Guilt’s Cost: Part CXIX

Flashback

When night fell, Vincent decided to take everyone out for dinner. He knew that next to Tifa cooking that this was the only way they were going to get anything to eat and he didn’t want his wife to have to go to the trouble. The group of them walked toting the baby along in a carrier to a nearby diner. They were given a table near a window and all sat in silence as they examined the menu.

Cid sat at the end of the table with the baby sleeping in the carrier on the ground at his side. Tifa and Vincent were on the right side of the table together and Jaras took up the other.

The pilot had been making an intentional effort to be more pleasant to his guests after Tifa’s talk with him earlier. Truth be told, he had been making a good show of it too and everyone had noticed. Vincent had remained a little embarrassed from Tifa having told Cid how he had felt and was even more reserved than normal. That was another reason he had agreed to take them out tonight, he needed to break up the tension he was feeling in the house.

They ordered and sat talking of past times. The subject specifically was of events that had taken place in Junon so long before. As light as they tried to keep the discussion, it was still causing Jaras some distress as he felt more than a little left out. He sat just sipping at his glass of water in silence feeling slightly sick to his stomach. Eventually his discomfort got bad enough that he excused himself from the table and made his way to the bathroom.

Jaras entered the bathroom and was relieved to see that it was completely vacated. He flipped the lock on the door ensuring that he would remain alone. Jaras went to the sink and leaned upon it, feeling a cold sweat break across his skin. He ran the water in the sink and brought some of it up to his face. After, he reached over to the side and pulled a paper towel from the dispenser and dried. It was then that he looked up at his ashen image in the mirror. Jaras was a little shocked at his own appearance and felt another wave of nausea hit him and he sank to his knees.

Back at the table, Vincent could feel that something was wrong and after a few moments he too left the table in an effort to go check on his son. When he got to the bathroom he found the door locked and knowing that Jaras was inside, he started to grow more nervous. Vincent ran to the nearest employee he could find and explained that the door was locked in an attempt to find someone with a key.

Jaras was now laying on the floor, another full-blown flashback taking over his mind. He was standing before some huge machine with some strange creature wired into it. The feminine face of the beast stared back at him with one burning red eye. Jenova, he thought repeatedly upon recognizing the creature before him. In slow motion, he watched as his arms outstretched and he pulled Jenova’s body from the monstrosity of technology that surrounded it.

After starting to get frantic, Vincent finally managed to get a key to the bathroom from a waitress. He unlocked the door to the bathroom and threw it open. Jaras was lying on the floor, wild eyed and ranting.

"Lucretia was your mother!" Vincent knew at once what Jaras was reliving and was worried, knowing that this was one of the main events that lead to Sephiroth’s madness.

Jaras kicked out and struggled weakly to free himself from Vincent’s hold. "I can’t live like this! I can’t live like this!"

"Jaras!" Vincent was profoundly upset now and shook his son violently. "Come on! Snap out of it!"

Cid, still at the table with Tifa was now concerned at the fact that two of their dinner mates had gone missing for so long. He sighed and looked at Tifa. "Watch the kid for a minute, I’m gonna go see what’s going on."

Tifa was more than a little relieved to hear Cid volunteer. "Okay, go ahead."

Cid rose from the table and walked toward the bathrooms. He reached the men’s room and opened the door finding Vincent cradling Jaras on the floor. "What the fuck is going on?"

Vincent looked up at Cid with fear filled eyes. "Jaras is having a flashback, we have to get him out of here."

"Aw shit." Cid puffed. "Let me go tell Tifa what’s up real quick."

Vincent just nodded at Cid as he retreated from view, continuing to rock Jaras in his arms.

Cid hurried back out to the table and found Tifa. "Come on, we got to go."

She could see the worry in his expression. "What’s going on?"

"Jaras is having some sort of freak out I guess." Cid replied, picking up his son’s carrier from the floor.

Vincent was finding it impossible to get through to his son and was getting more frantic. "Jaras, please come back!"

"I’m not Jaras!" His struggles began anew within Vincent’s arms. "Let me go!"

Cid and Tifa arrived on the scene, and the pilot handed his son over to Tifa so he could help Vincent with Jaras.

Together, Cid and Vincent managed to hoist Jaras up from the floor and basically pulled him out of the restaurant with Tifa following them. Once out into the cold night air, Jaras seemed to calm a little and his struggling subsided. They made their way to a small grass covered area and laid Jaras back down.

Vincent stared down into his eyes, finding the first hint of consciousness within. "Jaras? Are you there?"

He managed to nod weakly as the terrible images from his past again began to fade. The fact of who and where he was again coming to the surface. "I saw Jenova."

"I know." Vincent stroked his son’s hair in an unconscious effort to comfort him. "But you’re okay now?"

"Yeah." Jaras sat up slowly, his nerves now completely shot from the experience.

Cid turned to Tifa. "What the Hell was all that?"

"He’s having flashbacks." Tifa frowned in her sympathy for Jaras. "Ever since Vincent and I were taken out of Midgar he’s been having them."

"So he’s starting to go Sephiroth on us, is that what you’re saying?" Cid crossed his arms after throwing a piece of gum in his mouth.

"He’s still Jaras." Tifa knitted her brows in concern. "But these memories are really hard on him."

"Yeah, I’d guess so." Cid scowled as he turned his gaze toward Vincent and Jaras. "Poor bastard."