The reviews you guys are leaving are cracking me up. I just wanted y’all to know that. You’re funny f****** guys.

Chapter 14

Brad was standing outside the hanger doors, staring up at the sky. The airship had arrived back home after being gone for several days and he stood there watching it prepare to land.

Once it was on the ground, various people began to file off of it. One of them caught his eye and he ran over toward her. "Hey, Jingles!"

The female mechanic huffed and continued walking, not wanting anything to do with Brad. He reminded her just too damn much of Cid.

He managed to catch up with her and he grabbed her arm. "Come on, Jin!"

She stopped and faced him, eyes blazing. "What in the hell do you want?"

"Drop the bitch act, Jin." Brad let go of her arm. "I need to talk to you."

"Oh really?" She figured that there was nothing that the chopper pilot could possibly have to say to her that she wanted to hear.

Brad frowned. Getting through to her had always been hard, and he had no idea how Cid had managed to do it at all. "Let’s go into the hanger for a sec."

"Look, chopper boy, I’m busy and don’t have time for this crap." Jin crossed her arms over her chest, donning her usual annoyed expression.

"I have to tell you something about Cid, Jin." He turned and started walking, figuring that she would follow.

Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was hungry for any information about the pilot. She may have run out on him when he had proposed, but she was still very much in love with him. She followed.

Once in the hanger, Brad went over to his workbench and sat down. He opened the ice chest upon it and pulled out two beer bottles, handing one to Jin as she sat beside him. "I’ve been waiting to run into you for a while."

"Like I said, I’m busy." She flipped the cap off of her bottle and took a swig.

"Okay." Brad did the same before continuing. "I, uh, got some really bad news about Cid a while back, and I was wondering if you knew what was going on with him?"

She hadn’t spoken with Cid since the night he had proposed, being too afraid to call him. Jin’s eyes went wide and she met Brad’s gaze. "What happened to him?"

Brad knit his brow. "Highwind has cancer, Jin."

Her bottle fell from her hand and hit the floor, shattering. She wasn’t able to respond for several moments. Jin felt like she had just been hit in the stomach with a baseball bat. "Wh…what?"

"He’s dying, Jin." Brad disregarded the mess that was now staining the hanger floor. Jin was entitled to her reaction. "He’s just got a few months."

She began to shake and slid from the stool, getting to her feet. "Oh God…"

Brad set his bottle down upon the workbench and got up. Against his better judgement, he dared to put his arms around the female mechanic. "I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, Jin."

Jin proceeded to do something completely out of character. She placed her arms around Brad in return and began to cry. Cancer seemed to be the bane of her life. It had been cancer that had claimed both of her parents, and her own bout with the disease had stolen her ability to have children many years before. Now, the man she loved was suffering from it, too. She suddenly felt that much worse for having left Cid hanging all of this time.

Jin had gotten scared when he had proposed to her all those months ago. She had wanted to stay with Cid, but the thought of being legally committed to him had brought up the memories of her parents’ stormy and ill-fated marriage. Part of her had figured that their relationship had done well enough over the years, so why change anything? There had been a few points in their relationship where they had temporarily broken up and not spoken for a few months at a time. Getting married to someone with whom she had such a turbulent relationship with wasn’t something she figured was a good idea, but she had never stopped loving Cid. In fact, she’d wanted to call him or go to him badly over the past few months, but her stubborn pride had just gotten in the way. Every message that he had left on her answering machine had broken her heart-- and she hadn’t erased any of them. She had missed him, and now knowing that he was dying made her regret her actions. "What am I going to do?"

Brad brought her out to arm’s length. Part of him had only wanted to tell her in order to get her to go to Cid, and possibly get them back together so Tifa might go back to Vincent. Having seen Vincent’s reaction upon telling him that his wife was with Cid had shown Brad that Vincent still loved Tifa and wanted her back. This was all far more manipulative and planned out than Brad tended to be, but the fact of the matter was that although he liked Cid, he didn’t like that he was with another man’s wife. It just wasn’t right. "I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do, Jin. You’re going to call him and then you’re going to go see him. Once you’re with him, you’re going to get him out of the fucking mess he’s gotten himself into, and then you’re going to spend his last days together. How about that?"

She knit her brow. "What fucking mess has he gotten into?"

He realized that the following information might just turn Jin off from reconciling with Cid, but he had to put it out there. "Vincent and Tifa were having some trouble, and now Cid’s basically living with her, I guess."

Jin narrowed her eyes. She had come to like Tifa over the years, but on some level, she’d always known that Cid was far too attached to her. "Oh really?"

Brad let his arms fall away from her. "That probably makes you not want to talk to him, huh?"

She scoffed. "Actually, it makes me want to go out there, kick Tifa’s bitch ass and then drag Cid home where he belongs…with me."

Her stubbornness was going to serve Brad’s purpose it seemed and he smiled. "Well, maybe if you leave the part about beating up Tifa out, I’ll support your decision."

"I want to call him." Jin crossed her arms over her chest. There was no way that she was going to let Tifa keep her man.

Having been waiting for this moment, Brad already had a copy of Vincent’s home phone number in his pocket and he pulled it out, handing it to her. "That’s the number. Go on."

Jin looked at the paper for a moment, before turning and storming out. She had things to do. As she walked out of the hanger, she did another uncharacteristic thing. "Thanks, Brad."

-----------------------

Cid had taken the boys to the old woman’s house again that morning and had traveled to the hospital to see Tifa. A blood sample had been taken from him for the paternity test, and he now sported a small bandage over the vein in his left arm. He’d sat holding Charlotte while Tifa had taken a much-needed nap. Apparently, the baby had kept her up most of the night. Once Tifa awoke, it was getting into the afternoon.

As she sat in the hospital bed nursing the baby, she looked over at Cid. "How are the boys doing? What did you tell them last night?"

Cid knit his brow, recalling the hard time that Aaron had been giving him. "They’re okay. Damien hasn’t grown a tail yet or anything."

"Cid!" Tifa instantly looked angry. "You remember what I told you about saying things like that about Aaron!"

He rolled his eyes, not appreciating the reprimand. If she had been there to hear what Aaron had said, he was fairly sure she would have smacked the kid herself. "He doesn’t like me, Tiff. You are aware of that, right?"

"Aaron’s going through a pretty rough time right now, Cid. I would hope that you could be a little more understanding." Tifa turned her gaze down at the baby.

"Yeah, well, I wish you could hear what he’s said to me when you’re not around," Cid sighed. "But yeah, I told them last night that you’d had a girl."

She could tell that there was something he was holding back. "And?"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Aaron called me on the fact that it’s not only his sister, but L.C.’s, too."

Tifa’s jaw dropped. Her son’s insight pained her, but she wasn’t completely surprised-- afterall, Aaron was different than other kids. "Crap."

"Understatement of the year, Tiff." Cid shrugged. "They would’ve all figured it out sooner or later anyway."

"I guess so." She looked over at the small bandage on his arm. "How long until they get the results of that?"

He shrugged. "Something like a week. They said the lab was really backed up with stuff."

"Okay, if we’ve got two weeks to change the birth certificate, then that should be fine." Tifa once more turned her attention to the baby.

"I asked them what would happen if it took longer than that. They said we could still change the baby’s name, but it would cost like two hundred gil." Cid reached down and pulled the bandage off of his arm, figuring that he no longer needed it.

Money wasn’t an issue for Tifa, or at least, she hoped it still wasn’t. A small wave of anxiety ran over her. There was a chance that Vincent would take her off of the bank account now, denying her anymore cash. This quickly passed though, since she realized that as long as she had Aaron, he wouldn’t do such a thing. "Hey, Cid?"

"Yeah?"

"I still need to call you-know-who about seeing if they can do anything for Aaron." She glanced over at him, reluctant to say Reno or ASRIO outside of the house.

"Right." Cid looked thoughtful. "You want me to call them when I get home?"

Although she wanted to talk to Reno about this herself, she realized that she shouldn’t call him from here, and time was probably important in this situation. "That would be great, Cid."

-----------------------

Vincent sat at his desk, entering numbers into the computer as per his supposed job. He had been waiting for Reno to blow off and leave his desk, and that moment finally arrived.

Reno got up and stretched. "I’m gonna go home for a while and see what Angel’s up to. Wanna come with?"

Vincent flashed him a glance, and produced a sincere looking smile. "Actually, I’d like to get at least this first report here finished, so go on without me. Tell Angel hello."

"All right, your loss, Vinny." Reno wasn’t all that surprised that Vincent had turned him down. "I’ll be back later. Don’t go giving yourself carpal tunnel or whatever people that work too hard get."

"An affliction you will never need worry about," Vincent shot back.

"You’re a funny fuckin’ guy. See ‘ya later." Reno shoved his hands in his pockets and strolled out.

Finally! Let’s get to work.

Vincent brought up a search box, and entered in a few words. The results were provided and he read through the list, seeing that the documents that had come up were not what he was looking for, until he spotted the last one, titled Complete Contact List. Vincent opened this file and smiled.

Displayed before him were the names of everyone associated with the organization, and the means of contacting them-- agents, handlers, plants, specialists, and those associated with them. Everyone was here that he knew as he scrolled down the list, including himself, Tifa, and Cid.

Vincent looked around the room, to see if anyone was paying any attention to him at all, but it didn’t seem like anyone was. He copied the entire file onto a blank word processing program. He made one small modification to the list by removing Tifa and Cid’s names. He didn’t want Aaron to lose his mother, and he wanted to take care of Cid on his own. That done, he reached down into his desk, pulling out a blank CD. Vincent casually slipped the disc into the drive on the computer, and hit save. The light on the drive flashed on, and Vincent realized that the information was being burned onto the CD. Within a few moments, it was done and he opened the drive and pulled out the disc. He slipped it back into its case and pulled his cloak from the back of his chair. Vincent then placed the CD into the inner pocket of his cloak. It was done, and nobody had noticed.

That was a cakewalk, Vincent. Chaos purred with pleasure. I hope that Peirte gives us something good for this. We are going to kill Reno when we leave though, right?

Vincent smiled to himself, and in his drug-altered state, he went ahead and replied aloud. "You bet your sweet ass we are."

-----------------------

Sephiroth heard a knock on the door and went to answer. Jeanine was presently in the bathroom taking a shower. Upon opening the door, he spotted Vincent.

"I was just letting you know to be ready to leave the base in the morning." Vincent had his cloak draped over his arm.

Sephiroth’s cat like eyes went wide. "You…you’ve got the requested material?"

Vincent simply nodded. "And I thought that we should go in the morning, early before there’s much going on around here."

This was his last chance to stop this impending tragedy. Sephiroth glanced back over his shoulder to make sure that Jeanine was still in the bathroom. As he scanned the room, he spotted his wife’s laptop computer sitting in its bag on the bed. He got an idea. "Do you have the information with you?"

Vincent reached into his cloak and pulled out the CD in its case. "Yes."

"Let me have it tonight. Jeanine has her computer here, and I can make a copy of it. That way, we can both have the information and we can travel back separately. That will give us a better shot at getting this to our mutual friend." Sephiroth looked up and down the hall, making sure that no one was around.

Vincent was reluctant to hand over the CD, but Sephiroth had a valid idea, and he hadn’t given him any reason to doubt him yet. He quickly passed the CD to his son. "I’ll be by in the morning to retrieve that. It’s probably best that it not be with me tonight anyway, just in case someone gets suspicious and decides to search my room."

Sephiroth nodded. "Agreed. I’ll see you in the morning, then."

"All right." Vincent walked away, on the way to needing another fix.

-----------------------

Cid had gone back to the house with the boys. He was sitting in the kitchen finishing the dinner he’d made for the kids and himself. Luckily for him, Aaron seemed to be on his good behavior for the moment. After putting his plate in the sink, he went over and picked up the phone, dialing Reno’s number.

"What?"

"Reno, it’s Cid," he said, stepping out the back door so he could have this conversation without the boys listening.

"Hey, so how’s fucking Tifa? I asked Vinny that before, but he wasn’t very forth coming, if you can imagine." Reno knew that if Cid had been here in person, he never would have had the nerve to say such a thing to him.

"Reno, I don’t need none of your shit right now." Cid sat down on the back steps. "Look, I was calling you for something serious."

By the pilot’s tone, Reno realized that something heavy really was going on. "What’s that?"

Cid stared down at the grass. "Look, your guys were able to get that Chaos thing out of Vincent with some medication, right?"

"Yeah, you were there, you know how it worked." Reno landed on his couch.

"Well, Tifa was hoping that your guys could make more of that stuff."

Reno was confused. "Why?"

Cid shrugged even though he was on the phone. "Well, uh, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but Sue’s boy, Aaron, is sorta freaking out. His eyes have turned red and he’s getting real fucking unpleasant. He’s got one of those things in him like his God damned dad."

Reno didn’t know what to say at first. "Wait, we cured Vincent of that shit way before he knocked Tifa up with Aaron! The guys said something like this wouldn’t happen!"

"I don’t know what to tell you, guy." Cid brought his gaze up toward the sunset. "The kid’s got some version of Chaos in him, and we need to nail it before he hurts someone."

Reno ran a hand through his fiery hair. "Okay, I’ll go talk to they guys and get them on this. Vinny would probably like to know, too."

Cid was happy that he was going to be spared breaking the news to Vincent. "Yeah, you do that. Good luck not getting your fucking head ripped off for it."

"Naw, he wouldn’t freak out on me to bad. You’ve made the rest of us look real good in comparison, Cid. I’ve finally passed you on the Vinny popularity list." Reno smiled to himself, knowing that he was angering the pilot.

"Yeah, just get it taken care of. I don’t want to have to fight some fucking miniature Chaos." Cid pulled the phone from his ear and hung up.

"Wow…" Reno stared at the phone in his hand for several minutes. This was big news. He resolved that he needed to go back to the base and see Quigley and Porter. "Hey, Babe?!"

Angel came around the corner from the kitchen. "What’s going on?"

"I’m gonna go back to the base for a bit." Reno slid his phone back into his pocket.

"Why?" Angel put her hands on her hips. "Dinner’s almost ready!"

"Yeah, but that was Cid and he needs me to do something." Reno took a few steps closer to her.

Angel rolled her eyes. She knew that Cid was staying with Tifa, but that was it. "What’s going on?"

Reno knew that this was yet more information that Vincent wouldn’t want him to give to his daughter. "I can’t really talk about it, but I won’t be gone long."

She gave up. Her husband had been cryptic lately, obviously hiding things from her, but Angel let it slide. He was just weird like this sometimes. "Fine. Your plate will be in the fridge when you get home."

He went and gave her a quick kiss. "Thanks, Babe. I love you."

Angel gave him a smile. "Yeah, I love you, too."

-----------------------

Jeanine came out from her shower, seeing Sephiroth sitting with her computer upon his lap. "What are you up to?"

Sephiroth had been looking at the information on the disc, debating what to do with it. Just as Vincent had said, it contained the names of everyone involved with ASRIO, and Jeanine’s name was on that list just as he’d suspected. He brought his gaze up to her. "I was just messing around."

She went over and sat on the edge of the bed, getting to the task of brushing her hair while it was still wet. "You know, I had to leave Mideel so quickly that I forgot some really important things, but by God, I grabbed my computer. Funny, huh?"

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. "What did you forget that was important?"

Jeanine instantly flushed red and looked away. "Well, I probably should have mentioned this already, but, uh, I sort of forgot my birth control pills."

He quit moving completely. "Are you serious?"

She smiled shyly. "Well, when I first got here, it wasn’t really an issue since you were in that lab."

Sephiroth set the computer aside for the moment and got up. "Jeanine, you have no idea what a child from me in this state would be like! The Jenova could cause something to happen!"

"Well, you didn’t tell me that you weren’t you when you first got here! I’ll go see Janice tomorrow and have her check me out and get me back on something." She suddenly felt bad for not having said anything about this before now.

He narrowed his eyes. "So, you don’t think anything has actually happened, then?"

Jeanine honestly didn’t think anything had. "You usually have to be off of them for a while before your body adjusts and you can get pregnant."

"Yes, but I’ve heard all kinds of horror stories about women forgetting just one pill and getting pregnant!" Sephiroth was not well for the thought.

"Horror stories? You really think having a baby would be that bad?" Jeanine suddenly had tears in her eyes. She’d wanted a baby for the last few years, but Jaras had always seemed rather indifferent. Now, the truth was coming out. He hadn’t really wanted children at all.

Sephiroth saw the change in her composure and he immediately felt terrible. "I’m sorry, I didn’t intend for it to sound like that, Jeanine. Jaras just wasn’t ready for that kind of thing, and now with the Jenova in me, well, it could be disastrous."

"Well, thanks to your constant delaying, I’m probably too old to have a baby now anyway, so don’t worry about it." Jeanine tossed her hairbrush to the floor, no longer caring about getting herself fixed up.

Sephiroth was at a loss. He went over and sat at her side and put his arm around her shoulders. "I’m sorry, Jeanine."

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Don’t worry about it. I had no business bringing a child into this sort of situation anyway."

He sighed heavily and pulled her close. Upsetting her had been the last thing he’d wanted to do. "Not to change the subject, but do you have any blank CD’s for your computer?"

Jeanine looked up at him and cocked an eyebrow.

-----------------------

Cid was sitting watching television with the boys. When the phone in the kitchen rang, he went to go answer, thinking that it would be Reno. "Yeah?"

It had taken Jin all day to muster the guts to call him, and she hesitated for a moment. "Cid?"

"Oh…" He went over and landed in a chair at the table, feeling his heart race. "Jin? How…how are you?"

Merely hearing his voice made her smile. "I’m okay. Look, I’m really sorry about what happened."

Cid donned a pained expression as the memory of her apparent rejection hit him. "Well, I’m sure you had your reasons."

"Brad…" She had to stop for a moment. "Brad told me today that you’re sick."

He could hear the tears in her voice. "Yeah, I am."

"Cid," her voice was wavering badly, "I’m so sorry."

"It’s okay. There’s nothing that can be done, I’m just along for the ride at this point." Cid leaned forward onto the table, his heart aching for her again. Inside, he admonished himself. He’d thought he was over her, but now, sitting here and talking to her, everything was coming back up. You just yelled at Tifa the other day for not being able to let go, and just look at you, Highwind. What the fuck is wrong with you? And you gave poor Tifa that lecture about not giving you all of her heart, and here you are, still in love with Jin. You’re a fuckin’ hypocrite.

"Cid, I should have called you sooner." Jin was lying upon her small bed in her cabin on the airship. "I should have talked to you about things."

Cid knit his brow. "Jin, why did you run away?"

She gazed up at the ceiling. "Well, I was scared."

"Scared of what?"

"Not having the freedom to just be able to run away whenever I wanted to. I mean, you know how we had been, off and on again over the years. Part of me felt that it was those occasional breaks that kept us able to deal with one another. But if we’d gotten married, well, I figured that we wouldn’t be able to take those times off, you know?" Jin draped an arm over her eyes, not wanting to cry anymore.

"So, your solution to not being able to run away was to run away?" Cid almost smiled. "Pardon me, but that’s fucked up."

"I know." She sighed. "So, I’ve heard that you’re with Tifa now. Wanna explain that to me?"

"Well, I’m sorta with her, at least, I was…hell, I don’t know. I’m really fucking confused right now." Cid slumped in his seat.

"What’s been going on?" she asked.

"Remember that last big fight we had and then that break up we had about seven, eight months ago?"

"Yeah." Jin thought back, remembering the nightmarish fight the two of them had gone through then.

"During that break, I came out here and stayed with Tifa while Vincent was in Wutai." Cid closed his eyes to remember.

She knew at least that much. "So you said."

"Well, when I was here back then, I sort of…damn it, Jin, you’re gonna hang up when I tell you." Cid’s voice betrayed his stress.

He’d acted strangely after they’d gotten back together following that break, and she’d already suspected this all along. "So you finally gave in and did it, huh? That was inevitable, I guess."

Cid was confused that she didn’t sound that upset. "You’re not just going to let me have it?"

She outright laughed. "No. What in the hell do you think I did during that break?"

This caught his attention. "Excuse me?"

"Oh Cid, I was so pissed off that I came back here and I, oh man, this is embarrassing!" Jin felt herself turn red.

"Who was it?" Cid was ready to learn the name of the man whose ass he needed to kick.

Jin had to make her confession. "Quigley…and Ericson."

Cid nearly died. "Both of them? Holy shit, Jin, at least tell me that it wasn’t at the same time!"

"No, of course not." Jin laughed. "So, I’m just as bad as you, I guess."

"Maybe." Cid huffed. "I got her pregnant, Jin."

She sat bolt upright. "You got her pregnant!"

"Yeah, and she just had the baby yesterday."

This was a little more than she’d anticipated. "Well, that’s uh…wow."

"Yeah," Cid closed his eyes again, knowing how much this was hurting her. "So, I’m kinda obligated to stay here for a while."

"I’d guess so." Jin was disappointed. Her chances of getting back together with him during his final months just dropped to zero. "So, you’re gonna carry on with Tifa between now and…"

"Actually, Jin, things with Tifa aren’t that easy. She’s really hung up on Vincent, and I guess…I guess I still love you." Cid braced for her reaction.

"You still love me?"

"Yeah, I do." Cid smiled faintly. "And what about you?"

"I’ve loved you all along." Jin felt tears in her eyes again. "I can’t believe all of this."

"I know, me neither." Cid thought about something for a moment. "When I die, I’m leaving L.C. here with Tifa, or at least I planned to since I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you again."

L.C. had been damn near like a son to her. She’d been there since he was an infant, and she had missed the boy almost as much as Cid. The thought that when Cid passed that L.C. was going to be left with someone other than her hurt. "Oh…okay."

"Jin, would you want him?" Cid asked, knowing that if she said yes that it would really be up to L.C.

"I probably hurt him by leaving like I did, Cid. I’d think that he wouldn’t want to be around me." Jin sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"To tell you the truth, he’s asked about you a bunch of times. Keeps asking if you were ever coming back home. I’ve only been able to tell him that I didn’t know. He loves you, Jin. You’ve been his mother for all intensive purposes." Cid got up from the table. "Hold on a second, okay?"

"Sure."

The pilot went out into the family room. "Hey, L.C.? Come here for a minute."

The boy got up and followed his dad into the kitchen. "What’s up?"

Cid held the phone out to his son.

L.C. shrugged and took the phone, wondering who it could be. "Hello?"

Upon hearing the boy’s voice, Jin smiled and the tears returned. "Hey L.C., how are you?"

The boy’s eyes went wide and a grin lit up his face. "Hey Jin! Whatcha doing?"

"Oh, I was just talking to your dad." She longed to see him in person.

"Jin…are you comin’ back?" L.C. turned his eyes up to his father.

"If your dad wants me to," she said back.

"I want you to." The boy had missed her terribly. "It’s really sucked since you left. I want to go home and have you there…like it used to be."

"I’ll see what I can do." She was touched by his desires.

"Okay. Wanna talk to my dad some more?"

"Sure." Jin smiled again. "Bye."

"Bye. Here’s Dad." L.C. held the phone back up to his father.

Cid took it. He reached out and mussed his son’s hair. "See, the kid loves you."

"Well, I love him, Cid. I always have." Jin sighed.

"Jin, I should probably go and put the boys to bed, but can you call me tomorrow night? I really want to talk to you some more." Cid wanted to see if he could salvage anything with her. Things with Tifa were just proving to be too difficult. Besides, he wasn’t sure that he could cope with Aaron for the next four months of his life. Jin might just be his excuse to get away.

"Sure. Should I call at this same time?" she asked.

"Yeah, that would be great."

"All right. I’ll talk to you then, Cid." She smiled faintly. "I love you."

"I love you too, woman." Cid sighed. "Bye."

"Bye."

-----------------------

Reno got to the base and went to the lab. He had a pretty good feeling that he’d find the men he was looking for there.

Quigley and Porter were both still working despite the hour, trying to crack the latest encrypted information that had been spirited out of a Shinra lab. They heard him enter and turned to him.

"Reno, what’s up?" Porter asked, walking toward him with a hint of a limp forever in his step.

"Well, I sort of got a weird call a while ago, and I needed to see you two," Reno said, falling into an empty chair.

"What’s going on?" Quigley asked, getting up and nearing his boss.

"Apparently, Vinny’s little boy Aaron is, well, I guess he’s starting to develop something like Chaos inside of him." Reno began pushing some buttons on a small device left on the counter.

Not wanting their latest toy broken, Quigley quickly snatched the small device and placed it well out of Reno’s reach. He had a tendency to break things. That done, he crossed his arms over his chest. "Wait, there’s no way he should have been able to pass that on from what we thought. Any ideas, Porter?"

The former Turk leaned against the counter and became pensive. "I don’t know. From what it said in the research, that drug we gave Vincent to combat Chaos should have destroyed the demon’s RNA that had been injected into his body. Once that was completely done, he shouldn’t have been able to pass it on-- there shouldn’t have been anything of that demon left within him."

Quigley nodded in agreement. "Yeah, the only thing I can think of is that maybe somehow the drug lysed some of the demon’s RNA but not all of it. I mean, maybe it just went after the sequences that allowed Vincent’s body to transform, but other parts of the demon might have remained."

"Yeah, and Vincent never complained about anything like that, right?" Porter looked over at Reno, knowing that he knew Vincent best.

"I guess not." Reno had noticed some small changes in Vincent over the years, but they could most likely be contributed to time passing alone. "But he must have kept something of that demon within him, because they said that Aaron’s eyes turned red the other day, and it would seem that he’s becoming a handful."

"Wow, I don’t know." Quigley shook his head. "We’ll have to think about this one, but in the meanwhile, we can dig the formula for the drug back up so we can give it to the boy and prevent his demon from taking over. Although, I have no idea what sort of side effects it’s going to have on a kid like that."

"I don’t see that we’ve got a choice," Reno sighed. "I mean, if that poor kid has to go through all the bullshit of dealing with what Vincent had to with that thing, he’ll either end up dead or just as fucked as his daddy, and he don’t need that."

"Yeah, you’re right." Porter looked over at Quigley. "We should probably get on that, then."

Quigley nodded. Working on anything right now was a welcomed thing. It kept him from dwelling on his brother’s death.

Satisfied that they were going to do what they could, Reno got up and let himself out of the lab. He knew that it was time to go give Vincent the news.

Once before Vincent’s door, Reno knocked.

From within, came Vincent’s muffled response. "Just a minute."

Reno, ever impatient, reached down and tried the doorknob, opting to let himself it. He threw open the door and saw Vincent sitting on the couch with his left sleeve pulled up, and a needle in his right hand, injecting something into his vein. "Vinny? What the fuck are you doin’?"

Vincent immediately grew angry and pulled the empty syringe from his arm. "Get out!"

Reno wasn’t about to go anywhere and he walked closer. "Vinny?"

Upset at having been caught, Vincent hastily tried to get his ferium kit back together and hidden away, but as he tried, the vial of the drug fell to the floor and rolled over to where Reno was now standing.

The ASRIO leader bent down and picked up the vial, seeing it’s contents. "Aw, Vinny! You’re…you’re chasing the blue fucking dragon?"

He got up and snagged the vial from Reno’s hands. "Don’t worry about it, Reno. I’ve got it under control."

"After what just happened to Spencer the other day, you think I’m just gonna pretend that I didn’t see this?" Reno motioned toward the vial in Vincent’s hand.

"I said it’s under control." Vincent didn’t feel the need to explain any of this to Reno. "Get out!"

"No, you need help if you’re fucking with this shit, Vinny." Reno narrowed his eyes. "You can’t be doing this sort of thing! I just got some news about your boy, and you’re not going to be any help to him if you kill yourself with ferium!"

Vincent locked into his gaze. "What’s wrong with my son?"

"Cid just called me a while ago. I guess Aaron’s got your same Chaos demon living inside of him." Reno waited for the reaction.

He’s just trying to manipulate your feelings, Vincent, Chaos snarled.

Vincent laughed. "That’s the best thing you could come up with?"

Reno shook his head. "It’s the truth! I’ve got Porter and Quig working on a batch of that drug to get it out of him."

"Well, if that’s the case, then tell them to stop, because that drug is a waste of fucking time." Vincent didn’t care if he made Reno angry at this point. He had what he’d come for and could leave at any time.

"What do you mean it was a waste of time?" Reno asked, suddenly very curious.

"I mean, although it took away his ability to change my body, he’s still been in my God damned mind driving me insane all of these years. Chaos ruined my marriage and my life. I’ve got nothing to live for thanks to him. I would have been better off just dead. I don’t want Aaron to go through what I have. Find another way to help him." Vincent’s concern for his son burned through his recent dose of ferium.

Reno was suddenly very afraid. Knowing that Vincent was on ferium, he had no idea if he could trust what Vincent was saying, and he supposed that Vincent, like Spencer, had been placed on this drug by Shinra. He began to back out of the room.

Vincent cocked his head. "Where are you going, Reno?"

"I need to just go take care of some things." He tried to look calmer than he felt.

God, Vincent! Can’t you just smell the fear coming off of him!

Just bide your time, Chaos. We’re not killing him, yet. We have to get that CD back in our hands, first. Vincent tried to seem more pleasant. "If they can help my son, Reno, then have them do it."

"Okay. Just…just stay here, all right, Vinny?" Reno was finally backed up against the door.

He forced a false smile. "Of course."

Reno slipped out of the room. He ran down the hall, trembling in his anxiety. This was wrong, everything about this situation was wrong. He didn’t know what to do, and he turned to his only source for help. He stood in front of a seldom-used door and pulled out the silver key that he always kept in his pocket and unlocked it.

Once inside, he turned on the light and relocked the door. He looked around the room. It was exactly the same as it had been the last time that Tseng had left it. The smell of Tseng’s cologne was still evident in the air, and it made Reno smile. "You here?"

There was, of course, no answer.

Reno went over and sat on the vacant couch. "Tseng, I don’t know what to fuckin’ do right now."

Silence.

"Your brother’s been hooked on ferium. Everything just got really complicated. Spencer just died from the same shit." Reno pulled his legs up onto the couch and knit his brow. "What do I do, Tseng? What would you do?"

Reno then closed his eyes and let his mind clear. He pictured Tseng sitting on the edge of the bed, facing him. This had been their usual way of talking when he’d been alive.

Reno’s imaginary version of Tseng hung his head and sighed. "Reno, if he’s on ferium, you cannot trust him."

"I know, but what am I supposed to do? Just kick him out?" Reno asked silently.

Tseng met his gaze. "You have to consider all of the options. He may be on the drug and still trustworthy, but that isn’t likely. You know how much ferium corrupts the mind-- how it numbs emotions. He may no longer possess his sense of right and wrong, and I do not need to tell you that as a former Turk, Vincent could very well be putting on a good show for you while he’s possibly betraying you."

"Shit, I gave him access to the computers and everything!" Reno sighed, amazed at his own stupidity.

"But he hasn’t really had much of a chance to abuse that, right?" Tseng asked.

"Not really. I’ve been next to him the entire time that he was working on the computer at his desk. There was a short while today that I wasn’t there, but you don’t think he would have done something while everyone else was in the room working, do you?" Reno crossed his arms over his chest.

"With him being on that drug, anything is possible. Reno, you know what you have to do. You can’t risk the lives of everyone here because you are somehow afraid that doing anything against Vincent would upset me." Tseng smiled. "I am dead, you know. I could not care less about what you have to do with my brother. Just get him out of this base."

Reno nodded. "All right, boss."

He opened his eyes, ending his meditative communion with his former companion. Reno knew what he had to do and he got back up. Before he turned off the light and left, he looked around the room one more time. "Thanks, Tseng."

"One more thing." Tseng’s voice echoed in Reno’s mind.

Reno closed his eyes briefly, again picturing his old boss standing before him. "Yeah?"

"If both Spencer and Vincent came back with such an issue, it would probably be in your best interest to look into Jaras’ behavior as well." Tseng gave him a smile. "And perhaps you should look into Spencer’s death a little closer, too. Remember, be careful. You cannot trust him."

"Right." Reno opened his eyes and left the room.

-----------------------

As soon as Reno had left his room, Vincent had gone across the hall to Sephiroth’s door. He knocked.

Sephiroth answered shortly. "What’s going on?"

"I need my copy of the CD back. Reno just caught me taking ferium, and I need to get out while I can." Vincent looked over Sephiroth’s shoulder, seeing that Jeanine was asleep in the bed.

Sephiroth nodded. "I’ll get it, just a moment."

Vincent waited anxiously in the hall, hoping that he could get the CD and back into his room before Reno reappeared.

The door opened again and Sephiroth held out a CD. "Here."

Vincent inspected it, seeing that it was the same disc he’d given over earlier. "Did you get to copy it?"

He nodded. "Yes, that’s been taken care of."

"Good. If Reno kicks me out tonight, I will head for Junon. I expect you will meet me there?"

Sephiroth was going to lie, and he was going to pull it off well. "I’ll leave in the morning, so no one thinks anything of it. I’ll ditch this bitch and meet you there. I should only be a few hours behind you. Take care of that disc."

He gave his son a nod. "I will. See you in the lab."

Sephiroth smiled. "In the lab. Goodbye."

After shutting the door, Sephiroth went over to the couch and opened the drive on Jeanine’s laptop. He took out the CD from within it and broke it in half. The disc he had just given to his father only contained one piece of information-- his apology for betraying him.

-----------------------

Vincent went back to his room and put on his cloak, placing the CD within its inner pocket. He then went and picked up his ferium kit, slipping it into the pocket on the leg of his cargo pants. That done, Vincent went over to the dresser and opened up the top drawer. He pulled out the 9mm that he’d brought back with him from the lab. Vincent dropped out the clip, seeing that it was still loaded with seven rounds and then slipped it behind his back, securing it in the waist of his pants.

Now ready to run if needed, Vincent went over and sat back down on the couch, waiting.

-----------------------

Reno stopped by the infirmary on his way back to Vincent’s room. He went into Dr. Arlin’s office, finding her there. "Janice?"

She looked up at him. "Yes?"

"Not to be gross, but is Spencer’s body still in the freezer?" Reno leaned up against her desk.

She nodded. "For the moment, yes. He’s due to be cremated tomorrow, though."

"Okay, I need you to do me a favor." Reno locked into her gaze.

Janice pushed her glasses up. "What’s that?"

"I need you to run one of those thingies that they do on those crime lab shows when someone dies and they need to know what was in their blood." Reno couldn’t recall the procedure’s name to save his life.

She cocked an eyebrow. "A toxicity screen?"

Reno’s face brightened. "Yeah! That’s it."

"May I ask why?"

Reno shrugged. "I just caught Vinny shooting up, Janice. He’s on ferium, too."

Janice looked shocked. Vincent had completely convinced her that he didn’t even know what ferium was. "Really? He lied to me, then. He told me that he had no idea what ferium even was after Spencer died."

"Yeah, I know, and the fact that he was here when Spencer actually died, well, just run the test, okay?" Reno straightened back up.

"All right. I’ll send a sample from Spencer to the lab." Janice was still letting it sink in.

"Okay, I’ve got to go do something. I’ll see you later, Janice." Reno turned and walked out.

He made his way back to Vincent’s room. For a moment, he thought about going and getting someone else to be here with him while he did what he had to do, but part of him felt that was a bad idea. Certainly Vincent had been embarrassed about being caught taking ferium, and surely being asked to leave the base would be even worse. Reno felt that he at least owed Vincent enough to not call him out on this in front of other people. Nonetheless, Reno was terrified of facing his father-in-law. He reached out and opened the door, finding it still unlocked.

Vincent was sitting on the couch, dressed in his cloak. He gave Reno a blank stare.

Reno went forward slowly, his nervousness obvious. He went over and sat beside Vincent. "I need to talk to you."

Vincent turned slightly so he could look at him. "All right."

Chaos was more than eager to have at Reno. Come on…we can just tear him apart right here and now!

Settle down. Vincent could feel Chaos vying for power so strongly that he almost feared a seizure. We won’t get anywhere if you push too hard, Chaos. I’d rather not have an episode right now, if it’s all the same to you.

Reno stared at Vincent for a moment, seeing that he was thinking. He knew he couldn’t let this distract him from the task at hand. "Okay, Vinny, seeing as that you’re on ferium and I know you won’t do anything to let me or Janice help you, I’ve got to ask you to leave the base, and not come back."

Vincent knew that this was coming, but he still put forth the effort to seem incensed. "You’re throwing me out? My brother founded this organization, if you’ll recall. You’re married to my daughter. How can you do this, Reno?"

"Look, Vinny." Reno hung his head. "It’s not that I want to do this, but as long as you’re on that fucking drug, I can’t trust you."

"And what have I done thus far to make you doubt my honesty?" Vincent asked, curious to see how perceptive Reno really was.

"You ain’t really done anything around me, Vinny, but I know you flat out lied to Janice about ferium." Reno glanced up at Vincent. "Tseng put a lot of work into building ASRIO, and I can’t let anything or anyone in here that could be a threat. Look, if you can get off of that stuff and pass a drug test, I’ll let you back in, but until then, you’ve got to go."

Vincent nodded slightly. "All right, Reno. Have it your way. What are you going to tell Angel? Are you going to tell her that you threw her dad out onto the street?"

"I don’t know. I’ll worry about that when I get that far." Reno got up from the couch. "Get your stuff."

Vincent already had what he cared to take with him. "I’ve got what I need. Will you at least take me to the bus station so I can get out of town?"

Reno flashed him a weak smile. This was the least he could do. "Yeah, I can give you a ride."

Vincent walked past him and opened the door. "Then let’s go."

What are you doing? Why are you being so fucking civil, Vincent? Just lay into him and kill him! Chaos demanded.

Would you just wait? Vincent frowned as he walked down the hall with Reno at his side. His time is coming, but we’re doing it my way. Like it or not, Reno meant a lot to my brother, and even though I may not care about him at all, I owe it to Tseng to make this easy. Betraying Reno is something I’m willing to do for Peirte, but torturing him, making him suffer, is not something I will do.

You weak, pathetic bastard! Chaos was not happy with Vincent’s refusal to give in to him. Who do you think you are not following my orders?

Again, Chaos, do you really want me to have a seizure right now? Do you know what would happen if I did? They would drag us to that damned infirmary and they would strap us down to a bed just like they did Spencer. Do you really want to go through withdrawal like that? Because I don’t. Vincent tensed his jaw.

Reno looked over at Vincent as they neared the passage up to the airfield. He felt the wave of tension that came from Vincent. "Vinny, are you going to be okay?"

Vincent stopped walking for a moment, trying to get Chaos to quiet down. "Yes."

"I sorta thought you’d freak out a little more about this." Reno followed as Vincent started walking again.

Vincent wished he’d given himself just a little more ferium than he had. There was some sort of feeling trying to creep up within him. "I guess I’m just full of surprises."

They finally exited the base and started walking across the dark airfield. Reno’s car was out in the airfield’s parking lot a few hundred yards off. As they passed between two vacant hangers, Vincent slowed his pace, falling slightly behind Reno. He reached back beneath his cloak and took hold of his gun, flicking the safety off. Far enough behind Reno as to be out of his sight, Vincent stopped walking and aimed his gun.

Reno was brought out of the daydream he’d slipped into when he heard a weapon cocked behind him and he spun around, seeing Vincent holding the gun about ten yards away. "Vinny? What are you doing?"

"I told you I was full of surprises. Tell Tseng I’m sorry for doing this." Vincent pulled the trigger.

There was no time for Reno to react and the bullet hit him in the head, blowing out his right eye in the process. He reeled backward and dropped, hitting the asphalt hard.

Vincent frowned. His aim had been a little off. He had intended to shoot Reno between the eyes, killing him but not mutilating him as badly as he just had. Yet, the bullet had still done its job-- Reno was down and not moving in the least.

Now go over there and unload the rest of your clip into him just to get the point across! Chaos begged.

He’s dead, Chaos. There’s no point, and we may need that ammunition to defend ourselves later. Vincent brought the gun back to his side and turned away. He began to run as fast as he could into the darkness. The feeling within him finally surfaced through the ferium. It was regret.