Taming the Fates Amidst Chaos

'Internal thought'

'CHAOS SPEAKING'

~ (Time and/or story focus shift)

Chapter 19

"Somebody get in here!"

Nanaki rushed from the kitchen, nearly colliding with Yuffie, just as a blur of red and black dashed out the door, "Vincent!" He turned a golden eye to the Turk commander, "You're coming with me."

Tseng nodded and made to follow as Yuffie called out and ran alongside, "It's not his fault 'Naki! I saw the whole thing." At the Turk's incredulous look, she grinned, "What? I'm a ninja. I'm sneaky like that!"

Cloud shouted toward the running figures, "You keep close to him, we'll try to head him off!" He motioned to Tifa and Barret but stopped Cait Sith, "You stay here and watch the kids."

"Yes sir!" The robotic cat saluted and twirled dramatically but the blond swordsman had already left. Sighing, Cait turned to go inside but a movement caught his attention, drawing his gaze to the roof next to the bar, "Oh my word!"

~

Yazoo watched with a calculating gaze as the group divided in their chase of the gunman. Their tactics were simple and it might be effective if he didn't make his move first. 'This is almost perfect. Brother and I will have to move quickly to sieze this opportunity. We can't let his friends interfere too soon.' A soft sound reached his ears and he glanced down to the gaping Cait Sith. Tauntingly the Remnant waved his free hand to the robot, it mattered not if it's owner saw, there was nothing that Reeve Tuesti could do now. He turned his gaze and leaped across the rooftops, his other hand tightening around his newly acquired prize. 'Mother will be pleased.'

~

He didn't know where he was going, he just knew he couldn't stop running. He could feel it, that void, that deadness that he now recognized as Sin. It was pushing at him, pulsing in his mind, trying to gain some hold on him. Running kept his mind away from that thought, kept his focus on the burn of his lungs and muscles. Vincent could feel Chaos trying to get his attention but he didn't acknowledge the demon. He refused to listen to anything inside his mind, intent on focusing only on putting one foot in front of the other as quickly as possible.

He could hear them, his friends, calling out to him, trying to get him to stop. Didn't they know he couldn't? If he did... an image flashed in his mind, green eyes looking at him in pain as his claw ripped through Nadia's back. The memory was followed by another, this one of Dr. Kisaragi pleading with him to remember her, to stop hurting her, to let her go back to her son. He had stopped her pain in the end, she would never feel anything again.

Vincent felt his stomach churn and tears stinging his eyes as a fresh burst of energy spread through him and he picked up even more speed. A flash of silver caught his attention ahead of him and he nearly stopped from shock as blue-green eyes looked over at him with something akin to amusement. There was a hint of a smile on the long haired Remnants face before Yazoo turned away and leapt to the next building. The gunman growled in anger and quickly pursued the man, all too eager for the distraction from his own torments.

~

For the first time since they had woken the gunman in Shinra mansion, Cloud was glad he never went without the tattered cloak. That unique piece of cloth was the only reason that the swordsman was able to follow Vincent's movements from the rooftops and coordinate the positions that he, Tifa, and Barret took to try and head him off. He glanced down towards his companions momentarily to double check that they were ready when he saw Tifa closing her phone and waving to get his attention, "Reeve just called. We have a problem. One of the Remnants was at the bar," She saw the blond's look of concern, "The kid's are fine but Cloud...they have the collar."

The swordsman froze. They didn't know for certain what that silver device did but he remembered all too well Vincent's terror filled gaze earlier that morning. Anything that brought that sort of look from the stoic gunman was something worth fearing. Glowing sapphire eyes scanned the roads, searching for the red cloak again. When he found the man, his breath caught. Vincent was running after the younger Remnant, who appeared to be leading him to the Midgar ruins. "Barret, get the kids and get them out of here. I don't know what they're planning but..."

"I got ya Spike. Just make sure you get Vampy back in one piece. Creepy bastard can't be out of our sights for ten minutes without getting into trouble."

Cloud nodded, seriousness etched into his gaze, "Tifa, get to Nanaki and the others. They need to know what's going on. Vincent's heading for Midgar and it looks like their leading him there." The brunette nodded and turned to go but paused when he spoke again, "And Tifa? All of you keep a safe distance, I'm not sure how this will end up." Her dark garnet eyes studied him with uncertainty before she nodded again and took off.

Cloud closed his eyes and gripped the hilt of First Tsurugi for a moment, sending a silent prayer to Aeris and the Lifestream that they would all make it out of this alright. A soft sigh escaped him, 'Will any of us ever find peace in this life again?'

~

"Yo boss!" Tseng slowed momentarily, allowing the red haired Turk a chance to catch up. He didn't want to cause Nanaki to lose the gunman but a glance at Reno told him this was important. The Turk's normally disheveled appearance was messier than usual and a dark red stained his hands and slacks, "Somebody got to the guards. Bastards didn't even know what hit 'em by the looks of it."

Amber eyes narrowed and Tseng noticed that even the fire wolf had slowed a little, "What was taken?"

"That's the strange thing boss. Only thing that's missing is that weird silver bracer."

"Shit!" All eyes in the party turned toward the Turk commander at his rare curse. He glanced to where they had last seen Vincent, "The bracer controls the collar."

"Nanaki! Hold up!" The group pulled to a halt as Tifa ran toward them, "Reeve called. The Remnants are here and they have the collar. Cloud says they're leading Vincent towards Midgar."

"Those bastards are still alive! I thought Rude and I had at least taken out two of 'em! Damn, these guys are like cockroaches, yo."

Tseng paled and a single word left him, "Sin..." He immediately whirled to his subordinate, "Reno, transportation NOW!"

The redhead grinned mischievously, "Yes sir!"

Nanaki gave the Wutaian Turk a suspicious look as Reno sprinted towards a nearby vehicle, "You know a great deal about what's going on. Care to enlighten us?"

A crashing noise drew everyone's attention to the redhead, who was currently reaching into the broken car window to unlock the door. Yuffie gaped, "You're stealing a car?!"

"When the boss says now, he means now. We'll monitor the police reports and compensate whoever owns it." Reno bared the ignition wires with practiced ease and got the small vehicle started, "It may not be Shinra quality, but it'll get us where we need to go faster than running."

"Do you want to get to Valentine in time or not? Come on," Tseng called out as he took the passenger seat, "I'll explain what I can while we go."

When everyone piled in, Nanaki carefully curling his fiery tail in front of him, Reno gave a devilish grin, "Everyone hold on tight!"

The car took off with a roaring jolt and the fire wolf winced as Yuffie clenched tightly on his beaded mane. At a mild shake of his head, the ninja noticed her death grip and apologized as she loosened her hold. He sighed with relief before fixing a golden eye on Tseng, "We're listening."

The Turk commander shifted in his seat, turning so he could easily look at all three of them, "What do you know about the creature known as Sin?"

Tifa and Yuffie exchanged confused looks and shrugged, shaking their heads. Nanaki spoke up however, relating everything that had happened that morning except for Vincent's breakdown afterwards, "I convinced him to go take a shower after Chaos left and that is when Cloud saw a message the demon left for us on the floor. It simply said 'His name is Sin.' I assume Sin was what grabbed Marlene?"

"More than likely, yes. If this is the first time you have seen him then that means he probably didn't start to emerge again until we...gave Mr. Valentine the collar."

Reno frowned slightly at Tseng's pause and rubbed his cheek at the memory of a claw running down his face. Yuffie's gaze shifted between the two Turks for a moment before she huffed, "Well that's good and all but that doesn't tell us what Sin is and what he's doing in Vinny's head! Is he another demon?"

"No," Tseng rubbed at his temples for a moment, trying to decide how to explain, "Sin and Vincent Valentine are, in essence, one and the same." The trio gave him a confused look, though the Wutaian noticed that Nanaki seemed to be grasping the idea a little, "Okay, imagine Vincent in your mind, everything that you know about him. His abilities, his personality, the way he acts and the way he thinks. Now, take that and add four years of degrading torture, starvation, and experiments. Four years of being Hojo's favorite project, his plaything if you will. In that time, he was led to believe he was little more than a monster. After all this, throw a collar on him, one that makes it so that what little free will the man has left goes out the window. Any inkling of rebellion or individuality outside what the Professor wanted him to be is quickly punished with a pain greater than most normal people can survive."

The Wutaian man paused, allowing what he had said to sink in before he continued, "The human spirit can only stand so much before it will break. Hojo wanted to mold Vincent into the perfect guard dog and so worked toward a very specific outcome. As sickeningly twisted as the man was, he knew the human psyche. After tearing away at Valentine little by little for so long, he finally had him teetering on the edge. That was when he gave Mr. Valentine the one order that killed the man you know and Sin was born."

Tifa was the first to speak, her voice timid, "What order did he give Vincent?"

Tseng gave Nanaki a questioningly look, seeming to ask his permission to continue. The fire wolf was the only one out of all of them that knew how desperate Vincent was to keep his past a secret but he nodded anyway. It would be best if they knew everything possible at this point. Still, having an idea of what had been commanded of his friend didn't stop the stabbing pain in his heart when the Turk commander answered, "He was ordered to kill an eight year old girl that he held cradled in his arms."

The girls gasped and Nanaki shuddered before speaking, "So that's why he grabbed Marlene. Vincent must have only just remembered that incident while he slept and her presence so soon afterwards pulled Sin out."

"But Vinny wouldn't kill a little girl! There's no way!" The ninja cried out, clearly distraught.

"True, Ms. Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine wouldn't, but Sin would."

The car fell silent for several moments as it sped down the highway, recklessly weaving in and out of traffic. As they left Edge and started to make their way through the Midgar ruins, Tifa quietly asked, "Why did Hojo need Sin? If Vincent had to follow the orders no matter what, why go through all that trouble?"

"The demons. He needed to be sure of his control over them as well. No matter what he did to them or Valentine, they would always have held the seeds of rebellion."

"But no one can control the demons, particularly Chaos. Vincent's tried for as long as we've known him but that one still gets out sometimes."

"You're wrong, Ms. Lockheart. The human mind is one of the most powerful things in existence. It is our morals, our emotions, our doubts and fears that hold us back. When these things were torn away from Vincent, he not only held control over the demons, he melded their very minds with his own. As a result, all sense of self was lost to him. The concept of 'I' no longer existed and he would always refer to himself as 'We' or 'Us.'"

Yuffie shook her head in disbelief, "Even if all of this is true, why wasn't Vinny like that when we woke him up? And why did Hojo put him to sleep in the first place?"

"Ms. Kisaragi, if you had spent so much time and effort training the perfect guardian and realized it would be several years before the item to be guarded was ready, wouldn't you be worried that something was going to happen to ruin all of your hard work? The most likely of possibilities being either the death of your guardian or too much inactivity causing the training to completely unravel? Hojo knew that his best bet was to freeze his specimen, hold him safely in that moment of utter obedience. My theory is that it was that very obedience that caused you to wake Vincent Valentine and not Sin. Hojo's last order to him was to sleep until his true master came and put the collar back on him."

The small car pulled to a stop as the road they were on ended abruptly, a large building laying toppled over the pavement. As the five people left the vehicle, Yuffie glanced at Tseng questioningly, "True master?"

Nanaki answered the question first, fear and anxiety heavy in his tone, "Sephiroth."

____________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Ack! Sorry this took so long. Had to take a break after the last two chapters, almost burnt myself out typing those up so fast. Thanks to those of you that posted a review. To those of you that didn't, *pouts* Don't you love me no more???????

SapphireDog
WMWAHAHAHAHAHAHA....AHH! DON'T BURN ME CAUSE IM SPECIAL! XD haha I creep out alot of authors by doing that ^_^; hehe I've been stalking the 'new' page for about an hour out of pure boredum and then when if was about to give up and scamper off to read vincent/reno fics, Poof! 18 pops up XD Vincent is so abused. His poor mind..XD Woot!

Update soon! PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ because I PROCLAIMED MYSELF out OF SELF-ISH REASONS YOUR #1 FAN. >:D
Frizz: Glad that you got to see 18 so quickly and sorry again that 19 took so long. LOL I think you will have to fight ASOTA and Kuragari for the #1 fan position though. But I don't think there is any rule against having 3 #1 fans right? I love all you guys equally!

Anonymous Sister of the Author
oh, i don't mind you borrowing him. just get him back in time to participate in playtime!!! and that WAS really fast! way to go!!! keep up the good work!!
ASOTA

Yazoo: *muffled sounds* HELP!!!!
Frizz: Sorry Yazoo. Gotta keep my fangirls happy, particularly the crazy ones.

Kuragari
sorry i haven't reviewed in a while... just got out of a convention. Anyway, wonderful chapters all!!! Poor vincent's past just gets worse and worse. I'm very interested to see what you're planning for Sin... though he really doesn't sound like a pleasant one. looking forward very much to an update!!!
Frizz: Just glad to see that you are still sticking around to read my craziness hun. And yes, Vincent is so abused...maybe I will take him home and cuddle and snuggle him till he forgets all about this meanness I have done to him!