The Reason

Chapter 7

“We’re just outside Bone Village. Yes, she’s alright, Tifa. We’re going to stop in the Village to get her mother and bring her to the safe house.” Vincent told Tifa. He had called as soon as the giant skeleton of the village was in view. There was no sign of Deepground having been in the village, so he allowed Jexebel to go ahead and prepare her mother for the shock she was about to receive.

“Oh no, Vincent! Don’t let her go there! Oh no. Oh no, no, no . . .”

“What, Tifa?” Vincent said impatiently.

“We went through the Village to get here, and we had to clear out the soldiers to do it! We couldn’t find any survi-“ Vincent heard no more of Tifa’s panicked explanation. He slammed his phone shut and shoved it into his pocket, running at top speed to catch Jexebel before she saw anything that she definitely didn’t want to see.

“Jexebel!” He called, frantically. “Jexebel! Wait! Come back here! I have to talk to you!”

He raced through the village, searching frantically in the open doors of the abandoned huts. “Jexebel!” he called again. She suddenly appeared by his side.

“Vincent!” She whimpered, “I can’t find my mother! There’s some wreckage blocking the path and I can’t get through to our hut. None of the Villagers were in the safety bunker, either. Where are they, Vincent?”

Jexebel sounded so terrified; he was forced to question his image of her yet again.

“Come on.” He said. “I’ll help you clear the path.”

The two spent better than an hour moving and crushing the pillars that had fallen in the path, until there was finally just enough space for them to squeeze through. Jexebel ran. Vincent followed her as fast as he could, but she still beat him to the hut with time to spare. The hut came into view, ruined and falling onto itself. When he arrived, his ears caught the sound of her praying and begging. He waited outside to give her time to process what he was sure she’d found. Then his extraordinary hearing picked up another voice. A frail and pained voice. An old woman. He hesitantly stepped inside.

“Mama, no . . .” He heard Jexebel whimper.

“Oh Jexxy. My Jexxy.” Edeena Stringfellow whispered. “My baby.”

“I’m here, mama.” Jexebel all but sobbed.

“Jexebel?” Vincent said softly. He stepped around Jexebel’s crumpled body to the scene he knew he’d find. Jexebel’s mother’s body was crushed under a large beam of wood. The wood seemed to be the only thing holding her body together.

“Vincent! Help me! If we can move her, then maybe . . .”

“No, Jexxy-baby. No.” Edeena said. “I know it hurts, Jexebel, but I know what will happen if you move this beam.”

“Mama, let us help you-“

“You want to help me? Go into my room and get me that picture of your daddy.”

Jexebel nodded sadly and stood, nodding to Vincent and making her way through the ruins to her mother’s bedroom.

“Those eyes . . .” Edeena said, staring at Vincent. “I know those eyes.”

“Hello, Edeena.” Vincent said softly, kneeling down next to the dying woman. She gasped as she recognized his voice.

“Vincent Valentine! Oh my, you haven’t aged a day, have you, my friend?” She got a sudden angry look in her eye. “It was that old man, that Hojo, wasn’t it?!”

Vincent chuckled sadly. “You know much, old friend. Yes.”

They were both silent for a few minutes. The only sound was Jexebel pushing her way through the debris to get to her mother’s room.

“Vincent.” Edeena said suddenly. “You know that I can’t be saved.”

He nodded, hesitantly.

“Take care of my baby, okay? Please. She’s all I have. My most precious accomplishment.”

“I will, Edeena. She is . . . very special to me, as well.”

The old woman gasped. “You and my Jexebel?! Well who’d have thought Vincent Valentine to be such a dirty old man?” She laughed, letting Vincent know that all was well, and that she was more than happy with the pairing. Quickly, the laughter gave way to hacking coughs, blood dripping down Edeena’s bruised and dirty cheek.

“Mama!” Jexebel cried as she reentered the room. She ran to her mother and dropped to her side, opposite Vincent.

Edeena wheezed for a moment before answering her daughter. “I’m alright, honey. Did you find the picture?”

“Yes, Mama.” Jexebel handed her mother a faded picture of a hansom young man with very dark skin. Vincent stole a glance at the picture and chuckled again.

“So you married old Frank Kossow, did you?”

“You always were jealous of Frank.” Edeena said. “He got what you wanted.”

Vincent just smiled sadly at his old friend.



“Jexxy.” Edeena said. “Are you and Vincent . . . an item?”

“Mama!” Jexebel gasped, glancing behind her to make sure that said ‘item’ was still outside keeping watch. She sat on the ground next to her mother with her legs drawn up to her chest. “Sort of . . . I think.”

“He’s a good man for you, Jexxy. He’s a good man, period. Shame what that madman did to him.”

“He doesn’t trust me, Mama. He thinks that I’m one of the bad guys.” Jexebel said, sadly.

“Oh, honey. You know men. That’s just a defense mechanism. From the way he was watching you, I think he might just love you.”

“Mama, don’t be silly.”

“Baby, at some point you’re going to have to accept that I know everything.” Her mother answered, using a line that she had often used in Jexebel’s youth. It made Jexebel smile. Then frown as the reality of the situation came back to her.

“Oh Mama . . . What will I do without you?” She fought not to cry.

“Move on. Build your own life. I know that you will get through this. You’re a fighter. Always have been. Baby, death is a natural part of life. Life itself has meaning, because it ends.”

“I’ll miss you so much! I love you, Mama.”

“I love you too, baby girl. We’ll meet again. I have faith.”

“I know, Mama. I know.”

Thirteen minutes later, Edeena Stringfellow Kossow rejoined the Lifestream.

Jexebel didn’t cry. She couldn’t cry. There were no tears left in her tired body. Vincent carried her across the Snow Fields when she finally could go no further.



“How is she?” Tifa asked Vincent, poking her head into the room that Jexebel had been taken to.

“Dehydrated. Exhausted. I should have carried her further. I should have gotten a chocobo.”

“Now, don’t start that ‘should have’ garbage again. You both made it here alive. That’s good enough for me. Cloud went back and got her mother’s body. We’ll preserve it and give her a proper funeral after this is all over.”

Vincent nodded and turned back to Jexebel. “Tifa?” He said. The brunette walked into the room and closed the door behind her.

“Hm?” She asked, sitting in the chair next to Vincent.

“You planned this, didn’t you? For me to meet her?” Tifa blushed.

“Yes.” She admitted.

“Thank you.” He said quietly. So quietly that Tifa nearly missed it. Her eyes widened in shock.

“Y-you’re welcome, Vincent.”

A pained moan from the bed interrupted their conversation.

“Where . . . Vincent?” Jexebel said, weakly.

“I’m here, Jexebel.” Vincent said, resting his hand on her arm.

“Jex? It’s Tifa.” Tifa said, leaning to the bed and taking her hand.

Jexebel squeezed Tifa’s hand. “Hi, Teef. Is everyone else okay?”

“Yeah. Cloud went back to the Village and-“

“I heard you tell Vincent. Thank you.”

Vincent didn’t pay any attention to the rest of the conversation. He was lost in thought.

‘If she heard Tifa tell me that Cloud went . . . then she heard me tell Tifa . . . Oh hell.’



“The WRO have been dispatched in every city as of today at 0700 hours.” Reeve told Rufus. It had been three days since coming to the Inn and Jexebel was finally allowed out of bed.

“The Turks will go to Nibelheim, as that was where Weiss and his accomplice were last seen.” Reeve stated.

“Genesis.” Jexebel interrupted from her position at Vincent’s side, in the back of the room. Vincent pinched her arm in warning.

“Excuse me?” Reeve said, turning to look at her with a confused gaze.

Jexebel shrugged Vincent’s hand away and continued. “His accomplice. His name is Genesis. I keep seeing it in my head. He wears a red trench coat, right? And carries a long, red broadsword?”

“How do you know that?” Rufus asked, holding up his hand to silence Reeve and Tseng as they both tried to question Jexebel at the same time.

“I don’t know. I told you, I keep seeing his name in my head.” Rufus looked at Vincent. Vincent nodded.

“Right. Vincent, go with Tseng and get ready. I want you in Nibelheim by nightfall.” Rufus ordered. Vincent pushed himself away from the wall, squeezing Jexebel’s hand as he walked away from her.

“Wait!” She called. The men looked at her. “I . . . I want to go. I can help. I seem to . . . know things . . .even though I don’t know how.”

Rufus looked at Vincent again. “Is she capable of defending herself? Does she have it in her to take another life?”

Vincent snorted as he recalled the events just a few days before, back in Edge.

“She is more than capable, and she took more soldiers than I did in Edge.” He stated.

Rufus turned back to Jexebel, looking her up and down. He appeared lost in thought for a moment, then: “Very well. Tseng, brief her and get her a gun.”

“Oh, sir,” Jexebel interrupted again, “I don’t use guns.”

“Don’t use guns.” Rufus repeated flatly. “How do you defeat your enemies, then?”

“I am more than proficient with my throwing knives and my sword, sir. My accuracy rate is 97%.”

“And with a firearm?”

“I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a shotgun.”

Reno and Rude laughed, and even Vincent chuckled a bit, inching closer to press his shoulder into her.

“Very well.” Rufus said, smirking, “Brief her, and give her any blade she wants.”