By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Angel escorted a shaken Reno straight to Vincent and Tifa’s room. Reno had protested this but Angel knew that she needed to speak with her father quickly about what had just happened. She knocked loudly on the door, and soon Tifa answered.

She looked pleased that Angel was here. "Oh hi guys, come on in!"

Reno and his wife did as asked and entered. They went to the couch and sat.

Vincent was sitting on the bed and smiled at his daughter. "How are you?"

"Well, I think we need to talk about Jaras." Angel said, getting comfortable.

Tifa sat next to Vincent and knitted her brow. "What’s going on?"

"Psychopath just pulled his fucking sword on me, that’s what." Reno growled, unconsciously reaching up and touching his neck where the blade had rested against it just a few moments before.

"Are you serious?" Vincent was both shocked to hear this but not entirely surprised. He had been witnessing the change in Jaras ever since his first flashback.

"Yes, very." Angel shook her head, her sadness showing. "Granted Reno was pestering him and had it coming, but still that was unlike the Jaras that first came here."

"I think he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown." Vincent sighed, feeling the weight of parental concern overtake him. "I almost wish there was a way to erase his discovery of who he was and send him back to Mideel."

Tifa put her arm around Vincent’s shoulders. "Yeah, me too."

Angel leaned forward and locked gazes with Vincent. "What are we going to do?"

"I don’t know." He responded at a loss.

"Well I for one don’t think the old boy should be joining us on our little trip to Midgar." Reno interjected spitefully. "But don’t tell him that, cause that’s what just about cost me my god damned head."

"No, I don’t think there is anyway we are going to keep him from going with us." Vincent became thoughtful. "He may need to go just to get some sort of closure on that whole chapter of his life."

"Look Pops, I don’t think we should risk taking him into that sort of situation." Reno frowned at his father in law. "For all we know he might flip out and kill us instead of that fucker Hojo."

"He won’t do that." Vincent said flatly not even entertaining Reno’s notion. "There may be a lot clouding Jaras’ mind right now but turning on us is something that will never happen."

"I hate to agree with Reno, but how do we know he won’t?" Angel asked her father.

Vincent shrugged, unable to explain his feelings. "I just know he won’t. But at the same time, we need to treat him gently for a while. Once this is all said and done, I think he will be a little more himself again."

"Yeah, but is that a little more his Jaras self, or Sephiroth?" Reno hissed.

Angel glanced over at her husband and frowned. "Maybe we should go now."

"Fine." Reno got up quickly. "Hell, I didn’t want to come here in the first place."

Vincent and Tifa saw them out and then turned to each other. Tifa could see the pain within Vincent at the news of Jaras’ actions and she placed her arms around him. "What do you think?"

He sighed. "I am very worried about him. I can’t imagine what all this is doing to his mind. I just hope he can keep it together. I truly do believe that after this mission he will be better."

"I think so, too." Tifa rested her head on his chest. "I know I’ll be a lot happier when this is all over."

"Yeah." Vincent closed his eyes, enjoying Tifa’s closeness. "Then maybe we can get on with our lives. Tifa?"

"What?" She asked.

"I’ve thought about it." His voice grew quiet. "I think that I would like us to settle somewhere outside of Kalm, in the country side somewhere."

She took a step back from him in surprise. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." He smiled slightly. "We can have a place in the hills where it will be quiet. Then we can get that pond you want."

Tifa brimmed with delight. She had always been fond of that area and the thought of having a country house there was exciting. "Yes, we can get some of those big fish and maybe some chickens, too."

Her delight over this was infectious and Vincent’s smiled widened. "Yes, we can have some chickens."

Tifa came closer and threw her arms around him again. She had no idea what had prompted Vincent to bring this up now but she was glad he had.

Vincent again closed his eyes and held her tightly. Inside his heart there was some pain. He had brought this up, pretending that it could be that way. Unfortunately, he suspected that there was no way that Hojo was going to allow him to survive this mission. Settling peacefully with Tifa was all he wanted but at this moment Vincent knew that was something that wouldn’t happen. Then again, he had been wrong before and he deeply hoped that this was one of those times.