fiction movies. "A brain transplant?"

"Well, your brain along with several inches of your spinal column." Quigley smiled, knowing that this all did sound rather fantastic.

"I thought that was impossible." Vincent sighed.

"Well without all that I learned from Hojo, it is." Quigley laughed, "but everything we need to pull off he had already perfected. From the cloning techniques to the stem cell grafts that will allow your nervous system to connect with the new body was all figured out."

Vincent couldn’t believe that his ultimate salvation was coming as a result from the madman’s experiments. "Wow…"

To Tifa, this all sounded outlandish, but moreover, it sounded dangerous. "What is the risk that Vincent will die?"

Dr. Arlin cleared her throat. "Actually, technically, he will die during the procedure. His body will be cooled to a state of profound hypothermia, his heart will be stopped, his brain activity reduced to the point of being undetectable. The real question is will we be able to bring him back once the transplant is completed. And if all that I have read in the research brought back from Midgar is correct, I think that chance is very good."

Vincent turned and looked at Tifa. He was shaking terrible and the color still hadn’t come back to his face. "Tifa…"

"Is it what you want?" She asked, brushing his cheek with her hand. Her own fears over the procedure for the moment overshadowed by Vincent’s feelings.

His voice barely more than a whisper, Vincent answered, "Yes."

Quigley nodded. "Then the only question remaining is how old you want your new body to be."

Vincent was caught off guard by this important question. After thinking for a moment, he picked what seemed to be to him the only reasonable answer. "The same age as Tifa."