Rebirth

Chapter 36 - Secret Valentine

Tendo continued to work through the night. He measured and mixed, referred to the
notes retrieved from the hospital and peered into his microscopes. Hours later, he slowly
climbed the steps.

Cloud and Barret sat in the kitchen eating whatever they could find. Tendo walked in
and rubbed his eyes. He had been working non-stop since they had arrived and he was on
the verge of exhaustion. He sat down and gratefully took a cup of coffee from Barret.

Tifa walked . . . waddled . . . barefoot out of the back bedroom wearing Barret's t-
shirt again. The glow around her middle had grown brighter and now showed through
the thin cloth covering her. Tendo watched her walk behind him and sit next to Cloud,
who slipped his arm around her shoulders. Feeling all eyes on him, Tendo spoke.

"I have been able to isolate the agent that's changed your gestation cycle," he said
directly to Tifa. "I believe the same agent has also heightened your senses which make
you more vulnerable to Jenova's influence." He saw that they didn't understand and
continued.

"Jenova is in the Lifestream of this planet now. We are all affected by her to some small
degree, but in most of us, that influence is so small as to not be noticed. However,
because of the drug Tifa was given, she has become more . . . sensitized . . . to
Jenova's influence to the point where she can converse with her."

"What about this?" asked Tifa, her hand on her belly covering the glow. Tendo looked
down at her stomach and sighed.

"That light comes from the child. It's caused by the changes made to Cloud's DNA. I'm
afraid that may be my fault," he said quietly.

"What?" said Cloud, standing up.

Tendo looked nervously at him and put the cup of coffee down on the counter. He
paused and looked down at his hands and said "when you were brought to the hospital,
you were very sick, almost dead. Blood tests revealed that you had been given an
infusion of a drug that I recognized as Dr. Hiro's serum made from Jenova DNA. I did
the only thing I could think of to reverse the effects and save your life. I gave you a
counter agent that I made myself. The counter agent changed your DNA."

He pulled the small vial he had taken from the freezer out of his lab coat pocket and
placed it carefully on the table in front of them all. Cloud picked it up and rolled it
between his fingers looking through the glass at the opaque liquid inside.

"Be careful with that, my boy. It's the only one of its kind," said Tendo.

"What is this?" asked Cloud. He carefully placed the vial back on the counter.

"It's the counter agent I just spoke of. Its main components are stem cells Hiro had me
take from Lucretia's placenta after she gave birth to Sephiroth." Hearing his words,
Vincent shifted on his feet standing away from the wall he had been leaning against.
Tendo looked over his shoulder at him and continued.

"There were two vials. I took both of them with me when I left because I knew that Hiro
would use them to make the very drug that has been given to Tifa," said Tendo.
"Unfortunately in my rush to leave the building, I tripped and one of the vials fell out of
my hand. I didn't have time to search for it as I was being chased by . . . a SOLDIER,
and I wanted to live." As he said those last words, he glanced back at Vincent who said
nothing. "Obviously that lost vial was found . . ." his voice trailed off.

Cloud glanced at Vincent. "So that's what he's been hiding," he thought to himself. He
stood and walked over to Vincent.

"What do you know of this, Vincent?" he asked with an edge to his voice. The tall man
looked into Cloud's eyes and saw them flash with anger. "This time had to come," he
said to himself.

"Yes, I was the SOLDIER chasing Tendo out of the mansion. Remember, at the time I
worked for ShinRa and I had been assigned by Rufus to protect Hiro and the work he was
doing. It was a long time ago . . ." his voice trailed off. Cloud stood his ground, waiting
for more. Vincent glanced at his friend again and sighed.

"I knew nothing about Hiro's plans for Lucretia until it was too late. He raped her after .
. . infecting her . . . with Jenova DNA. I stayed with her until she gave birth. I loved
her . . ." he said, his voice sad with the memory of his beloved Lucretia.

He paused while the memory of the last time he held Lucretia as she died in his arms
washed over him. Hiro had taken the child immediately after she gave birth, not allowing
her to even touch her baby. He remembered the confusion and pain in her eyes as she
bled to death, and his own anger and desperation that he was not able to do anything to
help her.

"I went mad. I wanted to kill anyone who had anything to do with what happened to her,
and so I chased after you when I saw you steal something from the lab. Hiro must have
found the second vial," he said to Tendo.

Cloud's face softened as he listened to Vincent's story. He could see that the man was
obviously still in pain over it. He understood the grief Vincent must have felt now that
he was in love himself; in love with both Tifa and their unborn child. He put his hand on
Vincent's shoulder.

"I think I know what you were feeling, Vincent," said Cloud. He turned to look back at
Tifa and prayed silently that he would never have to.

"So what does this all mean?" asked Barret as Cloud walked back to Tifa's side.

"This counter agent may help reverse the effects of the drug Tifa was given, but I have to
tell you, there is a great risk that it will make her worse." He let his words sink in before
continuing.

"This drug contains some of Lucretia's stem cells along with Jenova DNA. I have altered
the genetic makeup of both components so that they should act as counter agents to the
drug already in her system. I've only ever tried it on one other person before," he said,
looking at Cloud.

"Well, it worked on me," offered Cloud hopefully.

"Yes, my boy, but you were not carrying a child at the time," he smiled at Cloud. "I have
no idea of the effect on your baby, Tifa," Tendo said to her. "It should help you to fight
Jenova and the Others, help you banish them from your mind. But you will still have to
fight and it's a fight you may not win."

"Why do you say that, Dr. Tendo?" Tifa asked. "I've fought them twice already and I'm
still here."

Tendo looked sympathetically at the young girl sitting opposite him. She looked so
hopeful and so very fragile with her sweet face, shining eyes and dark hair flowing over
her shoulders.

"This fight will be to the death and Jenova will know it. She will use all her resources.
You are close to giving birth now, and she may not stop at taking your life if it means
that's the only way her baby can be born," said Tendo.

"I told Kadj I would kill myself and my baby before I let Jenova take her," said Tifa in a
clear voice.

Cloud's heart skipped a beat and his legs almost buckled under him when he heard her
words.