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Vincent’s knees buckled underneath him and he collapsed onto the ground, falling onto his hands. He breathed heavily, gasping for air. His body was overcome with a familiar sense of strain and fatigue.
Chaos.
Memories from moments before flood in. Memories of Chaos, of Sephiroth-
He wasn’t hurt because of him, was he…?
“Vincent, are you alright?” A voice asked him… Angeal. It was Angeal.
“He’s most likely tired from Chaos.” Sephiroth. Thank the goddess that Chaos hadn’t…
“Do you really think so little of me, Valentine?” Chaos sneered in the back of his head. Vincent shut his eyes, lowering his head to the ground.
“Sephiroth…”
“I’m fine, Chaos didn’t hurt me.” Sephiroth said quietly, hesitantly kneeling down onto the ground in front of Vincent. “Chaos was… he helped me. He fought the SOLDIERs who were guarding the President, and I believe when he thought Rufus shot me, he came rushing to my aid.”
Chaos had said nothing in response to this, though… it certainly had surprised Vincent. Still though… this was dangerous. It could have hurt Sephiroth and the rest of the group. Chaos was dangerous, Vincent was dangerous-
Sephiroth had loosely wrapped his arms around Vincent’s shoulders, and pressed his face against the side of his neck. “It’s fine, none of us are hurt.” He said quietly.
Vincent didn’t respond, because what could he say? Even if none of them were hurt, it didn’t change the fact that Vincent was a monster.
“Hmph. I only helped the young fool out because I knew he would do a half-assed job. I’ve come all the way here, I didn’t want this to end up as a waste of my time.” Chaos growled. An obvious lie, but…
Vincent sighed, standing up with Sephiroth’s support. Angeal and Genesis were both looking at him with concern.
“... I’ll be fine. Transforming into Chaos is… more exhausting than it is to transform into Galian.” Especially when it was by force.
Angeal’s eyes softened. “Makes sense… we should probably start heading for a hotel now.”
“I’m surprised you aren’t suggesting that we camp out in the middle of the streets to save gil.” Genesis said.
“Gil isn’t a problem anymore, but if you want to sleep outside, then be my guest.” Angeal replied.
“Ugh, no thank you. I never want to see the inside of a tent ever again.” Genesis said, rolling his eyes. “Nor see another cursed staircase. My soul, corrupted by vengeance, hath endured torment…”
“Well, we don’t have our keycards-”
“Oh shut up! If you suggest we go through that again, I’m going to kick you down all the way!” Genesis shouted at Sephiroth, glaring at the boy.
“... I’m joking, we don’t need keycards. You don’t need a keycard to get to the lobby. I thought you knew this, Genesis. You were in Shinra for nearly five years-”
“Shut up!”
*
Sephiroth had paid for the hotel room that the group would stay in. In his words, he had the most gil to throw away. The room was for two nights, that was Vincent’s request. He still had… business he needed to finish up in Midgar.
“Oh, so even with all the gil you have, we still have to cheap out on hotel rooms?” The room was a standard hotel room, there were two beds. From Vincent’s observations, Genesis just liked to act like a brat.
Sephiroth kept his face stoic. He grabbed the collar of Genesis’ shirt, and looked over at the window. “There’s a balcony here.” Sephiroth noted, before starting to drag Genesis towards it.
“Hey- let go of me!” The two started to fight. Even with how much they had to do today… they definitely weren’t exhausted. Maybe this would tire them out.
He sits down on the couch, he and Angeal watching the pair squabble until they had finally exhausted themselves. It’s a moment of peaceful silence, that’s then broken by Sephiroth.
“I want to return to Nibel.”
“You want to what?” Genesis snapped, sitting up abruptly and glaring at Sephiroth. “Are you insane? Do you want to go insane again?”
“No, I…” Sephiroth sighed, looking down at his lap. “My memory of when we first arrived at Nibel is… fuzzy. I can remember bits and pieces of what happened when we first got there, and when I was in the basement, it…” He frowned, then shook his head. “I can remember there being two pulls. One was for Jenova, it was coming from the mako reactor, and the other… I know it wasn’t coming from that direction.”
“Why are you just now bringing this up?” Genesis huffed.
“Like I said, my memory from the first few days we arrived at Nibel is fuzzy. I only started to remember the other Reunion pull once we got on the boat set for Junon.” Sephiroth answered. “I understand that… it is a bit late now. I don’t mind going there by myself-”
“What? No, you’re not going there yourself.” Angeal said. “If you’re worried about Jenova coming back… then it could be worth checking out. It’s better to be safer than sorry.”
Vincent nodded in agreement, crossing his arms.
A small, relieved smile crossed over Sephiroth’s face. “... Thank you.”
“Were you really that much of an idiot that you thought we’d let you go there by yourself?” Genesis scoffed. “Seriously, Sephiroth…”
“Well… it would make sense if none of you wished to return.” Sephiroth responded quietly. “But… again, thank you.”
*
Vincent had fully intended on sleeping on the couch like he did whenever the group was able to stay at an inn. Though once he was about to lie down on the couch, Sephiroth wrapped his fingers around his wrist, lightly tugging him up from the couch.
“You do not have to sleep there.” Sephiroth said. His voice was kept monotone, though the message was clear enough for Vincent.
“Cub. Silver cub… nest. Cub nest. Cub n-”
“Oh shut up, you dumb mutt.” Chaos cut Galian off. Galian let out a loud whine in response.
Vincent did his best to ignore the argument that was starting to brew at the back of his mind, letting Sephiroth lead him to the empty bed. The two of them would shut up once Vincent lied down.
“Silver cub nest… protect…” The behemoth growled out once Vincent curled around the boy. It didn’t take long for his exhausted body to succumb to sleep.
*
The following morning, Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis had headed to the bank. Vincent was already gone by the time they woke up, off doing… whatever it was that he had to do.
Angeal planned on sending the last paycheck he received to his mother. He wasn’t able to do it before, there was too little time in between receiving it and then leaving Shinra. He couldn’t have sent it while they were on the run, either.
Angeal hoped that this would be enough for his mother to know that he was still alive, even if Shinra said otherwise.
*
Vincent didn’t get back to the hotel until around midnight, coming in through the window just like he did in Junon.
“Goddess, can’t you act like a normal- what the fuck happened to your face?” Genesis asked, narrowing his eyes at Vincent.
Sephiroth looked over at the man. There was a fading bruise under his eye, as well as on his nose. “... Did your business go well?” He asked hesitantly.
“It did.” Vincent nodded, his eyes wrinkling in the corners. “Don’t worry about the bruises, they’ll heal by morning.”
“Ugh, goddess, you and Sephiroth really are father and son..” Genesis scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Oh, ‘don’t heal me because I’ll heal within an hour’, ‘oh don’t heal me because I’ll heal by morning’.” Genesis mocked.
“Genesis?”
“Yes, Sephiroth?”
“Shut up.”