Chapter Two

Jaras awoke from a horrible pain in his shoulders. He opened his eyes and tried to look around, but he was gagged and blindfolded, unable to see or say anything. His shoulders were aching as he was presently lying on his back on the van’s metal floor, and his hands were still in the cuffs beneath him.

Upon seeing their prisoner rouse, the lead SOLDIER in the van spoke. "You know, we were all scared shitless about facing you, Sephiroth. You didn’t even put up a fight, though. Is it really true that you lost all of your power after Meteor, or are you just putting us all on and you’re actually going to snuff us when we’re least expecting it?"

The other men laughed as the van continued to rattle down the road.

Jaras desperately wanted to ask what was going on and where they were taking him, but was in no position to do so. He struggled against the cuffs still binding his hands. They had cut off the circulation in his hands completely in the position he was in, and he wasn’t able to roll over onto his stomach to get the pressure off of them since his legs were now bound as well.

Seeing him writhing on the floor just seemed to amuse the SOLDIERs more. One of them, sitting close to Jaras, jabbed him with the barrel of his rifle. "Yeah, he’s not so fucking bad now, is he? I bet we could do whatever we wanted to him and he wouldn’t be able to do a God damned thing about it."

Jaras instantly quit moving all together. There had been something in the man’s tone that chilled him to the core. He realized that wherever they might be taking him, that this trip there might prove to be just as bad.

Delighted with the change in Jaras’ attitude, the man got down low and growled into the prisoner’s ear. "We could have a real good time with you, you know."

Jaras swallowed hard, and felt himself start to shake again. Like most men, he had never been spoken to in that tone before, and it terrified him. There was something profoundly wrong in whatever the man next to him was contemplating. Please leave me alone!

#

Reno had made his way to the house he and Angel had purchased up in town. They had moved out of the base after the birth of their daughter several years back, as it was no place to raise a child. Angel had been excited about this, as having a place of her own, a real place, was all she had ever hoped for.

He threw open the front door, and was immediately accosted by his carrot topped daughter. "Daddy!"

"Hey, Squirt. Where’s your mom?" he asked, peeling her from his leg.

"Upstairs." She ran back off to continue whatever it was that she had been up to. Undoubtedly, it was something related to wanton property destruction. This girl was far too much like her father in that way.

Reno scaled the stairs and found his wife scrubbing the floor of the master bath. Despite the fact that he had horrible news to share, he couldn’t help but smile and make light of the position she was in. "That’s what I like about you, babe. I come home from work and find you up here on your knees."

Angel straightened up and cocked her eyebrow, mimicking her father’s generally annoyed expression. "Reno."

"Fuck, don’t look at me like that!" Reno cringed, not liking it when her ‘Vincentness’ came up so clearly.

She broke into a smile and hurled the scrubbing brush at him. "You really know how to make a girl get in the mood, you know."

"Yeah," Reno sighed, his cocky smile suddenly fading. He couldn’t put it off anymore. "Angel, come over here and sit down, okay?"

She rose from the bathroom floor and narrowed her eyes. There was something obviously serious going on and she went and landed on the edge of the bed as Reno had asked. "What is it?"

He hung his head and placed his hands on her shoulders. "It’s Jaras."

Her eyes went wide. "What happened? Is he okay?"

"I don’t know, babe." Reno went ahead and sat beside her. "Rude called me and told me that Shinra was going to get him and I called Spanky right away, but it was already too late."

Angel covered her mouth with her hands and felt tears burn in her eyes. "Oh God, Reno! We have to find him and get him back!"

Reno put his arms around her and pulled her close. "We will, we will."

Angel sobbed against her husband’s side for several minutes, before pulling back and looking into his eyes. "Have you told my father yet?"

He shook his head. "No, I need to."

"Okay." Angel would do it herself, but knew that the tears would come back up and ruin her ability to communicate.

Reno pulled out his phone and dialed his father-in-law.

Vincent, as usual, answered before the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey old man," Reno said quietly.

Vincent knew that something was wrong right off the bat. Reno never made it a habit of calling him. "What’s up?"

Reno looked over at Angel, but saw that she wasn’t going to get him off the hook for this. "Shinra…got Jaras today."

He felt the faint hint of color that he had drain away. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Vinny. They got your boy." Reno braced himself for Vincent’s response.

For several moments, Vincent didn’t do anything. Even Tifa, who was sitting next to him on the couch was presently unaware that anything significant was going on.

"You there?" Reno asked, wondering if Vincent had just fallen over dead.

"Yeah," Vincent replied quietly, feeling his hands start to shake. "I just talked to him this afternoon… When did it happen?"

"Sometime between five thirty and six, I guess."

Tifa finally felt Vincent’s unrest and turned to face him. "Vincent?"

He glanced at her, "Jaras has been kidnapped."

"What?" Tifa quickly stood up, her eyes going wide.

Reno heard her reaction. "Don’t let her get all freaked out, Vinny. She’s got a baby in there."

Vincent reached out and took her hand, pulling her back to the couch. "So, now what?"

"I’ll have my men find out where they’re taking him and we’ll get him back," Reno said, his confidence in this statement clear.

"I’m coming." Vincent looked at Tifa. "Send out the airship or helicopter for me."

"Vincent!" Tifa exclaimed, not well for her husband taking off in light of her current condition.

He pulled the phone from his ear for a moment. "Tifa, if it was Aaron that they had, you’d want me to go in there and get him, right?"

She couldn’t argue with that statement. "Well, yeah, but--"

"Tifa, Jaras is my son, I have to help him. I’ll be all right." He took the phone back up and turned away from her. "How soon can we get him?"

"Like I said, we have to find out where they’re taking him first. Once we know that, we’re all up on it." Reno thought for a moment. "I’ll arrange for you to get here, okay?"

"Good, I’ll be ready." Vincent put his arm around Tifa’s shoulders, seeing that she was crying.

"Okay, I’ll talk to you soon." Reno hung up.

Vincent placed his phone on the coffee table and turned to face Tifa again. "Are you all right?"

She shook her head. Although she was terribly upset about Jaras, the thought of Vincent going back into action scared her more. He had a family now, and if she lost him, she didn’t know what she would do. "What if something happens to you?"

"Tifa, I was a Turk. I’ve made it this far." He had no intention of failing.

"Yeah, and that was a long time ago. You haven’t done anything like that since getting your own body back, Vince. You can actually be killed now, you know." Tears rolled down her cheeks. "You have a new baby on the way for God’s sake!"

He knew this was going to hurt her no matter what. "I know, and like I said, I’ll be fine, Tifa. But I can’t just leave the rescue of my son in the hands of other people."

She closed her eyes and slouched. There was no arguing with Vincent when his mind was made up. "Damn you."

He sighed heavily and put his arms around her. "It’ll be fine. Maybe Cid can come stay with you while I’m gone."

She nodded slightly, her heart rate jumping at the mention of the pilot’s name. The memory of what had happened between the two of them during their last visit burning through her. "Maybe."

"Come on, you know you want to see him, right?" Vincent asked.

"Not at the risk of losing you!"

"Like I said, I’ll be fine, Tifa. I always am." Vincent nuzzled into her neck.

#

Cid had just put his son to bed for the night and sat at the kitchen table, staring into space. It had been a bad day-- a very bad day. His eyes were red and he looked more haggard than normal. Although he knew he should get to bed too, he was well aware of the fact that he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all in light of the news he’d received that morning.

When the phone rang, it snapped him out of his state and he went over and answered. "Yeah?"

"Cid, sorry to be calling this late," Vincent said, knowing that the pilot generally wasn’t thrilled to get called after eight.

"Hey, Sue, what’s up?" Cid went back over and landed in the seat he’d been in before. Vincent or not, at least talking to someone about anything would get his mind off of his present situation.

He could hear something reflected in Cid’s voice. "Is something wrong?"

Cid did his best to pull off his usual sarcastic and tough air. "Hell no, I was just tired, that’s all."

Vincent could tell that he was lying, but opted not to press him on the subject for the time being. "Look, I hate to bother you, but we got some really bad news today."

You don’t know what bad news is, Sunshine, Cid thought to himself before replying. "What’s that?"

"Jaras was kidnapped by Shinra."

Cid closed his eyes and shook his head. This was the last thing he needed to hear about right now. "Shit, that sucks."

"Yeah." Vincent’s voice grew quieter. "I’m going to go to ASRIO and help them get him back. I was sort of hoping that maybe you could come out here to the house and stay with Tifa while I’m gone. I don’t want her to be alone this far along."

The thought of being with and responsible for a pregnant woman after what had happened with his own wife nearly seven years back was not that appealing. Besides, the last time he’d seen Tifa, something had happened between the pilot and Vincent’s wife, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to handle seeing her face to face again. "I don’t know, Sue. I’ve got a lot going on here right now that I need to deal with."

"Well, if you can’t then that’s fine. Maybe I can get a hold of someone else to stay with her." Vincent felt disappointed and a little surprised that the pilot would turn down a chance to be with Tifa. Cid loved her and he knew it.

"Yeah," Cid scowled to himself, "there’s a lot going on." The thought that Tifa’s well being could end up in the hands of someone other than Vincent or himself didn’t sit right. Maybe getting away was a good idea. Tifa had been pregnant before and made it though with flying colors, and the chance of her dying like Shera had was slim. "What the hell, I’ll come out."

Vincent was relieved to hear this and it showed. "I’d really appreciate that, Cid, and I know Tifa will, too. You’ll bring your son, right?"

"Of course." The man never went anywhere without his boy. Besides, L.C. (what Cid had taken to calling his son) and Aaron got along really well.

"So, how’s everything else going?" Vincent asked, wanting to momentarily get his mind off the recent turn of events.

As much as Cid wanted to talk to someone about what was going on with him, Vincent was not that person. "Fine."

Again, Vincent could tell that he was lying, and this time he didn’t let it go so easily. "Cid? What is it?"

He shook his head and leaned back in his chair. "Nothing, and don’t try pulling that old Turk psychology crap on me, either. If I say things are fine, then they are God damned fine."

"All right." Vincent didn’t feel like pressing his luck at the moment. "So, I was hoping to get out of here and to ASRIO soon."

Cid didn’t actually have anything going on that would prevent him from leaving immediately-- that had been a load of bull. "I can head over there in the morning."

Vincent nodded. "That would be great."

"Sure thing, Sunshine." He hung up the phone without any further pleasantries.

Vincent found himself cut off and turned to his wife. "Have you talked to Cid lately?"

Her tear stained eyes narrowed in concern. "Yeah, just last Thursday. Why? Is he okay?"

"I don’t know, he sounded a little down." Vincent leaned back into the couch.

"He’s been a little emotional since the whole thing with Jin," Tifa sighed.

Cid and Jin had gone out, off and on, for several years since meeting. The female mechanic and the arrogant pilot had, at times, proven to be a little too strong headed to be together on a permanent basis and had just continued dating for a long time. This hadn’t stopped Cid from asking her to marry him four months ago, however. Jin had been both awaiting and dreading that moment, and when it finally arrived, she didn’t know what to do. She had left hurriedly that night, not giving him an answer. Since then, she hadn’t stopped by or returned his calls. He had admonished himself everyday since then for asking her to marry him, since he figured that doing so had cost him the only real relationship he’d had since Shera’s passing.

"I don’t think it was that," Vincent speculated.

"So, is he going to come out?" Tifa asked.

"He said he will tomorrow."

Tifa hung her head. "You’re really going to go do this, then?"

He frowned. Vincent had no desire to spend the time between now and when he left for ASRIO in any heated debate over this with Tifa. If something did happen to him while he was gone and trying to save Jaras, he didn’t want her final memories of him to be one of their knock down, drag out fights. Besides, she had a tendency to throw things when she got really mad, and with his body now completely human, that generally hurt. "I have no choice."

She got up and walked from the room. Vincent had been a good husband, despite his faults, over the years. Yet, the truth that he was willing to leave and very likely risk his life when he had a young child and a new baby just weeks from being born upset her. Reno had plenty of men more than qualified to carry out this mission. The fact that Vincent always felt the need to handle important things himself without asking for help or relying on others had been one of her major qualms with him. He needed to trust others to do things. Especially in regards to going on some sort of mission like this.

Although Vincent had made a remarkable recovery after his surgery to get his new body, he wasn’t like he had been. He had some issues that he had to deal with, no matter how much he tried to hide his difficulties. For beginners, his finer motor skills had never quite gotten back to their previous level. He went to the gun range on a regular basis, but his aim had never recovered to its previous exceptional level. Even with just walking and running, sometimes he had trouble and he’d suffered several falls that were worse on his pride than his body.

Then there were the seizures. For the first two years after his surgery, all had seemed fine, but then something changed. Apparently, during the surgery, some damage had been done to his brain that had resulted in him developing something like epilepsy. Generally, they struck when he got emotionally agitated. The first one had happened during a fight the two of them were having over some trivial thing. Tifa had started to yell at him for something, and he’d suddenly gotten a strange expression as he felt a weird sensation overcoming him. His right arm had bent and drawn up to his chest, before his eyes had rolled back and he’d fallen to the ground, spasming violently. Tifa had flown to his side, not knowing what was going on. He’d continued to seize for about fifteen minutes, scaring her to death. She’d called the paramedics and he’d been taken to the hospital. Vincent had been diagnosed with a seizure disorder and had been put on medication. Since then, he’d only had a few more, but every once in a while they still happened. Going on a mission like this was exactly the sort of situation that could cause him to have an episode and this just all seemed like a bad idea.

The only good thing to have come out of this problem was the fact that he usually tried to avoid arguments now. Still, they occasionally happened.

She went to their bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, allowing herself to cry. Tifa had long since thought that the days of stress and danger were over and done with. Their return was not something she welcomed. She wished that she wasn’t presently in her condition so that she could go with him. Then again, even if she wasn’t pregnant, she wouldn’t have gone, knowing that she couldn’t risk making their son, Aaron, an orphan. Even if Vincent did feel the need to send himself into danger, as a mother, she knew that her responsibilities were to her child and no one else. "God damn you, Vincent."

He had come down the hall and stopped short of going into the room when he heard her cursing him as she cried. Maybe this was more than he could ask of her to tolerate from him, but he had to see to Jaras’ rescue. It’s where he felt his duties as a father rested. He’d failed Jaras forty years ago. He’d failed him fourteen years ago. He wasn’t going to fail him now. Feeling bad, he stepped into the room and looked over at his wife. "Tifa?"

For the time being, she chose to ignore him and kept her head in her hands.

Vincent sighed and then went over and sat beside her and placed an arm around her shoulders. "Come on."

She pulled herself together for a moment and looked at him. "Why is that happening now? He was there for thirteen years, why couldn’t Shinra just leave him in peace?"

Now Vincent was getting to the bottom of it. She wasn’t just worried about him going on some mission to save Jaras, but she was actually worried about Jaras. "I don’t know."

"It’s so unfair. He was happy with his store and Jeanine…" The tears burned in her eyes again.

"I know. It’ll be all right, though."

Tifa shook her head. Nothing with this family was ever simple or easy and she knew better than to expect otherwise. "Promise me that you’ll be back in time for the baby, Vincent."

He kissed her cheek, wishing that he could promise her that, but if things worked out to where he couldn’t, he didn’t want to make such a vow.

The fact that he didn’t reply broke her heart. "Vincent, you can’t miss the birth of your baby!"

"I don’t want to, and I have every intention of being back for that, but we really don’t know what’s going to happen with this whole Jaras thing, Tifa." Vincent never made promises he didn’t know he could keep.

"I see." Tifa sighed heavily. "I’m not trying to piss you off, Vincent, but do you really think you’re physically up to something like this? Remember how horrible it was to face Hojo? Who knows what sort of nut job Shinra has working for them now. I know you don’t want to admit it to yourself, but you’re not like you used to be."

His arm fell away from her shoulders and his dark eyes narrowed. She’d just hit him where it hurt. Without another word, he got up from the bed and strode from the room. Physical short comings or not, he thoroughly believed himself to be the most qualified man for the mission.

Tifa watched him retreat, knowing that she’d crossed a certain line with him. Vincent was very sensitive about his condition and she knew better than to address it with him. Within a few seconds, she heard the front door to the house slam. Vincent had apparently left. When he was truly angry, he usually did.

She got up and went to check in on Aaron, making sure that’d he had slept though the small fight. Tifa admired her son for that-- he would sleep through anything. After sitting carefully on the edge of his small bed, she stared down at him in the dim light.

There were no surviving pictures of Vincent as a child, but if Tifa had seen one, she would have appreciated the fact that when he was Aaron’s age, he had once looked just like the boy. Aaron’s hair was the same jet-black color, and his eyes were of the same dark hue. He was a thin boy, but seemed to be taller than all of his friends of his same age. Generally, he was a quiet kid, good at entertaining himself. There were times where Tifa wouldn’t hear him for hours at a time as he carried on silently with his activities. Unlike most six-year-olds, he had a knack for slinking around the house without a sound, and Tifa was started several times a day when he would just seem to appear behind her, whispering some small request in her ear. This sort of behavior, unfortunately, had earned him a reputation with the other kids in the area of being ‘spooky’.

She heard something behind her several minutes later and turned, seeing that Vincent had slipped back into the house at some point and was leaning in the doorway to Aaron’s room. His arms were crossed over his chest and his expression was blank.

Tifa dropped her gaze away from him, embarrassed for having hurt his pride before.

He remained as he was for a while in silence, staring at her. Vincent may have loved Tifa for all he was worth, but their marriage hadn’t been an easy one. The woman had a temper, and he was far too stubborn. This had made for a lot of turmoil over the years. Since the seizures had become an issue for him, he’d run away from most arguments, disappearing for hours at a time. Although she didn’t know it, during his retreats over the last several years, he had been running off to the small bar that was one of the few other buildings out in the countryside near their home. Vincent wasn’t proud of the fact that he had once more resorted to drinking as he used to do as both a Turk and during his time with AVALANCHE, but old habits die-hard. At least he made it a point never to come home drunk, not wanting to expose his son to his vice. He hadn’t made it to the bar tonight.

Tifa eventually rose up from Aaron’s bed and went over, leaving the room and brushing past Vincent. She went out to the family room and landed on the couch. Vincent soon followed and sat in a recliner opposite to her, continuing to stare at her.

Not being a fan of the silent glaring that he tended to do when something was bothering him, Tifa decided to break the quiet. "I’m sorry."

His eyes narrowed for just a second, but he said nothing. Part of Vincent figured that anything he said would just set them off again.

"I…I know you have to go help Jaras. I just don’t want you running into something, though, that you’re not ready for. Like it or not, you are different than you used to be. I’m not saying that to make you mad or hurt your feelings, I’m saying it because it’s true." She met his gaze finally.

"I’m aware of my limitations," he said, sounding more like the Vincent of fourteen years back that the man she’d come to know.

"You’re going, I know that. There’s nothing I can do to convince you to do otherwise. I’m not happy about it, and you know that, and you know why. I think you should let ASRIO take care of the situation. That’s the whole deal in a nut shell, so I guess we can change the subject now," she said quietly.

"Fine."

Tifa held her tongue as she fought the urge to launch back into him. The fact that she was pregnant and far enough along to be completely miserable wasn’t helping her keep her composure. "It’s getting late. I know neither of us are going to get any sleep, but I think we should turn in."

Vincent got up from his seat and strode back to their bedroom.

She sat on the couch alone for a few moments, agonizing over the problem at hand. The only good thing that was going to come of this was the fact that she was going to see Cid. The pilot hadn’t been over to visit since right about the time she’d gotten pregnant with the baby she was now carrying. It had been far too long. She knew that the two of them had a lot of things to talk about. There were things that the two of them needed to discuss without Vincent around. Tifa had spent hours on the phone with him discussing his situation with Jin, but talking to him in person was always far better. When the two of them were alone, he was much more open, and there was something very important that she had to discuss with him. They needed to deal with what had happened the last time they had been together.

Finally, she retreated to the bedroom, finding that Vincent had gone in to take a shower. Feeling the need to make some sort of gesture to him, she stripped and headed into the bathroom. On the way, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and stopped for a second. This far along in her pregnancy, she thought it ridiculous that Vincent could still find something attractive about her body, but thus far, he hadn’t been put off. Then again, he usually wasn’t as mad as he’d seemed tonight.

She went and stood outside the shower’s glass doors for a moment, watching him moving within. He seemed oblivious to the fact that she was there, but Tifa knew better. Vincent was never oblivious of the things around him. After a few seconds, he slid one of the doors open and looked at her standing there unclothed. Vincent cocked an eyebrow at her. "Are you coming in?"

Tifa forced a fleeting smile and stepped in. The water hit her and was a little hot for her liking, but that’s how Vincent always ran it. He didn’t seem happy until his skin was red from the hot water. He quickly stepped between the water and her, letting it hit him in the back. Vincent stared down into her eyes, his face still betraying no emotion.

Tifa reached up and grabbed one of his long tresses. He’d let his hair grow back to its pre-surgical length, knowing that she had liked it that way. Pulling on an errant bit of his hair like this had been the first physical contact that she had ever made with him, so many years ago on the airship that AVALANCHE had stolen. It made him smile.

Finally seeing a break in his facade, Tifa felt herself produce the first sincere grin she’d displayed in a while. "I was wondering when you were going to come back."

His smile didn’t fade. "I’m sorry. I’m just really worried about Jaras."

"I know, it’s okay." Tifa put her arms around him and pulled him close. She had to lean forward awkwardly in order to do this, since her presently pregnant form got between them.

Vincent pulled back from her embrace and placed his hands upon the sides of her belly, feeling that the baby was moving within. "It’s kicking a lot these days."

She was all too aware of that fact and giggled. "Tell me about it."

He let his hands linger upon Tifa, fascinated that there was a baby within her. During her first pregnancy, he’d almost been afraid to touch her, but this time he had taken far more interest in what was going on with her. Perhaps it was the fact that he’d gotten more comfortable with the situation since the first pregnancy and baby had come out fine, despite the paranoia he’d suffered during the nine months leading up to Aaron’s birth. In the back of his mind, there had always been that tiny fragment of doubt that all Hojo had done to him had been corrected, and that the baby would be born with something wrong. He’d been plagued with nightmares about the baby being born more like Chaos than a human. But that hadn’t happened. This child would be just as perfect, of that he was certain. Something within him broke, and he looked into her eyes. "I promise that I’ll be back before you have this baby, Tifa."

"But what if you don’t get Jaras in that time?" She was a realist, and knew that these sorts of things with ASRIO didn’t always happen quickly, especially now that Reno was running the show.

"I won’t stay away for more than four weeks." Vincent slid his hands to slightly different positions. "You should still have a week or two to go at that point, and I’ll be around."

A compromise? Vincent Valentine is actually making a compromise? Tifa thought to herself. This was completely out of character for him. "But what if--"

He cut her off by placing a finger over her lips. "I will come back in four weeks, whether we have him or not. I won’t abandon you when you need me, Tifa. Besides, if we don’t have Jaras back within that time, then…"

"Then what?" she asked, pulling his hand away from her mouth.

"Then we might as well write him off." Vincent tried to ignore the sting that came to his eyes as he forced these words out. "They will have either killed him or changed him after that long."

Tifa didn’t know how to respond to that. Somehow, it seemed that Vincent had an idea of what Shinra had in store for his son.

The only reason the company would want him back would be to try and either dissect him to study, or to make him back into what he had once been. If they brought him back to his Sephiroth self, then he would be lost to Vincent. Over the last six years, Vincent had given plenty of thought to this, and being keenly aware of how Shinra worked, there was no doubt in his mind over what they intended for his son.

Vincent didn’t want to dwell on this for the moment. There was a way for him to forget all of this for at least a while, and he opted to lose himself in Tifa for the time being. He leaned forward and let his lips meet hers.

Tifa quickly submitted to him, knowing that she needed this momentary escape just as much as he. After a while, they left the shower and made their way to the bed. Vincent made love to her like she was made out of glass and easily broken. He had been afraid on some level of hurting her when she was pregnant, even though the doctors had assured him that he wouldn’t.

Even though he gave up forcefulness in favor of slow caution, Tifa still couldn’t complain about his level of performance. When it came to her physical relationship with Vincent, it was the one area where she had never been let down.