***

Along the roadside Vincent moved swiftly on the feet that never seemed to touch the ground. Every now and then he checked behind him making sure they were able to keep up. He feared at the pace they moved Barret might be gone before they got there.

Poor Marlene could not endure the journey and fell sound asleep in the arms of Tifa who then carried her, almost running to stay in good distance of Vincent. She cradled Marlene in her arms hoping not to wake her.

They used their minds to communicate. "How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"I'm fine, just tired. I want to get there before things.." she hesitated, "take a turn for the worse. Barret has always been there. I don't understand how a man can suffer that much and still remain sane. His wife, his town, everything. And the daughter of a friend that he raised as his own. Every single time he looks into her eyes he sees his friend staring back. I can't picture him not being here on this planet. He would be the first of us to.." again she stopped.

Vincent stopped in his tracks and let his head hang low. His eyes had a touch of anger in them, perhaps hatred? Tifa felt the fear in his heart. They knew what had happened, the act of murder between what once was a family. A family made up from the closest of friends. Though Tifa realized obviously things could never be the same, this one thing can never be forgiven nor forgotten. A child could be branded an orphan, the family torn apart and a murderer on the loose free from guilt, suspicion and prosecution. This was not justice, but corruption. And someone will pay dearly.

"I know.." he answered briefly, "But we must keep that out of our minds, for her sake. One so young can't possibly understand. How old is she anyway?"

Tifa looked at her fondly. "Almost eight years old. God, how time flies. It was quite a surprise to see Barret with this little one. He had told me the story some years later, I was too polite to ask otherwise thinking the whole time it was his daughter. It came as a shock but loved her just the same. I guess I was really the only mother she ever had."

A pain throbbed in Vincent's head, Tifa reacted as though she felt it too. Visions shot through their minds moving too fast to analyze. A woman's smile, a man's corpse and a raging fire. The heat of the flames so intense knocks them both into reality again.

"Vincent what was that?" Tifa inquired.

Still he remained silent staring at the ground. The woman's smile faded and suddenly became a frown, then a cry of anguish. She got up and ran to a door, unable to get out, men blocking her path holding her. These men wore strangely familiar garments. A man came and argued trying to pull the woman back to him. When he finally succeeded in getting her back he made a dash for the door screaming for the woman to run while he fought to keep them away. She grabbed a bundle and a sack she threw over her shoulder. She opened a window and slithered out running as fast as her legs would take her looking back once she knew she was safe. She cried into the bundle opening it up for the first time. A baby concealed by many wrappings of cloth. A baby with the strangest color eyes, almost like two rubies shining out of the tiny head.

"Vincent, what was that?" she asked knowing what it must be but not having the courage to ask.

"My mother. She risked her life for me." He began to walk again, this time going drastically slower.

"And that was your father?" she said following him so she was then at his side.

"Yes. They both died soon after. At the time Shinra was just gaining its popularity and competing with the prosperity and economy of Wutai. Since Wutai was the leading nation and controlled mostly everything from food production to war recruitment, Shinra really had to put up a fight to stay in the business. Eventually they succeeded in doing so but in a cruel and brutal way."

"So what did this have to do with you're parents?"

An unreadable smile spread across his face. He did not look at her, but still looked ahead out onto the road. It wound around the mountains down through valleys and finally again into open space. He pictured it as he remembered and sometime soon they would need to find shelter.

"Shinra did not have an army, and they felt the people of this time would never switch from one organization to depend on entirely to another. Shinra desperately needed to prove itself to this generation. A year or two passed before things got out of hand. The plan was to somehow take the next baby of every household to form an army of complete discipline and devotion to make Shinra the largest, trustworthiest company in the world. They named this program SOLDIER. Some families gave their children to this program simply because they couldn't afford it, at first no money was given to them. This was the beginning of the nightmare. Shinra offered the people that they would get paid to have children and give them up, then a program where you were able to join SOLDIER if you wanted and finally the sickest thing of all, advertising to have children volunteer without parental permission. Suddenly it was an honor to be in SOLDIER. To make it to the highest rank was the goal. In return, you were a member forever with pension."

They neared a cave somewhere deep in the mountains as the sun was beginning to rise. The light was burning their fragile eyes and their skin getting hotter by the minute. They traveled to the farthest, darkest part of the cave. Vincent leaned himself on the wall drawing up one knee putting his metal claw around it. Marlene woke but only for a moment as Tifa explained to her not to wake them up during the day unless it was an emergency. They were walking all night and needed to sleep. When it was night again they would go out and continue the walk. She then hugged Tifa falling back asleep in the comfort of her arms. Tifa kissed her forehead softly and leaned up against the wall next to Vincent who was almost lost in bliss of sleep. He slid his arm around Tifa letting her head rest easily on his shoulder, he kissed her forehead in the exact manner to which he just witnessed. Marlene was placed between them so she would keep warm as the three slept throughout the day in comfort.

***

"Where..where is, Marlene?" Barret coarsely whispered out speaking for the first time in 24 hours, not bothering to open his eyes. He grabbed his stomach twisting his face in a most unpleasant way. This man was in such pain.

Cid poured a glass of ice cold water into a glass placing two straws in it after. He put it up to Barret's mouth unsure of what to do for him. He just shook his head, "Rest Barret, we will take care of everything." He replied. In his mind he swore wishing that the pain were less and a cure were possible. Barret's daughter was out there somewhere and though teams of people from Rocket Town were searching for her, the rescue seemed bleak. No one knew the directions she was headed and a girl of that age could never withstand being alone for more than a day. "Everything with be fine, Barret." He reassured hoping the uncertainty and utter fear would not be so detectable in his voice. Shera, in the other room, cried.

***

They were on the road again, the night seemingly brighter than yesterday and the stars shone brightly without the disturbance of clouds. Marlene held Tifa's hand not saying a word almost running to keep up the pace. Tifa and Vincent continued their silent wordless conversation.

"If parents had the option to give up their children, why did they forcefully try to take you away from yours?"

"In reality, those were not even my parents. I was an orphan to begin with. I have every reason to believe I was in fact sold into SOLDIER by my biological parents, but I do not hold it against them, whoever they might be. My adoptive parent's were both researchers at Shinra and helped design the program where innocent youths were transformed into fighting machines with no heart and emotion. To their dismay, though they tried for years, no child could be born to them. How ironic."

Vincent ran his hand through his cape looking for something. After a time he gave up and continued his talking. Marlene was in her own world admiring the company she was with and amazed to see the world where the sun was no where to be found.

"One day in their routine of checking the children for illnesses, a child was said to have possessed the 'eyes of one in a million', simply meaning the eyes no one has ever seen before." If a blush could have been spotted on Vincent, he would be blushing now, "They encountered the child immediately and knew this must be a sign from somewhere that I must be their child. That I was the one sent from wherever it may be, from above or below or beyond, I was to be their son for now and ever."

Tifa smiled again realizing the radiance of his beauty. It seemed to shine off him. A man this handsome and he had been through so much pain never in an instance making him ugly. She would too have blushed, although for a different reason, and glanced at Marlene still carrying her smile. Marlene was looking at her giggling sweetly thinking Tifa's smile was an encouragement to her in some way. Marlene was ecstatic.

"They devised a plan that very night to sneak into the center and 'steal' me away. As planned, they succeeded and had a newborn son, for a while. Shinra caught on immediately as to what happened. You couldn't have missed a baby like that. When they realized what had happened an intense search was called."

"All for one baby?"

"Well, they said, this baby had extreme potential. Something special about him. An unleashed power. If this power was dangerous they wanted to be able to conceal it. A few days later they found me in the hands of their most trusted employees. My father, for being disloyal, was shot by the president Shinra of that time. As for my mother, she did escape but was found 5 years later in a small cottage near the Northern Crater. She too was shot. I was too young to understand what was happening. Years later I read the records and found out what initially went on. Completely different from the story they told me." He was staring out with cold eyes.

Tifa shook her head in disgust. How they could do that to two human beings was sick.

"At the age of 6 I was officially adopted by Shinra, but specifically by a special group of Shinra. The Turks. A secret organization that took care of business outside the company. But of course I won't need to get into what that means, you already know of them and their 'duties'. I was trained to fight with a gun at 7 and by the time I was 10 became a professional sharp shooter. Emotions were things we weren't allowed to express and we were taught to believe they were signs of weakness. I killed any feeling I had left inside of me to become what it is I am." He snickered at the thought. "What I am.."

The party came to a halt before an open field. Only a ways away from Rocket Town. The night was young and they would reach the town before daybreak.

"How did you meet Lucrecia?" Tifa asked shyly.

A deep sigh followed her question. "We were ordered to protect the city of Nibelheim from outsiders. The scientists and researchers worked around the clock and couldn't afford to waste time thinking about intruders. It was an easy job until that day.."

The vision of Lucrecia, a beautiful woman full of youth and beauty walked out of the Shinra mansion without a care in the world. To Vincent, she was the most stunning woman he had ever seen in his lifetime. The white lab coat made her seem cold as she walked briskly across the street. Her right arm carrying several folders full of papers, in the other a briefcase not fully clasped closed and inevitably it opened spilling contents all over the place. Vincent came to her side and stooped down picking whatever he could up from the ground. He looked very much the same as he did now though the burden of life had not left its invisible scar stricken across his face.

"Oh! Thank you, sir. I'm so clumsy! There was just too much to-" she looked up at him amazed at his features. She flushed a bright red embarrassed suddenly by her behavior of gawking, but who could resist?

"Is something the matter?" someone asked coolly from behind. Vincent looked up to see the face of one of the higher authorities standing over them. Lucrecia stood immediately and regarded him quickly with a smile. "Hello Hojo, I mean Professor, I was a fool and forgot to close my briefcase and everything came spilling out, this kind man was helping me here," she turned to him and shot out her hand, "I'm Lucrecia, I don't think I caught your name?"

"Vincent" he said coarsely unsure whether to take her hand or not. He decided that a nod of the head was good enough. She shrank back laughing it off then getting very serious again looking to Hojo.

"I'll get right back to work as soon as I'm organized, sir."

"Good. I have something I've been meaning to tell you, about our next experiment. Meet me in my office in an hour, will you?"

"Yes, sir!"

With that he walked away giving Lucrecia a slight grin but to Vincent merely a look of unmeasurable disgust. They were practically the same age but Hojo felt he had the upper hand in the situation and deserved the utmost respect for his position. He might have been one of the youngest genius professors they had, but he was still a conceited ass.

Lucrecia bent down again just as Vincent was to pick up the remaining items on the ground. They bumped heads and immediately Lucrecia gave way to a nervous laugh grabbing her hand. Vincent didn't acknowledge this encounter and still lifted the things mechanically into her case. She took his hands and held them down so they knelt there together in the street. Goosebumps collected on his arms at her very touch and when she gazed at him magic happened. It was as though time had stopped for the two of them. Nothing moved, no one spoke. She looked so deeply in his face for a reaction but one failed to show. She took her things and gathered herself together.

"I must be going, thanks again for your help." And stepped away from him back onto her path. The ball in his throat dissolved finally and enabled him to speak but didn't know what to say. He knew he had acted like a fool and wasn't sure why. He never dealt with anything like this before nor felt what he felt when he first saw her. It was now or never and he wasn't going to let this slip away due to his idiocy.

"No problem." Instantly he wanted to slap himself silly for this comment. All he could think of was how stupid he must have sounded.

She turned around suddenly and gave him the sweetest smile and nodded her head. "I'll see you around?"

"Yes." He said and the two walked off in opposite directions.

"I feel in love with her at that very moment. I think I loved her from the moment I first saw her, I'm not sure. But something stirred inside of me that I never felt before. And all the while I kept thinking, please god, don't let me lose this feeling. Let me have it forever."

Tifa's heart was ringing in her ears. "Please continue. What happened after that?"

"We saw each other every day after that. A week or so happened to just be coincidental run-ins but that didn’t last very long. She asked if I wanted to have dinner with her that night and I accepted." He paused. "I remember her saying to me one night that just once she wanted to see me smile. Over the course of about 3 months we were casually 'dating' whatever you may call it. For no apparent reason one day she broke it off. She told me bluntly that she needed to focus on her work and a love affair wasn't what she needed to be thinking about. Though I wouldn't admit it, I was hurt. I was devastated. She was crying when she told me she never wanted to see me again."

Vincent stopped talking and turned to Tifa wanting to know her reaction. She still listened intently begging him with her eyes to go on.

"I found out the next day Hojo had proposed to her. They were going to have a child together. I was completely out of the picture without really even being in it. As it turned out later on their proposal of marriage and their child was all an experiment. They wanted to create a 'Supreme Being'. A genome. Something with the power of Jenova and human genetics, an ancient. I hadn't discovered any of this until I was teamed up with the rest of you. I was so filled with anger towards Lucrecia and Hojo I caught them one night during an argument.

Hojo's arm was pinning Lucrecia down and with the other he was ready to slap her. Vincent with intentions of getting answers from Lucrecia that night was standing right outside their doorway when he heard the slap. Instantly he burst through the door of the room they shared at the inn and hit Hojo from behind. Lucrecia then jumped up and ran over to Vincent, begging him not to hurt him. Seeing this course of action, Vincent regretfully lowered his hands and placed his head in them.

"So it's true. You care for him."

Lucrecia tried wrapping her arms around him, wishing she could tell him the truth when, a loud bang broke her thoughts. Blood had splattered onto her face soaking into her skin. At first she felt her body all over not sure if she was the one shot when Vincent collapsed to the floor, shutting his mortal eyes to the world forever. She screamed in horror for she was the one that brought about this death. Hojo, smiling in the corner, picked up the empty shell from the ground and slid it into his pocket.

"Next thing I knew I was locked up in a room somewhere that must have been in the Shinra Mansion basement. I awoke in a coffin horrified to find my arm mutated into this thing, this metal claw." He looked at his artificial metal part and snickered, "Hojo had made me into something much worse that what I appeared. I was not the only one of his victims thereafter."

"That is how you became a vampire? I don't think I understand. It takes someone else to make you one, you can't be created can you?" asked Tifa.

This had been the response Vincent had hopped from her. "Did you not notice how Hojo never really seemed to change much? Except for a few new ideas in mind, his physical being hardly changed and I'm surprised most people did not pick up on that-"

"Are you meaning to tell me.." she interrupted.

"Yes. Hojo was one of the very first I'm afraid. Something took over him when he made me what I am. He must have thought that were the ultimate punishment. After awaking he had left a note on the table with a small vial next to it. I was to drink from the vial and sleep eternally until awoken which wouldn't be for many years. A key to my prison was locked into a certain hidden safe somewhere in the mansion. Inside it was what he though an unbeatable monster. Until that day where my saviors would come I was stuck."

"He had had some type of mercy I guess. And then we came, rescued you."

He hadn't heard her at the moment. "I screamed for Lucrecia for hours on end and when finally lost hope, went to drink the liquid that would for some time bring me salvation from the world. Though Hojo was a man of true scientific genius, he must have failed to realize that along with picking my place of rest, my tomb, there was a certain file cabinet hidden from view in the shadows. These files although confidential, proved to be no longer important to future projects of Shinra. But one file they failed to overlook was the file of a certain man by the name of Highwind."

"Highwind? But that's impossible! Cid would only have been a boy, maybe not even born yet."

"Not Cid, but his father, Jacob. Initially Jacob Highwind, highest in command of the Shinra Airforce, had been chosen to plan out the first trip into outer space. He designed a rocket ship capable of holding up to 3 crew members and bring them safely to space and back. Somehow the plan did not follow through and out of anger, Jacob resigned his position. Shortly after he and his wife had a son, Cid."

"I never knew Cid's Dad was such a high official. But then again he never talked about his past."

"It gets worse." Vincent scolded. "Due to their very important loss of Mr. Highwind they feared there would be no other man to be as brilliant and as skilled as he was in flying and mechanics. Without the proper training and knowledge Jacob possessed who else would become as experienced?"

"You mean to say-"

"Cid Highwind would in no doubt follow his fathers' footsteps. Learning first hand from someone such as your father for instance is the best you can get. Shinra planned to become a big impact on young Cid's life. Hopefully through enough influence he too would fall into the hands of Shinra to be used as just another slave worker. It seemed as though nothing could stop them. Soon enough though, Cid's life would have one of the biggest turning points in Shinra's history."

"How so?"

Before Vincent could answer, in clear view the faint lights of Rocket Town glowed through the night mist. A dimmed light was on in the back of Cid's house, it must have been a guest room. Marlene was getting restless and suddenly let go of Tifa's hand, rushing towards the house. She got up to the entrance of the town and turned back to wait for Vincent and Tifa to catch up.

All three of them stood there and motionless as Tifa turned to say something to Marlene.

"Marlene, whatever happens I want you to know." She hesitated, "You won't ever be alone. Do you understand me? No matter how hard and impossible things seem you won't ever have to be alone."

Marlene just shrugged it off and again made a mad dash towards the dimly lit house. Suddenly the back room's light turned off, and there was darkness all in the Highwind household. Marlene stopped dead in her tracks and wasn't quite sure what to think. Tifa lifted her hand to her mouth and must have let out a sob, for instantly following was her words, "Oh God, no. Not when we're this close."

Vincent crept silently behind Marlene and placed a cold hand on her shoulder. She didn't react but simply stood there, the blackness of night reflecting in her eyes as a little girls' battle against time and chance was lost.