By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Two more hours passed with Tseng still in surgery. Cid had long since returned to the infirmary and was presently lying on his back in an empty bed with his baby soundly asleep on his chest. Tifa was still in her bed staring at her husband, hoping for his recovery and anxiously awaiting news about Tseng’s condition. Angel and Reno were collapsed in a pair of chairs close to Vincent’s bed, trying to rest as best they could under the uncomfortable circumstances.

Eventually, the doors to the surgery suite opened and Dr. Arlin emerged. Her surgical gown was absolutely drenched with blood and her hair was drenched with sweat from being held under the sterile cap she’d been wearing. With her face displaying no emotion whatsoever, she pulled the gown from her body and allowed it to fall to the floor. She scanned the room, seeing that all eyes were upon her.

Tifa was the first to break the silence that had descended. "How’s Tseng?"

Janice rubbed her eyes and replaced her glasses. "He’s still alive."

"Is he going to be okay?" She further pried, needing to know.

The doctor went to a chair and sat heavily, her exhaustion obvious. "I really can’t tell you right now. I’m quite frankly he survived at all. Two punctured lungs, a ruptured spleen, and multiple fractures. I can’t imagine how anyone, Chaos or not, could have thrown someone with that much force. I don’t know how he didn’t break his neck or just die instantly from that."

Angel with her medical background wanted to know what exactly the doctor had been doing for the last several hours. "What repairs did you have to make?"

"Stabilize his chest for starters in order to stop the bleeding into his lungs so that he could breathe. Once that was done, I had to perform a spleenectomy since it was far too damaged to remain. There was also a pretty severe laceration to his liver from another broken rib so he lost a good portion of that as well. We put about forty pints of blood into him before it was all said and done." Janice shook her head and looked down. "Eight times the amount of blood he normally has. Hopefully he doesn’t need anymore tonight, our blood bank is completely drained."

Angel sighed and leaned back in her chair. "That’s amazing…"

Tifa sat up. Much of what had just been said was within her scope of comprehension and its severity was understood. "Will we be able to see him soon… just in case?"

"We’re going to keep him set up with all the monitors and everything in the operating room just in case we have to crack him open again, but I will let you in to see him once the orderlies have it cleaned up a little in there." The doctor knew that Tseng’s chances of living through the next twenty-four hours were slim and everyone should get a chance to see him one more time in the event that he died.

Vincent was coherent enough now to follow the conversation. He lifted his head slightly to look at Janice. "I need to see him now."

"Just wait a few minutes, Vincent." She replied, not wanting any of them to witness the blood bath the surgery suite had become.

"I don’t care about what it looks like in there." Vincent knit his brows. "I need to see my brother."

Dr. Arlin by now knew Vincent well enough to realize that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She reluctantly got up from her seat and went to his bed. With Vincent still weak from his own trauma the only way to move him at the moment was to release the brakes on his bed and roll it into Tseng’s room.

Vincent let his head fall back to the pillow as he felt his bed start to move. "Tifa, wait here, okay?"

She remained on her bed. "Okay, Vincent."

The doctor took Vincent into the surgery room, and placed his bed parallel to his brother’s. Janice addressed the man and woman that were presently mopping the stained floor. "Let’s leave for a few minutes so they can be alone."

Soon, Vincent was by himself. He rolled onto his side slowly so he could see Tseng. His eyes burned with tears upon what he saw. Tseng was covered from the neck down by a sheet that was once white before the surgery had turned it crimson. His face was pale and an endotracheal tube came out of his mouth, attached to the respirator that was helping him breathe.

Vincent couldn’t help by feel crushed with guilt over causing this to happen. "Tseng, I’m so sorry…"

Tseng didn’t respond in the least. The only movement from him was the rise and fall of his chest from the respirator.

Doing his best to move at all, Vincent stretched out a weak and badly shaking hand, managing to touch his brother’s arm under the sheet. "I love you, I want you to know that. I can’t believe this is happening…"

To Vincent’s surprise Tseng moved slightly and his eyes parted. He was able to look over at Vincent with tired eyes, although he was unable to speak due to the tube in his throat.

Vincent took this as a sign of hope. Even though Tseng couldn’t talk, he understood that Tseng didn’t blame him for anything and was simply glad that he was here with him. After just a few short seconds, Tseng’s eyes closed as he slipped back into unconsciousness.

Dr. Arlin didn’t give them much time alone and soon she was back in and returned Vincent to his proper place in the infirmary.

With her husband parked back at her side, Tifa turned to him, "How is he?"

Vincent shrugged weakly, not able to look her in the eyes. "He looks terrible."

"Did he know you were there?" She reached over and brushed an errant strand of hair from his face.

"Yeah." The full reality of his brother’s condition was sinking in and he was starting to feel ill.

"That’s all that matters." Tifa tried to reassure him, seeing his growing despair.

"Tifa…" Vincent’s voice wavered in a hushed tone only she could hear, "if he doesn’t make it, what am I going to do?"

"I don’t know, all we can do now is pray that he will make it." She replied gently.

The glaring lack of any religious direction in Vincent’s current life reared its head. He didn’t feel that he had any right to ask anyone, God or otherwise for anything. His once strong Buddhist upbringing had long since gone by the wayside and he found himself unable to do anything for his brother now. Yet Vincent was unwilling to lose the last of his original family and if praying is all that he had left, then that is what he would do.

***

By the time it was four in the morning, Angel, Reno, and Cid had left the infirmary to go to bed. Dr. Arlin was also gone, leaving Vincent and Tifa alone in the darkened room.

Vincent was unable to sleep, and lay awake staring over at Tifa who was out, courtesy of some pain pills that the doctor had provided her with. Suddenly, Vincent caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned his head to see what was on the other side of his bed.

To his surprise, he saw the faint image of Aeris standing next to him. Had his body been strong enough he would have sat upright in his startled state but all he could do was remain as he was looking at her. He wanted to awaken Tifa to see if he was dreaming but something prevented him from doing so.

In a voice that was barely audible, Aeris spoke. "Hello Vincent."

He was silent, sure that he was hallucinating.

She smiled and cocked her head to the side. "Still not gonna talk to me, huh?"

"It’s got to be the drugs…" he whispered to himself.

"No, I’m really here." Aeris replied, her mood apparently as light as ever. "I’m here to help Tseng."

Delusion or not, anything to help Tseng was worth pursuing. "He’s going to make it?"

Aeris’s smile didn’t falter as she shook her head. "I’m afraid not."

"No…" Vincent reached out weakly for the ghost before him. "He has to make it…"

"I’m sorry, Vincent, but it’s his time." She didn’t move as his hand passed right through her. "I’m just here to help him go on. I thought you’d at least like it if someone you knew came to take him."

"I don’t want him to die." Vincent’s voice, no matter how much he wanted to scream out wouldn’t go above a whisper. "He can’t die."

"There’s nothing that we can do about it." Aeris’s face displayed pity for Vincent’s pain. "When the planet calls-".

"Don’t give me that planet shit." Vincent’s pain turned to anger. "I’ve been laying here all night begging God to let my brother live and I’m not going to let him go."

Aeris’s shoulders slumped, her long time frustration at Vincent coming to the surface. "It’s out of our control."

"Don’t you go near him!" Vincent again struggled to grasp at her, only to find his hand not contacting anything tangible.

"Whether I go in there or not, he’s going to die. I just came to try and make it easier for him." She visibly frowned.

"He’s not going to die." Vincent narrowed his eyes, ready to fight whatever unseen powers that were gathering to take his brother’s life.

"There is no getting through to you, is there?" Aeris crossed her arms. "You were never nice to me when I was alive and trying to help, and even now you’re going to make demands toward me of things I have no control over."

Vincent absolutely knew he must be going insane. "This is ridiculous. I’m arguing with a hallucination."

Aeris scowled. "It serves you right that everyone you love dies, you miserable bastard."

At hearing this coming from Aeris’s lips, Vincent growled. "If this was real, you never would have said something like that."

Aeris’s face immediately softened. "I’m sorry, it’s just that dealing with you is so… frustrating."

"What do you really want?" Vincent asked, starting to feel that something was very wrong.

"Do you really want your brother to live?" Aeris asked, leaning closer.

"Of course I do." He snapped back.

"Then you will have to do something." Aeris lost her smile once more.

"What?" Vincent felt a tightness in his throat.

"Leave here immediately and never come back." She said sternly.

"Why? How’s that going to save my brother?" Vincent asked, more than confused.

"You can’t ask any questions, you must simply leave and never again have contact with anyone here, including Tifa." Aeris loomed over the bedside.

"That doesn’t make any sense!" Vincent’s voice finally broke loose of the whisper and he yelled, "You’re not Aeris!"

With that, the vision of the young girl beside him began to change, and within a few short moments he was staring at the demon that had been living inside him for all these years. It bared its teeth at him, "Get out of this base before they kill us both!"

Vincent cried out as the monster reached out and placed one of its clawed hands around his throat.

Within an instant the demon was gone, and Vincent found himself being shaken violently by Tifa who had gotten completely out of her own bed to stand next to his. "Come on, wake up!"

As his senses returned to him, Vincent realized what was really going on. He looked Tifa dead in the eye. "Get Quigley, now!"