Rufus' POV
Rufus is stunned by his darling sisters words, and hurt by them, even though they were not directed to him. This man, Vincent Valentine, was willing to protect, honor, and care for his sister and all she could say was "hate me"! Damn, his old man for what he had done to her!! Rufus curses his
father again, as he does whenever he sees the scars on Crem's pale skin.
"Why..." Vincent mutters, "Why did he hurt your ear?"
Rufus turns, "It was... my fault." he feels your hand grab his and smiles slightly, "I had made our father unhappy. I didn't do exactly what he wanted, so... he hit me. Crem saw and came to my defence, swearing that she had messed up what my father had wanted, and took the blame. I was so scared, I didn't even protect my sister when she had stood up for me. She protected me, and I let her."
Vincent suddenly grabs Rufus and glares into his eyes, "You did not protect her!"
Rufus flinches, turning his face away, expecting pain but there is none. He looks to see your hand on Vincent's arm. "Give it... a rest, Vincent. Stop... acting tough and scary..." you yawn a little. "I am... tired now... so go away..." you lightly smack his arm.
Vincent cleans away the blood from your face before covering you with blankets. "When I get back," he smooths back your hair., "We are going to talk. No more games."
"Was I playing?" you ask in an innocently tired voice.
He gives you a look, "Don't push it!"
You cuddle into the quilt and nod, not really paying attention anymore, "Ok, ok, Vinny. Later..."
Vincent tucks you in, seeing you snuggle deeper into the blankets and looks once at Rufus and his Turks before going over to the window and opening it.
He stands there a moment and turns his head a little and says, "Take good care of her, Shin-Ra. I will be back, and she had better be here." with that he leaps from the window, disappearing into the night as rain falls to mask his presence.
Rufus staggers over to you and sits in the seat beside you, "Tseng, can you bring me some coffee. It's gonna be a long night. Reno, bring some gauze and her kit in here." he inhales sharply when you cough up some blood. "And bring some hand rags and some green tea with honey."
They nod and go, leaving Rufus and you alone.
"Get up, Crem. I know you're not sleeping. You would do this, fake it, when you did not wanna talk. Well, nows the time we do. We need to talk. Get up, Crem."
You open your eyes and sit up, fully awake. "You know me... somewhat."
"No, I don't know you. Apparently. That was Vincent Valentine."
"Yes."
"He is with Cloud Strife and all them."
"Yes. So?"
"So he helped tear down my building, nearly killing me, and he is a killer by nature. He has no heart for anything but the fight."
"Then why does he hang around Cloud Strife?"
"Uh... I don't know, but he could turn on you in an instant."
You groan, "You are making him sound like a wild beast-"
"He is a wild beast! You never saw what he did 2 years ago! You don't know what he's cappable of!"
You cross your arms over your chest, getting up and going over to the window, "Why are you saying this? I know what he is capable-"
"Apparently not! You dance with danger and sooner or later you will get shot! By him! And in his case, sooner rather than later." Rufus practically shouts, staggering over to your side.
You spin to glare at your brother. "How could you say that?!" you push him to make your point, punctuating ever point with a push. "When I was near death, sick with infection, he ((push)) treated me! He
((push)) stitched my wounds! HE ((big push)) patched my body and healed my hurt! HE ((big..er push)) did it!! Not some doctor, not some hospital, not you!!! He healed the wounds that you ((push)) inflicted! I was on the mend and you caused my body to damage itself! So do not start talking about him like that! He has never once ((real big push)) hurt me on purpace!" you turn from him, no longer pushing him away as you go back to the window. "And you have countless times. I think you deserved your precious building to be torn
down, with you in it! Taught you something!" You sigh, your hand on the cold glass as you press your forehead against it. "He came to me. In that village." You look over at your brother. "He came and showed me some excitment, shook up my little world." you turn back to the window and push back your hair to touch the scar on your face, "He let me feel. You see, I was going to leave. Be gone the next day. And hopefully never return. Or, at least, not when anyone would see me. I still had Daddy to think about and care for." You look at his reflection in the window and glare, "You should thank him. If Vincent had never come, I would have disappeared and your Turks would never have found me. Ever." you shrug, "And I could have lived without seeing you again."
"What made you come back?" Rufus asks gently, wanting to know after hearing all this.
You rest your forehead by your hand on the glass, "When I heard that my brother had been injured, I thought that maybe I should come. But what made me sure was... it was Daddy. He needed medicine and the village did not have it. In the village, I did not have the money for it, either." you feel tears
as the memory comes back that now he's gone, "I did it for him. I wanted my brother to meet my Daddy." You ball your fist against the glass. "He.. used to be so active, so lively."
Rufus moves closer to lend comfort -if any-, "Crem," he puts a hand on your shoulder, "I know you are... fond of Valentine, but I am only thinking of you. I want to protect you from the potential heartache."
You turn slowly, your eyes sharp. "Heartache! Heartache! After what you put me through! You have no right to talk of HEARTACHE!!"
"No, you don't understand! He will hurt you!"
You narrow your eyes at him. "What... what are you talking about, Rufus?
What are you hinting at?"
He sighs, "I had wanted to refrain from saying this, but... Vincent Valentine was once a Turk."
You gap, "Wh-what?! Brother, you never- when?"
Shin-Ra turns and says, "A few decades, maybe more. Before I was even born. Pro. Hojo... did things to him." he spins to grab your shoulders, more to catch and steady himself than effect, but it makes a point, "He's a monster, Crem! Please, stay away from him! He's not worth it. Not worth
you!"
You move a distance from him before asking, "What happened? Why did Hojo... do things to him?"
"I don't know the details, sis, just that... Hojo shot him. Supposed to have killed him. But he used his body instead to expirement on, turned him into something else. Dr. Lucrecia Crescent-"
"Lucrecia!" you spin around, "Lucrecia Crescent?"
Rufus turns slowly to you, "Yes... have you heard the name before?"
You shrug, "I just... never mind. What about her?"
Rufus gives you a look and continues, but keeps a close eye on you, "She was
a scientist that Valentine was assigned to protect. As a bodyguard, if you
will."
You snap your fingers, "Now I remember where I heard that name before!" you
walk over to your desk and flip through a few things, talking all the while,
"When I was 13 I found something interesting, or at least it was to my mind
then, only because I did not know what I had." you glance at him a few times
as you rummage and talk, "You see, I found something on Sephiroth then. I
was interested, at the time he was the most important man in Shin-Ra and I
was a young girl with a danger fancy."
"I could tell!"
"Oh, shush!"
"You never did quite grow out of that, did you?" Rufus teases.
You chuckle lightly, "No, I guess not. And that is what got me in so much
trouble. When I found it, I showed it to Tseng, I wanted him to tell me what
it was. He did, then requested he hold on to it, for safe keeping. I did not
see it for many months. I had to sneak into his room where I found it in his
trash. He was going to destroy it. There was lighter fluid and stuff
waiting. I got it and got the hell out of there." you lift something and
look at your brother, "What I found had sparked my curiousity, but it was
not long after that I left. Remember?" you hand the folder over to Rufus,
"This is what I found."
He opens it and finds a list of expirements done to Lucrecia Crescent and
her child. She activelly participated in the tests.
You shrug, "Just something I found and ran with, taking it with me when I
left. But I do not want it anymore. Not if it involves Vincent." you grab
Rufus' arm roughly, "I do not want you to touch him. Leave him alone."
Rufus just nods, "Alright, but what will you do? He will fight, and what if
he-"
You tighten your hold of his arm painfully, "You were not just gonna say
"dies", were you? Because if you were," you whip out a knife, "Then I will
have to take care of that negativity, brother."
He gaps, "Where did you- how'd you- wha- Crem, where did that come from? And
why are you handling it like you know how to use it?"
You flip it over your fingers, rolling the handle over blade over handle on
your knuckles, "Because, brother, did you think I was illiterate when I was
traveling? No! When I arrived in the little village I soon called home for
the last few years, I was well trained. It was only because of an...
incident that I was injured when I arrived. I became a recluse in the
town."
"I'm sorry for all the pain he caused you, Crem. Please, except my apology!
I wish I had been there for you, when you needed me! I wish I had been a
better brother to you."
"In the past!" You take back the folder you'd handed him and toss it into
the furnace, watch it burn for a moment before turning away. "And I am tired
of living in the past. You look back instead of forward all the time and
someday or another you will hit the guy infront of you." you grab an
umbrella and give him a look, "I will be back. I am just going to enjoy the
rain and... try not to think."
You leave him at that, not wanting to get into a verbal debate about
Vincent. You already have enough doubts on your own, you don't need your
brother to add to the load. You go down the stairs and kick open the door,
popping up the umbrella and step out into the pouring rain. You fight the
initial gust of wind as it tries to rip the umbrella from you and get ahold
of it, but fold it back up and set it aside since, because of the gust, you
are now soaked. You debate going back to the Lodge to get changed but, on
glancing back, you see Rufus watching you from the 2nd floor window. You let
him watch you, glaring up at him, and turn on your heel in the mud and waltz
into the woods. You know the dangers of doing this, since it's both raining
and might have lightning along the way, but you don't care. Well, actually,
you do care about the lightning part. But, still... You sigh as you
find a reasonably dry place to sit and think, even though you don't wanna.
So what if Vincent is connected to Dr. Crescent. Who cares!? Not you, that's
for sure! You are done caring. And, glancing back, you sigh again. There is
nothing here for you anymore. Your brother is just as overbearing as always,
your Daddy is gone, and you have no one else and Rufus rejects any and every
thought of you and Vincent even spending time together, so that's a
lost cause! You suddenly get an idea that probably will get you into a butt
load of trouble. If you're caught. You smirk, one thing you are sure of. If
you wanna stay hidden, you do. You'd only been found last time 'cause you
hadn't been allowed as much mobility because you'd gotten comfortable, too
comfortable, in the last village. You even made connections there because of
Daddy. If you had moved on as soon as you were able, Tseng and the Turks
would never have found you. Well, this time, they wont!
