Guilt’s Cost: Part IX

Redemption

When the submarine finally reached the airlock beneath the ASRIO base, Tifa and Vincent had fallen asleep on the small bed they had been provided with. Tseng came to their door and knocked.

Vincent awoke hearing the rap at the door, and he quietly rose not wishing to disturb Tifa.

Tseng smiled when his brother cracked open the door. "I just came to let you know that we have reached our destination."

"All right. Tifa and I will be out shortly." Vincent shut the door again and returned to Tifa’s side. He reached down and rocked her gently.

She opened her eyes, still half asleep. "Huh?"

He smiled down at her. "We’re there. It’s time to go now."

"Oh." She sat up and tied her hair back.

Tseng waited for the two to emerge from the submarine, which they did a few moments later. He led them down a long corridor and into a large room filled with electronics and monitors. "Welcome to ASRIO."

Vincent scanned the room, mapping it out in his mind for future reference. "Nice operation you have here."

Tseng puffed in pride in what his once small resistance group had accomplished. "Yes, we have a lot of people working very hard here. The level of skill some of our agents possess is impressive."

A tall man soon approached Tseng. "Sir, the briefing room is ready per your request. The presentation you wished to show Mr. Valentine has been prepared."

Tseng replied with a polite nod and turned to his brother. "Well, it is time for you to learn what we have."

A knot of anxiety welled up within Vincent. "Then let’s get underway."

Tifa picked up on Vincent’s tension and took his hand.

Tseng frowned slightly. "I am sorry, Tifa, but I think Vincent and I really should go over this alone. I’m sure he will fill you in afterward."

She looked to her companion, and Vincent stared back. "It’s all right, Tifa. I will tell you everything, but I think Tseng and I should be alone for awhile."

Tifa accepted Vincent’s request and let go of his hand. Tseng motioned to the young man standing next to him. "Ms. Lockhart, my associate Zale will give you a tour while Vincent and I discuss things."

Once Tifa was off, Tseng led Vincent from the control room into a large conference room. Vincent sat on one side of the large ebony table that divided the room in half. Tseng sat at the head of the table and began to manipulate a control panel to his right. The lights to the room lowered, and an image of the Shin Ra logo appeared on a large screen at the opposite end of the room.

"As you have already discovered, Hojo is alive and the Jenova Project has continued."

Vincent watched as the logo faded and a picture of Sephiroth came into view.

Tseng went on. "After Sephiroth’s defeat, Hojo planned to again clone him and to provide him with an equally superior mate. Hojo decided to start with this new female counterpart, wishing to perfect his new techniques on her before beginning work on his beloved Sephiroth. For this female, he choose to have her grown in his newly developed accelerator, and forgo a human mother. The genetic material he used to create her he had taken from specimens that had displayed a superior ability to survive experimentation. It took five years for her to grow to maturity in the accelerator, at which time she was released physically aged to twenty-one years of age. Her mind had been developed during her incubation through computer input."

Vincent listened with great interest, and looked on as the image of a female form floating within the growth accelerator developed. "So five years to instant adult?"

"Yes." Tseng said. "Hojo was very pleased with the preliminary results. She was physically strong, and intellectually superior. Before starting the cloning of Sephiroth, he ran a genetic profile on her to test her compatibility with her proposed mate."

On the screen an image of two electrophoresis graphs appeared, with meant little to Vincent.

Tseng leaned forward in his seat, obviously near the interesting part. "Hojo could not believe his eyes. Sephiroth and JEP2-04 shared too much similarity. It was clear that they shared a common parent."

Vincent stood up and once. "No, it can’t be…"

Tseng ignored his brother’s reaction. "Hojo had never bothered to compare Sephiroth’s genetic profile to his own. He had always accepted that Sephiroth was the product of him and Lucretia. Now he discovered that Sephiroth and JEP2-04 were siblings."

"That I was Sephiroth’s father, and that in his desire to use my DNA for this new project, he had made a terrible mistake." Vincent said flatly.

"Correct." Tseng rose from his seat and walked toward the screen now displaying a picture of various papers and books scattered across a desk. "In his rage at this deception, or rather, lack of his parentage of Sephiroth, he demanded the project terminated in its present form, and for it to be restarted with new specimens. Despite how perfect he believed Sephiroth to be, the thought of him being your son was too much."

Vincent landed heavily back in his seat, the weight of the news too great. "So what became of the girl?"

Tseng exuded pride. "Our operatives learned that she was to be destroyed per Hojo’s demand. I felt obligated to prevent that, not only because technically she was my niece, but also because I knew I owed it to you. I was not prepared to turn my back on a family member again. We managed to smuggle her out of the lab before Hojo’s order could be carried out."

Vincent asked the next logical question. "Where is she now?"

Tseng clicked the small remote in his hand, causing the screen to go blank and the lights to come back up. "She is here, of course. Furthermore, she has been waiting quite eagerly to meet you."

Vincent again rose from his seat, a slightly confused look overtaking him. "She knows about me?"

Tseng laughed to himself. "Of course she does. When we first got her out of that God forsaken lab, she was terrified by everything. The only way I was finally able to calm her was to let her know that she wasn’t just a scientific experiment, but a real person with a family that she could be reunited with."

Vincent walked over to his brother, not exactly knowing how he should feel inside. "How long have you had her?"

Tseng didn’t have to think long before answering. "About two years. In that time she has become very involved with our operations here. Her mind is amazing, and her desire to see Hojo and his projects come to an end is second only to yours. Through her knowledge of Hojo and his other experiments, we have liberated others who he had been detaining in the name of science."

Vincent was please to hear that she was involved in the fight against the wretched scientist. "And what is my daughter’s name?"

"Hojo never named her, only giving her the number JEP2-04, short for Jenova Experiment Phase Two, trial number four, but she eventually took to being called Angel, as my pet name for her stuck." Tseng smiled. "Stay here, and I will have her brought in."

Not daring to breathe, much less move Vincent remained exactly where he was as Tseng left the room momentarily. With his mind racing, Vincent tried to absorb all that he had just heard. After going from believing that he had taken part in killing his only child Sephiroth, he now had to negotiate discovering that he indeed had another child who was very much alive and well. He was honestly touched to discover that Tseng had seen to her rescue on his behalf. Had he been anyone else other than who he was, tears of joy probably would be streaking his cheeks but he maintained his stoic façade. After so many years of loneliness, he now found himself with a mate, a brother, and now a daughter. His once frigid heart was beginning to melt.

Soon, the door to the room opened again. Vincent watched as Tseng entered, followed by a tall woman. Her knee length hair was tied back in a loose ponytail, and was the same raven shade as Vincent’s. Although dressed in a business suit, he could see that her frame was lithe, but clearly very strong. Her complexion was flawless, and her pale skin was in stark contrast to her hair. Once she made her way closer to Vincent, he was able to see that her eyes were ice blue and piercing.

She came to a halt four paces away from Vincent, obviously scrutinizing him closely. Vincent’s heart sank somewhat from this less than warm approach by her.

Angel’s eyes narrowed and she cocked her head. "Mr. Valentine?"

Vincent had to snap himself out of his reverie. "Yes, I am."

She continued to stare at him expressionless, making Vincent even more uncomfortable. He wondered what she was thinking about him, worried that she was being very disappointed by her father’s visage.

Then, it happened so quickly that Vincent was caught off guard. Her face broke into a wide smile and tears came to her eyes. She rushed forward and embraced him. Vincent placed his arms around her tightly. Angel clung to him as if she never would let him go.

Through her tears, she said, "I have been waiting so long. Uncle Tseng has been so good to tell me about you, but nothing could make up for the fact that you weren’t here."

Vincent closed his eyes, enjoying her embrace. "I never knew about you until now. Had I known, I would have torn down that lab myself to get you away from that mad man."

She finally let go of him and took a step back. Her face had reddened from her emotions. "There was no way for you to know, and had it not been for your brother, no one ever would have known about me at all. I would have been swept under the carpet will all of Hojo’s failures."

Vincent smiled at her. "You are not a failure. In fact, you are the first thing that ever came out of his lab that wasn’t evil or twisted."

She grinned. "Yes, hence why according to him I was a failure."

Vincent embraced her again, disbelieving what was happening. "He will never touch you again. No one will ever do anything to you that you do not wish. They would have to go through me first."

Tseng watched the emotional display from across the room, proud to have caused such a joyous event. Angel had never been an overly demonstrative person, being too much like her father to display frivolous feelings, but in watching her with Vincent, Tseng came to realize that she was just as feeling on the inside as anyone else. The cloud of depression that she had never been able to escape seemed to lift. This was the moment that Tseng had been waiting for, ever since discovering of Vincent’s daughter’s existence, and he now shared in their joy.