Saviour

Curling tightly into a ball the genetic creation known as Vincent Valentine hide from the world. Amongst the dusty books and old furniture where Sephiroth had spent a vast amount of time before going insane he hide from everything. The world no longer welcomed him the way it once had. There was no color to anything around him, as if his actions had drained the last of it from the world around him. Nothing seemed right in what he had done in what he had been a part of.

Saving the world yes but at the cost of Sephiroth?

There was nothing in his mind that would allow him to forgive himself for that, he simply wouldn’t allow it. The unlawful child of Lucretia who he had loved first, yet it was that same love that had cursed him for the rest of his life, however long that would be.

Sephiroth.

The name still hung in the air as if just the thought of it would make him reappear in this room. The same room that Vincent could still hear rantings from as the S.O.L.D.I.E.R passed up and down the corridors reading book after book filled with stranger forgotten text. The same room that had turned Vincent against him and the same room he now swore he would never leave again.

Even if to do so he had to sleep here for eternity or spend the time in sleepless torment.

**

“Don’t you ever sleep?” whispered his own words from long ago breaking through the darkness.

“Not when I’m reading, no” replied Sephiroth dead pan as his eyes continued to scour the book in his hand.

“What have you found in there that could be so completely consuming?” he mused leaning against the door frame his lone figure silhouetted behind him.

“I think I know,” muttered the other absently before walking to a table and hunting for another book.

Sighing Vincent moved into the room before flopping down into one of the chairs his metal claw clicking against the wooden hand rest as he watched. Moments later Sephiroth pulled another book from the pile plonking it over the one still in his hand and thumbing forward quite a few pages. It was obvious he wasn’t going to speak again when he dropped the same book back onto the pile and continued to read the one he had started with.

“You think you know what?” he queried pretending interest in a lose bit of stitching.

“Why Hojo did this, the mako reactors everything I think I know… but I’m not sure it’s like there is a book missing, one I haven’t found yet that holds all the answers” there was a pause as Sephiroth read for a moment “And its not this one” he snarled pegging said book at the wall as hard as he could.

The ancient bindings falling to dust scattering old paper full of older text around the floor. Both of them stared at the book for a moment before Vincent turned his attention to Sephiroth it wasn’t like the highly skilled fighter to be like this. He very rarely showed much emotion if any let alone anger over a simple book.

As easily as it appeared to have happened Sephiroth dismissed it turning back to the shelving containing the books he hadn’t pillaged for information yet. Snatching one off the shelf he flicked open the cover and began to read again.

“Sephiroth?” questioned Vincent unconsciously running his tongue over the tip of a fang. A habit he had picked up since Hojo had ‘given’ them to him and one he didn’t acknowledge.

“Mmm?” came a distracted reply platinum hair fanning slightly as Sephiroth spun towards the table again.

“Nothing” Deciding he wouldn’t get any kind of explanation for his actions he got to his feet.

He reached the door before Sephiroth even noticed he had moved and only then did he take his eyes from the book in his hands.

“Vincent” instantly the other man stopped and turned to face him “Do you know anything about any one or anything called Jenova?”

Thinking for a moment as the name tugged at his memory he could only shake his head and ask the obvious “Why?”

“It’s mentioned here and in several other books but the name is all it gives nothing else it has become incredibly frustrating”

And then in an instant he was forgotten again as Sephiroth turned back to the library and its horde of knowledge. Stark white hair seeming to be the only light thing in the whole room even above the candles littered all around.

Sighing Vincent turned and went back upstairs. If only he had known then what Jenova would mean in the end. Known that in the next few months Sephiroth’s sanity would take a nose dive with every page he read. If only’s and what if’s were the only thing that Vincent’s mind would come to know. What if he could have done something to revert this whole mess in the first place.