Guilt’s Cost IV

By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Tseng at once knelt beside Vincent and placed his arms around him. He went on quietly, "I am so sorry for what happened to you. I can’t possibly understand what you went through in that lab and I never will, but had I the chance to go back and take your place, I would. I by far deserved that torture more than anyone else."

Vincent’s voice wavered in overwhelming emotion. "No, that pain is mine alone. I earned it for not saving Lucretia from her Hell. All the events of the last thirty years would have been different if I had done my job and protected the woman I loved."

Tseng held his brother out at arm’s length. "You truly did love her, didn’t you?"

Not able to bring his gaze up from the ground, he nodded. "Yes, I did. And all the pain that has come since then I deserved for abandoning her to Hojo."

"That’s not fair to you." Tseng brought Vincent back close again. "Just as I was unable to see the truth about things going on around me back then, so were you. There was no way for you to have known what was going to happen. Shin Ra had you blinded from reality; we all were."

"I am guilty, even for all that you went through and what you became as a result. I knew damned well that if I became a Turk that you would, too. Although we were separated after our parents died, I knew you looked up to me. After Papa died, I had a responsibility to look out for you, and I failed." Vincent’s hidden pain came rushing forth after three decades of repression. His long cold heart only recently warmed by Tifa’s companionship agonizingly burned back to life.

Tseng felt Vincent grow weak in his embrace. "No, don’t blame yourself for anything! I made my own decisions in life, and so did Lucretia. Don’t you dare take any guilt for me. You’re going to have to move past all that in order to be ready for what is happening now."

Vincent pushed himself back and shamefully wiped the tears away from his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Tseng rose to his feet, then reaching down to help his unsteady brother up. "I have some information that you need to be made aware of."

Vincent stooped over to reclaim his gun and reholstered it. "And that is?"

"For the past several years, I have been a member of ASRIO, have you heard of it?" he asked.

Vincent nodded. "Yeah, Anti Shin Ra Intelligence Operatives."

"Correct." Tseng smiled. "Most of the members of our group are former Shin Ra employees."

"You also happen to be guarding the last few former Turks who refused to rejoin and haven’t yet been executed, right?" Vincent asked.

"Very good." Tseng looked around them briefly. "All of them but you. It hasn’t been easy tracking you down, for us or Shin Ra, hence why you’re still alive."

"I have tired to keep my whereabouts under wraps." Vincent allowed a bit a pride to show.

"Yes, and I have been tracking you for some time. Everytime one of our spies would find out there was a hit contract out on someone by the Turks, I would immediately go to that location in hopes of finding you. We’ve long suspected that it was you stealing contracts away from the Turks, but by the time I got to the scene, you would have skipped town. By the descriptions I received over the years, I was certain it was you. The problem was Shin Ra also eventually figured out that it was you as well. You may not be aware of this, but Vincent Valentine has a one million gil reward out on his head." Tseng’s voice reflected concern.

"I’m flattered to find out that I am so valuable to someone." Vincent feigned a smile.

"The problem is this, they are closing in on you. You’ve cost them over seventeen million gil in contracts, and they are going to take you out for it. Our spies tell me that they are very close to finding you. The only reason that I found you first is that I have a little more insight into how you operate." He kicked at the ground.

"How did they find me?" Vincent asked.

"Shin Ra has people everywhere, and they knew that you came through Rocket a year ago. You were seen talking with Cid, presumably to confirm the whereabouts of your fellow Avalanche members. Knowing that Cloud and Tifa were in New Niblehim, all they had to do was to keep a lookout for you to show up there. They didn’t figure that it would take you so long to arrive, and eventually their assassination team left, but they did keep a operative in town, to see if you did ever show up." Tseng looked into his brother’s eyes.

"And I did." Vincent was impressed. "And I was seen."

"Yes, but fortunately, I found you first." Tseng smiled again. "It won’t be that hard for you to disappear again if you act quickly. The operative that has been tailing you is still alone; the assassination team hasn’t shown up yet. I can distract her, allowing you to escape again."

"Why hasn’t the operative just killed me herself? Certainly I have left myself open to attack plenty of times today alone." Vincent was intrigued.

Tseng took a step closer. "Because the operative doesn’t know she’s an operative."

Vincent’s heart sank. "Please don’t say what I think you’re going to!"

Tseng felt the pain in his brother. "I’m sorry, but it is Tifa."

Vincent’s eyes burned again with tears. "How?"

"It’s complicated." Tseng knew he was treading on delicate ground. "When the assassination team had to leave New Niblehim six months ago, they had already planned their means of lookout in a manner that no one would ever be suspicious of. Before leaving, they went into her home and added a contaminant to her cosmetics, something that would cause her to miscarry the baby she was five months pregnant with."

Vincent covered his mouth both in disgust at what Shin Ra had done, but also at the sudden knowledge that Tifa would have had Cloud’s child. "No…"

Tseng went on. "The next day she was taken to the hospital violently ill, of course all of the normal medical staff had already been replaced with Shin Ra agents. She had to be rushed into emergency surgery to remove the dead fetus from within her. At the same time, a tracking device was placed in her body that allowed Shin Ra to not only know where she was, but to hear everything that she did or said. From there on out, all they had to do was sit back at their headquarters and listen until you showed up."

Vincent narrowed his eyes as his intense hatred for Shin Ra flared. "I don’t care if it will cost me my life, I’m not leaving her. You know as well as I do that the second I’m dead that they will kill her too."

"In all likelihood, yes." Tseng replied. "But if they don’t catch you, they won’t harm her in hopes of you showing back up. They already know you love her, they heard you say it yourself."

Vincent looked at Tseng vexedly. "Your spies told you that?"

Tseng hung his head. "No. We have a replica of the receiver for her transmitter. I heard you talking to her on the airship."

Ashamed that his brother had heard all that had gone on the night before, Vincent turned away. His mind swam as he tried to figure out what to do, but his own feelings for Tifa made coherent thought impossible. "I can’t be without her… but I knew that finding her would turn out wrong. I end up ruining everything I love. Can you protect her?"

Tseng cocked his head in confusion. "We could hide her until we figured out how to disable the transmitter without harming her but it will take a while. They implanted it into her spine."

"Then do it." With that, Vincent took a few steps back from his brother and pulled his gun from his holster. He placed the muzzle against his right temple and pulled the trigger.