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	Wings of Love

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	16/4/01

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	A Sephiroth X Aeris Fanfic

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	Complete My Heart

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	Vincent Valentine stepped into the gracefully decorated room without the 
least bit of concern. It had been his habit to walk in without knocking since a 
very long time ago into the room of his friend, Sarah Dallas. She never minded, 
of course. She wasn't one to mind about these sort of things.

	He found her sitting on a chair at the balcony, feet propped up on the railing 
and looking at the scenery, mainly of the sea shore and the starry horizon. There was 
a small table next to her with a few glasses of daiquiri. She liked to drink, he 
remembered. He recalled several evenings sharing a quiet brandy with her, or rowdily 
horsing around with their friends splashing beer all over the room.

	"C'mon in, Vincent. What is it?" she asked, sensing his presence. 

	"How are you feeling, Sarah?" he asked quietly. After she'd shown them this 
building for them to sleep in for the next few nights while everyone recuperated, she'd 
straightaway disappeared into her room. Vincent was not overly alarmed, but she'd spent 
the last few days quietly.... very unlike her. He said so.

	"Years have mellowed me?" she replied. She sighed. "I'm going to miss my cousin," 
she told him mournfully. "I loved him a lot, despite all he did. "It's hard to believe I 
won't have him around anymore to bother.... it... even hurts." She put down her glass. "Oh
 well... done is done... How's Angeles?"

	"Driving everyone mad.... Somehow he's got Barret, Cid, Cloud, Sephiroth and even 
Red to go fishing with him."

	"Fishing is the best thing you can do here."

	"Tell me this, Sarah.... did Hojo really love Lucrecia?"

	Vincent had moved forward to stand beside his friend, and now he was shocked to see 
tears standing in her eyes. "Yes... he did. You may not believe it, but they loved each 
other very much, until Gast found Jenova. Hojo got obsessed with the monster.... and then 
only he began neglecting Lucrecia. It was a sad, sad thing."

	"I'm sure," Vincent said tightly.

	Sarah laughed weakly. "You don't believe me, but that's fine. Only *I* remember 
the real Hojo, the real Sean Hojo.... He was a good-humoured man that didn't mind when 
the other kids teased his skinniness.... a nice person to be with...." She sniffed. "I'm 
going to miss all that."

	Seeing that she wasn't going to answer him anymore questions, Vincent turned and 
left as silently as he came. Sarah wanted to be alone to mourn. For her, he would let her 
cry for the memory of her beloved cousin.

	==============================

	{Child....}

	Angeles opened his eyes. [Grandmother?]

	{It's time to stop playing, child} Ifalna told her grandson firmly.

	[I want my mother back first]

	{Only if you put some work into it. Hurry, child. Time runs short.}

	Angeles sat up and got out of bed softly. He didn't want to leave his father, not 
now.... not when he'd just got him back... but still.... 

	[I'm coming for you, Mother....]

	================================

	"Where's the lad?" Barret asked gruffly when he came downstairs to the 
eating table. "He's usually up before the rest of us."

	"That's right," Cloud said, frowning. "Where's Sephiroth?"

	"He's not here," Sephiroth replied flatly as he entered the dining room. 
"Nor in his room, nor anywhere in the house."

	"What?!" Tifa exclaimed. "Where could he have gone?"

	Sephiroth shrugged helplessly.

	"Looks like the boy pulled an Aeris on us," Cid grumbled. 

	Everyone stopped short at those words. Vincent came strolling in at 
that moment. "Good morning," he greeted before noting the looks on everyone's
 faces. "What's wrong?"

	"Angeles is gone," Red told him. "Sephiroth says the boy is nowhere to be found."

	"Have you checked the area?"

	"I can detect no evidence that Angeles left the house," Red said thoughtfully. 
"However he did it, it is quite admirable."

	Barret and Cid swore. 

	"What if... he went to resurrect Aeris?" Tifa suggested quietly. 

	"Tifa, we've tried that.... it doesn't work," Cloud told her. 

	"It just might this time," Sephiroth said softly, recalling his experience in 
the Lifestream. "Angeles will stop at nothing to have his goals achieved, and if 
resurrecting Aeris is one of them, he would, no matter what."

	"But why would he want to do that?" Red asked, quite reasonably.

	Sephiroth's answer was not so reasonable. "Angeles is a young boy. Who knows 
why young boys do anything?"	

	"Well, dat was a great answer," Barret replied dryly. 

	"Yes, it was, wasn't it?" Sephiroth agreed sarcastically. 

	"We have to tell Sarah," Vincent pointed out. "She might know why."

	"Good idea!" Cid replied enthusiastically. "Could ya tell her we're running 
out of smokes?"

	====================================

	Vincent knocked on the door. 

	"Go away."

	"Oh, come on, Sarah, don't be unreasonable. Angeles is gone."

	"Congrats. Just go away."

	Vincent turned to the three men behind him. Cloud asked, "Well?"

	"She's mourning."

	"She's had a full week to mourn. It's time to get moving now," Sephiroth replied. 

	"Good point. You try telling that to her."

	All three men stepped back wearily. Vincent sighed. "Okay, I'm going in. I want 
you to get out everything that may look in the least bit precious out of there, okay?"

	"Why?"

	"Drastic measures. Trust me on this."

	"Sure, Vinny," Barret answered, shrugging. 

	Vincent walked right in without knocking and without permission. He indicated a 
lovely vase on a cabinet, a few paintings on the wall and Cloud, Sephiroth and Barret got 
them out of the room. "Stay out for a while," Vincent told them in a hushed tone. 

	"It's time to stop whinging, Sarah," they heard him say rather premptorily to her.

	"Whinging? ME?? Can't you see I'm mourning the death of my cousin??"

	"He died a long time ago. This is serious and it's NOW."

	"I don't happen to care, Valentine. If you want to go, just go."

	"But not when we need your help."

	They continued thusly for a while more until Vinecnt sounded more and more annoyed. 
"Fine! Who needs you! When you act like a woman!"

	"What's wrong with being a woman?" Sarah retorted. 

	"A woman, a woman on her MENSES!!" Vincent shouted at her. 

	"WHAT DID YOU SAY??" Sarah Dallas shrieked. There was the sound of crashing glass. 
"You chavunistic bastard!! You ass! What would YOU know about a woman on her menses!! And 
I haven't had them for years! What the hell are you telling me?? VALENTINE YOU 
STUPID IDIOT!!"

	And then she began screaming at him the worse epithets even CID had heard in his 
life. Foul words spewed forth as both of them inside the room shouted and yelled and 
argued for a very long while, exchanging the worst insults anyone had ever heard. Back 
and forth they threw obscenities, inventing swear-words as they went along. Sephiroth 
swore he heard a few Wutain phrases here and there.

	There were a few crashes as Sarah threw worthless trinkets at Vincent, screeching 
her heart out about how much she hated him, the recent events and the whole world in 
particular. Vincent in return lashed back with how much he hated her nature, her looks 
and generally everything about her in particular. 

	Finally there was a loud climax of a scream and silence. 

	"Wow...." Cid breathed.

	Cloud glanced at Tifa. "I'm glad Angeles wasn't here to see this," she said wearily.

	The two of them grinned. 

	============================

	Vincent came out of hiding from the cabinet he had been taking refuge behind about
 half an hour after he had left his friend throwing vases at him. Her well-aimed missiles
 had got him once or twice. THey had hit him pretty hard, he thought as he licked the trail
 of blood trickling down from his temple. She still knew how to throw her knives, he supposed.

	Sarah was curled up in a big, stuffed *bright red* chair which made Vincent wince 
just looking at it. Her spectacles, small and frameless, sat at the end of her nose. She 
seemed to be staring at nothing in particular. The spectacular tantrum was gone, leaving 
behind only a sad woman who had lost her entire family, and just about everybody she 
cared about.

	"Vince, get me a '59 from the cabinet you just hid your pansy ass behind."

	Vincent did not really enjoy exchanging insults with Sarah, not even back then, 
but he wasn't about to start throwing them back now. He opened the cabinet and took out 
the drink she wanted as well as a cup.

	She ignored the glass and grabbed the entire bottle, swilling down the contents 
in one go. "Right," she said after setting down the now-empty bottle on the sidetable. 
"What's this about Angeles again?"

	"Angeles seems to have taken himself off."

	"Where to?"

	"We were hoping you could help us find that out."

	"Hot damn." She seemed to mull this over for a while. "You mean you really don't 
have an inklnig??"

	"We do, actually. The City of the Ancients is as good a guess as any."

	"It's a better guess than any, I suppose," Sarah was back into professional mode, 
sitting up. "Angeles is part Cetra."

	Vincent had thought about it while behind the cabinet. "But his mother's only 
half-Cetra herself...."

	"So? What relevence does that have? You need only one parent to be a Cetra to be 
a Cetra. Cetra genes are compatible with just about anything.... it can even lie dormant 
until someone's genes which just so happen to be a specific genetic pattern come along 
and trigger it once more. Get it?"

	Vincent bit his tongue. "Why don't we share that little tidbit with the others?" 
he suggested.

	========================

	On the Highwind again, Cloud thought as they flew over the horizon to the City of 
the Ancients. He glanced at Tifa, standing next to him, her black hair billowing in the 
wind. She looked beautiful in the sunset light and she turned her gentle brown eyes to 
him. He smiled at her a bit awkwardly. "Are you okay with these turns of events?"
	
	Tifa didn't know how to answer at first. Angeles was going to resurrect Aeris... 
that much *anyone* could figure out. Tifa was a bit wary of that. Cloud had unclear 
affection for Aeris... and Tifa didn't know what she would do if Cloud finally chose 
Aeris over her. [I might just cry....]

	But instead, she said, "I think Angeles can do it."

	Cloud decided to take a moment to think about Tifa's words. She had wanted to
protect him ever since she'd found him in that Midgar train station more than a year ago, 
and he still felt that she wasn't totally honest with her own feelings for him. He loved 
her.... but did she know how complete that love for her was?

	"I love you, you know."

	Tifa turned to him, her brown eyes clearly expressing her emotions of near-disbelief.
Slowly, a shy smile curled up her lips. "Really?"

	Cloud nodded, smiling broadly. He held out his arms to her and she flung herself 
into them, grinning. "I'm being silly, aren't I?" she asked.

	"Well... not as bad as I was. I was a total ass to you." He kissed her cheek. "I 
love you."

	"And I love you too, Cloud Strife."

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	All characters (except for Dr. Sarah Dallas) are copyright of Squaresoft Inc. This is 
just a fanfic for heaven's sake! 

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