Guilt’s Cost: Part XXXVII

Aftermath

Tseng went to the sick bay anxious to check on Tifa. Reno was standing just outside the door, and grabbed Tseng’s arm as he tried to walk by. "Hey Boss, we got to wait out here."

Tseng furrowed his brow and glared at Reno. "Why is that?"

"Cause Angel wants to work on Tifa in privacy. Tifa’s injuries are kind of personal, you know." Reno said, allowing his hand to fall away from Tseng.

He nodded in acceptance, realizing that the last thing that Tifa needed was more people around her while in such a compromised state. "You’re right. Any word on how she is though?"

"Well, Angel came out and gave me an update a few minutes ago." Reno leaned against the wall, running a hand through his misshapen hair. "Tifa’s conscious and everything. I guess there are just a lot of severe lacerations down in her little girl area."

Tseng fought the urge to smile at Reno’s anatomical description. "But she will be all right?"

Reno shrugged. "Angel didn’t seem too worried about Tifa’s physical state, but she said that right after she got here, Tifa was ranting about some sort of traumatic experience from her past."

"Oh." Tseng hung his head. He was all too aware of how damaging rape could be emotionally, especially when it wasn’t the first time one had experienced it. "Poor Tifa. I knew something bad would happen if she went around alone with Vincent."

Reno noticed the way his boss spit out his brother’s name. "You’re pretty ticked at him, aren’t you?"

Tseng leaned up against the wall next to Reno. "I would have hoped he could have used better judgement, that’s all. Everything bad that happened to Tifa was done at the hands of Chaos, but Vincent does hold at least a small responsibility for this."

"Yeah," Reno sighed. "But the argument could be made that Tifa holds the same amount of blame. They both disregarded your order and crept off together."

"True." Tseng looked down at his shoes. "When Angel is done here, we need to take her to see Vincent to check on his gunshot."

Reno nodded. "Oh, I forgot about that. Is he okay?"

Tseng laughed. "As though you care!"

"Please!" Reno rolled his eyes and flipped his hand. "I ain’t asking for myself. But Vinny does happen to be my girl’s Daddy."

On some level, Reno was lying and Tseng knew it. "Whatever you say. But I think Vincent will be fine. After watching him heal overnight from his last set of wounds, I have no doubt that this one will fade as quickly."

"So what now?" Reno asked, looking over at his companion.

Tseng shrugged. "What choice do I have? He will have to stay in custody until we get back to the base. Once we’re there, he is going back into stasis. He is too dangerous to keep awake."

Reno raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, but that sure is going to throw a big one at Tifa and Angel, don’t ya think?"

"I don’t think Tifa and Angel will mind at the moment." Tseng said bitterly.

Reno shook his head, disappointed in his boss’s lack of insight. "Wrong, old man. Both those women love him, no matter what that demon does on his behalf. Chaos could attack them a thousand times over and neither of them would want Vincent locked away for it."

"Then you and the women have more faith in love than I." Tseng said, taking a few steps away from Reno.

Reno could feel this conversation heading toward very uncomfortable ground, but his deep friendship for Tseng kept him from running away. "Just because you were hurt and used doesn’t diminish the feelings others have."

"What do you know about my life?" Tseng growled between his teeth, facing away from his companion.

Reno came over and put a hand on Tseng’s shoulder. "More than you think."

Tseng turned to face him. "Oh really?"

"Yes." Reno crossed his arms over his chest, emitting some pride in knowing some very intimate details of Tseng’s life. "I know about Rufus and what happened between you two. I’m sorry you got hurt by him, but I knew all along that he was a stupid fuck, not worthy of you."

Tseng’s eyes grew wide upon hearing that Reno knew of his tryst with the former President. "How did you know?"

"Cause I’m your friend, and I ain’t as stupid as you think." Reno smiled. "Just don’t put your bitterness about love onto other people, that’s all."

Tseng managed a faint smile for his friend. "Thank you, Reno."

"Yeah well, I’m starting to feel a little weird here, so I think I better find something else to do now." Reno said, taking a few paces back.

Tseng had an idea. "Take my brother some clothes if you will. I don’t want him laying there in that cell with nothing on."

"Right." Reno smirked and headed down the corridor.

A few minutes later, Reno reached the detention area with a bundle of his own clothes in his arms. He walked up to the bars of Vincent’s cell and found him still lying on the floor.

Reno reached out and knocked on the bars to get Vincent’s attention. "Come on, old man. I got something for you."

Vincent didn’t move. "Unless it’s a bullet that you want to put into my brain, go away."

"Oh come on!" Reno leaned up against the bars, realizing that he might be in over his head. "You know as well as I do that I don’t use a gun! But I do have some clothes for you."

Vincent failed to find any humor in Reno’s remark, but the knowledge that there was something for him to wear got his attention. "Push the clothes through the bars."

Reno did as ordered. "Now don’t go messing these up, I want them back."

Vincent sat up slightly and reached over to the bundle with his clawed hand. He drove his talons through the fabric and pulled the garments to him. There was an irritating screech as his talons scraped the metal floor beneath.

Reno sighed as Vincent purposefully damaged his loaned outfit. "God Damned, you’re a real class act, you know that?"

Vincent didn’t respond as he started to pick through the pile. Reno had brought a pair of loose navy colored sweatpants, an old stained white tee shirt, and a pair of red boxers. Everything about the outfit screamed Reno on his day off, and Vincent felt some disdain in knowing that it was likely Reno had picked these clothes on purpose.

Reno watched as Vincent examined the items. Reno, in turn was studying Vincent. Never having seen him unclothed, Reno was getting his first look at what Hojo had truly done to the former Turk. The reptilian skin on Vincent’s body Reno had seen before, but the fact that the lower half of the man’s body was made up of cybernetic amendments was something he hadn’t been aware of before. "Damn man, I used to think that the arm was the only thing that Hojo did to you."

"No." Vincent said flatly as he stood up, pulling on the boxers. He had no real desire to speak with anyone at the moment, much less Reno.

Reno could tell that Vincent was getting annoyed at his continued presence and he liked it. "Not feeling to chatty, huh?"

Vincent glared at him after pulling the shirt over his head. The weak flow of blood from his injury began to seep through the fabric. "No."

"Come on, Vinny." Reno rested his head against the bars. "I just want to help."

"I doubt it." Vincent sat back down on the floor after slipping on the pants. "If you really wanted to help you’d kill me before I harm anyone else."

"Don’t think the Misses would like that too much." Reno stuck his arms through the bars making him look like a forlorn prisoner. "Besides, I think I kind of like you, too."

"Bullshit." Vincent spat.

Reno fidgeted with his hands. He was going to admit something to Vincent that was out of his nature. "No, I really do."

Vincent glared up at him. "Why?"

Reno shrugged. "Oh Hell, I don’t know. Maybe because if it wasn’t for you, I never would have met the girl of my dreams."

"Fortunately, she is nothing like me." Vincent flipped his hair over his shoulder.

"Thank God no!" Reno smiled. "I couldn’t do her if every time I looked into her face I saw you! That would be too fucking weird."

Vincent smirked, almost touched by Reno’s remark. "Good to know that being with her isn’t fulfilling some sick homosexual fantasy you have regarding me."

Reno’s eyes went wide. "Was that a joke?"

Vincent’s face remained stoic. "More of a declaration of my relief than an attempt at humor."

"Yeah, I didn’t think so." Reno smiled.

Vincent resigned to his need to ask about Tifa. "How is she?"

"What, your daughter in bed?" He asked, almost serious.

"No, Reno." Vincent felt a flame of annoyance flicker. "Tifa."

He shook his head. "Couldn’t tell you, I’ve never slept with her."

Vincent shot up to his feet, enjoying how Reno backed away from the bars when he did so. "No, how’s Tifa doing, moron."

"Angel’s working on her. She thinks Tifa will be fine." Reno answered, serious for the first time in a while.

"I can’t bear to think what I’ve done." Vincent hung his head.

"It was the demon, Vinny." Reno crossed his arms. "Everyone knows that."

Vincent made his way to the small bed in the cell and threw himself down upon it. He no longer felt like talking. The guilt and pain of what had happened was choking him and he rolled over to face the wall, not wanting Reno to see the tears starting.

Reno stood there for a few more moments until he realized that Vincent was crying. This wasn’t his department and so he took his leave of the brig.

***

Tseng paced out front of the sick bay nervously. He wanted to go check up on his brother but felt obligated to stay here until Tifa was all right. Finally Angel stepped out.

"Hey, Tseng." She said looking very tired.

"How is she?" He asked.

Angel smiled. "Fine. I had a lot of suturing to do but I think she’s okay. There were some wounds I couldn’t reach, but they will heal. The bleeding has at least abated."

Tseng was relieved and it showed. "Good, I was worried."

Angel stepped closer to him. "She said it was the demon that did that?"

Tseng nodded. "Yes. I found him attacking her in the maintenance bay. Once Reno showed up, Chaos submitted and let Vincent come back."

"That wasn’t done by a demon’s anatomy." Angel said, looking down at the ground. She had seen demon rape victims before and knew what damage they caused.

"He used Vincent’s body." Tseng said, knowing what was on her mind. "It was Chaos though, I promise."

Angel sighed. "This is all so weird. I know I haven’t known my father for very long, but how could he let this happen?"

"He didn’t choose for that to occur." Tseng placed an arm around his niece’s shoulders. "The demon erupts and he has no way of controlling it. I had to shoot him, and I was wondering if you could go with me to check on Vincent."

"Yeah, let me just get my medical bag." Angel said before disappearing into the sick bay again.

Tseng peeked in through the door, getting a glimpse of Tifa sleeping in a bed. Her color seemed ghostly, but at least she didn’t appear to be in any pain at the moment.

Angel came back and took Tseng’s hand as they made their way to Vincent. They got to the brig finding him exactly where Reno had left him. Tseng used his passkey to unlock the cell and Angel and him went in. Vincent didn’t move as they neared.

Angel sat on the edge of the bed, able to see the growing blood stain on the left shoulder of his shirt. "Father, can I take a look?"

He made no attempt to reply, simply rolling onto his back. Angel got up and pulled the shirt off of him. She quickly found the small wound at the union of his mechanical arm and body. It wasn’t located anywhere critical and was just a flesh wound. She bent down and rummaged through her bag before coming up with some gauze and antiseptic.

Vincent eyed her suspiciously. "Do you really feel the need to treat it?"

"That’s why Tseng had me come down here." Angel replied, seeing the pain on Vincent’s face.

"It will be fine, so why don’t you just leave it?" He was feeling anxiety over the thought of his wound being messed with.

Angel threw her supplies back down into her bag and put her hands on her hips. "What is it? What do you want? I can’t fix whatever is wrong inside you, so why won’t you at least let me take care of the outside?"

Vincent recoiled from her obvious frustration. "I don’t mean anything personal by it, I just would rather be left alone. In case you failed to notice before, I hate being ‘worked’ on."

"No, I noticed." Angel fell back onto the edge of the bed and looked over at Tseng. "We want to help you, Father. I just wish you’d let us."

He turned back onto his side to face the wall. "But you can’t… no one can help me. I am a monster… I hurt Tifa, and who’s to say I won’t hurt the two of you?"

Tseng stepped closer. Seeing Vincent’s torment hurt him. "I can help you, at least, I can see that you harm no one else until my men find a way to get that demon out of you."

"How?" Vincent said quietly, already fearing the answer.

"I have the stasis chamber back at the base." Tseng knelt down on the floor. "When we get back, you can go back into it until we figure out what to do."

Angel gasped at the notion of her father being taken from her in that way. "Isn’t there anything else you can do?"

Tseng shook his head sadly. "Not that I can think of. But this way everyone will be safe."

Vincent closed his eyes, letting more tears fall. "What choice do I have? It is as close to death as you will let me get, so I will go willingly."