At last, answers to a few of CoJ's nagging questions. 

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and characters belong to people that make a
lot more money than I do so please don't sue.

-------------------

Final Fantasy VII: Children of Jenova

Chapter 5: Rebirth

"They're late." Reeve stared out the window of his office, looking out over
the sea for any sign of the Highwind. Red XIII, Cloud and Tifa (who had
brought Zack along after hearing of the monster attacks on several cities
around the world), and amazingly enough, Yuffie had all shown up as
planned. Cid, Vincent, and Barret had not. "I hope they're okay."

"Well, I know Barret was heading for Rocket City to catch a ride with Cid,"
Tifa mused. "And I'm sure Vincent's fine wherever he is. They can take care
of themselves. You heard the reports. All the monsters that attacked Rocket
City either ran away or got killed."

"I know, I know." Reeve sighed and sat down, almost unconsciously
scritching the sleeping Cait Sith behind the ears as he did so.  "It's just
not like them to not be somewhere when they say they will. And Yuffie even
showed up before them... I'm REALLY starting to worry."

"Oh, get bent!" Yuffie spat. The others snickered nervously. "C'mon, you
guys all know Vincent always does dramatic crap like this, and Cid probably
had to stop for cigarettes on the way. Lighten up!" At that moment, the
intercom on Reeve's desk buzzed. 

Fearing the worst, Reeve gingerly reached out and poked the button as if it
were a cockroach. "Yes?"

"Sir, this is the airport control tower. We're picking up an airship on
radar...I could be wrong, but it doesn't look like Shinra." There was a
long pause.  "We've got it on visual now...heh...it definitely ain't
Shinra. There's a half-naked woman painted on it."

The tension level in the room plummeted like a lead ball. Even the inactive
Cait Sith seemed to heave a sigh of relief. "Who all's on that ship?" Reeve
asked.

"Hang on, I'll check." Another pause. "The regular flight crew, Barret
Wallace, Vincent Valentine, and two Cid Highwinds."

Zack perked up. "C.J. came too?"

Cloud nodded. "Cid probably didn't want to leave her at home after the
attack. At least they're all okay."

As if in reply, a faint voice came over the intercom. "Hey! HEY! Reeve! You
hear me? If I hafta walk up more than one flight of goddamn stairs I'm
gonna wring your neck!"

Reeve laughed. "Give them clearance to land immediately, and show them up
here." He thought about it a second, then he grinned. "Cid? Can you hear
me?"

Faintly but audibly enough, Cid's voice came through the intercom. "Yeah?"

"I'm afraid the elevators are out of whack." Reeve's grin widened evilly.
"If you want I can have Cait Sith come down and give you a piggyback ride."

Cloud reached down and covered Zack's ears just in time to block the stream
of profanity that issued forth from the intercom box.

"Reeve, that wasn't very nice," Red XIII scolded.

"That's payback for Junior's birthday party," Reeve answered with a smile.
"I TOLD him I was gonna get him back for that."

*			*			*

At length Barret, Vincent, and Cid Junior entered the office, followed
closely by a panting and cursing Cid Senior.

"I'm just gonna sit right down here, Reeve," Cid started, plopping himself
in a chair. "And as soon as I quit seein' spots I'm gonna get up and beat
the livin' crap outta you."

Of course, everyone knew Cid wasn't serious. "I told you you were going to
owe me, didn't I?" Reeve laughed. He discreetly fiddled with a hand-held
remote control of some kind, and Cait Sith opened his eyes and stood up on
his Mog. "Zack, Junior, why don't you go with Cait Sith and have some ice
cream?"

"Cool!" Zack bubbled. Junior didn't seem as excited.

"I want to stay here with Daddy." She sniffled and climbed up into Cid's
lap; he gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead.

"Go on, kiddo. We're just gonna talk about a buncha boring grownup stuff.
Maybe if you ask real nice Cait Sith'll tell your fortunes again." Cid
nudged Junior towards the door, where Zack was already jumping up and down
and raring to go. "You don't wanna keep Zack waitin', do ya?"

Junior shook her head. "No sir."

"Good girl. We'll all be right here. You just yell at Cait Sith if you need
to get a hold of me, okay?"

"Okay." Junior sniffled again, but took the cave moogle's hand and went out
the door.

Cid watched her go and rubbed his eyes. "Y'know, I think she'd rather eat a
truckload of brussels sprouts than admit it, but she's scared to death.
She's a brave little thing, but when I found her at school...God, that look
in her eyes..." He lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply. "This is too much
for kids like her and Zack and Marlene to have to deal with. Shit...Reeve,
you mind if I use your phone? I gotta call Shera and let her know what's
goin' on...if she gets home and finds me and Junior gone and a buncha dead
lizards all over town she's gonna go ballistic, and I don't like the idea
of her bein' home alone after all that shit."

"Sure, knock yourself out," Reeve replied, handing Cid the receiver. "In
fact, if you like, I'd be more than happy to send a chopper to pick her up
and bring her here."

Barret looked up sharply. "How the hell you get that kinda authority? Ain't
you just in charge a' the light company?"

"Before, that was all there was to it, yeah." Reeve sat on his desk and
looked back out the window. "I had a visitor the other day--Reno. He had
some bad news for me about Shinra, and I decided we need all the security
we can get here, and that includes a little airpower. I guess you all know
who's in charge there these days."

Tifa nodded gravely. "Yeah, Scarlet."

Cid, upon hearing this, spluttered and dropped his cigarette right into his
lap. "WHAT!? What the hell happened to hyena-man?"

"Heidegger seems to be second-in-command," Vincent said. "Which left Palmer
or Scarlet as possibilities, and I think it's pretty obvious which of the
two would be more suited to the task of reviving Shinra."

"As Junior would say, 'Duh.'" Cid stuck the cigarette back in his mouth and
then turned his attention back to the phone. "Shera?...Listen, I...hey, are
you okay? What happened?" There was a long pause. "Goddamn. What are you
gonna do?...okay, okay, don't worry about that now. I'm gonna have Reeve
send a chopper down there to pick you up and bring you here and we'll talk
about it, okay?...Okay. Love you, woman. Hang in there." He hung up,
shaking his head. "Son of a bitch...well, at least now we know what
Fatman's up to."

"What happened?" Tifa asked. "Is Shera all right?"

"She said Palmer just walked into the aircraft plant she's workin' at and
said it was now under Shinra's control--they're building up their airpower
again." He chuckled a bit. "So she told him to take this job and shove it."

"Good for her!" Cloud exclaimed. "I hope they don't decide to come after
her, though."

"Oh, they won't, I guaran-damn-tee you that." Cid puffed angrily on his
cigarette. "If they so much as try it they're gonna be eatin' this goddamn
spear." He stood up and banged his fist on the desk. "Damn, I'm pissed!
What the hell does that bimbo think she's doin' up there!?"

"Obviously she thinks she's going to follow in Rufus's footsteps." Red XIII
growled softly. "Anyway, I think you should all know what I've found."

"We're listening." Cid ground his cigarette out on the sole of his boot,
threw it in the trash, and lit another. Reeve pulled a face and opened a
window. 

"I've discovered three intact spirit bodies drifting in the Lifestream. The
first I saw--I don't know for sure what it is. At first I thought it might
have been Aeris." Red sighed. "But I don't think it is. It may be another
Cetra, but again I don't think that's the case."

"Then who is it?" Cloud asked softly. He did not have a good feeling about
this. Not at all. 

"Well, this is where I get confused." Red scratched his ear nervously. "To
be honest--it looks like Sephiroth."

"Shit," said Cid and Cloud in unison.

"Let me finish. I said it LOOKS like Sephiroth. Here's the weird part. The
aura's wrong. To be perfectly honest, this being is carrying a weaker form
of Holy energy in its spirit." Red quirked his head to the side, much like
a dog does when it hears a high-pitched noise. "That's confusing enough,
because the second spirit body I saw is DEFINITELY Sephiroth."

"I knew it." Cloud shook his head slowly. "What was he doing?"

"Well, I haven't seen him since just before you called me about the geyser
at the mythril mine. And that worries me, because just before THAT he
appeared to be speaking to the third spirit I saw. And there's no doubt in
my mind who THAT one is." Red took a deep breath. "It's Jenova. I'm sure of
it." A collective gasp and groan rose from all in attendance except
Vincent, who nodded sagely at Red's words.

"This could be very serious, in light of what I found in the library at the
old Shinra mansion," Vincent said. "According to Professor Gast's notes,
Jenova was...well, for lack of a better word, she was pregnant when they
dug her up. Gast found her to be carrying a large number of what appeared
to be eggs."

"Good God." Cid turned white and sat down heavily. "What happened to those
goddamn eggs, then?"

Vincent shrugged. "Gast's notes indicate that Hojo probably did something
with them. Beyond that I've got no idea."

"Okay." Reeve drummed his fingers on the desk. "Who's the head of the
science department at Shinra now? Does anyone know?"

Vincent shrugged. "I saw her at Nibelheim, but I didn't catch her name.
Average height. Thin. Pale. Dark glasses. Young, but her hair was mostly
white."

Reeve nodded. "Vail. She was one of those weirdos that always kept herself
holed up in the labs when I was at Shinra. I didn't see much of her, but
there were a couple of weird things about her. One, she'd get really pissed
off if anyone compared her to Hojo. Two, no matter how damn hot it was, she
always wore long sleeves. And she never took those glasses off. She's one
creepy broad, I'll tell you that."

"Creepy or not," Tifa began, "she's the best chance we've got at finding
out what happened to those eggs. We've got to get in touch with her
somehow."

"I'll handle that," Reeve offered. "Don't expect much, though. If she's
anything like she was the few times I had the ill fortune to get stuck
talking to her in the old days, she probably won't be a whole lot of help."
He frowned. "Of course, on the other hand, she always hated Hojo and I
could probably use that little nugget of wisdom to my advantage."

Cid nodded. "Red, we gotta find out who that other guy is that's floatin'
around down there."

"Actually..." Red looked thoughtful for a minute. "I do have a theory, but
it's sketchy at best. I think maybe Sephiroth's spirit was starting to
break apart like it should have, but somehow he stopped it. Only he didn't
catch it in time, and his spirit ended up being broken into two pieces."

"Major split personality," Yuffie commented, and Red nodded.

"That's probably not so far from the truth. If I'm right, then the first
spirit body I saw would probably be Sephiroth's conscience, the part of him
that was still human."

"Which means the other part..." Tifa looked down at Red. "The other part is
the part of him that Jenova was controlling."

"Oh, that's just wonderful." Cid scowled and lit up yet another cigarette.
"So you're tryin' to say we got TWO Sephiroths runnin' around now?" 

"It would appear so." Red nodded. "For the sake of clarity, I've taken to
calling the first Sephiroth Lumina and the second Sephiroth Obscura. And I
believe that if it were possible to communicate with Sephiroth Lumina
somehow, he could be persuaded to help us--"

"I don't give a rat's ass WHAT he could be persuaded to do!" Cid stood up
and began to pace around the office. "All I know is that son of a bitch
killed Aeris, he killed Tifa's dad, he killed a whole shitload of innocent
folks in Midgar and NOW you're sayin' half of his goddamn split
personality's on OUR side?"

"Basically, yes." Red shrugged again, and Cid just stared at him. 

"And what if you're wrong?"

"I don't know." Red blinked and sighed. "I don't know."

Cid threw up his hands. "Goddamnit, Red! Do you have ANY idea what the hell
you're saying?" He was dimly aware that everyone in the room was staring at
him, but at that point he didn't care. "This is crazy." 

Cloud sighed. "Cid, yelling at Red isn't going to do any good. And I think
he knows more about this than any of the rest of us do so please sit down
and stop shouting."

Cid glared at him for a second, opened his mouth to say something, closed
it again, then shook his head and stormed out the door. "Oh, fuck it!" he
spat on the way out. Cloud started to follow, but Vincent stopped him with
nothing more than a look.

"What!?" Cloud exclaimed. "What the hell is wrong with him? If anyone
oughta be going off like that it's me! I'm the one Sephiroth was always
screwing with!"

"Cloud." Vincent just looked at him. "There are some things you don't know
about Cid's situation. He shared your fear that Sephiroth was still alive.
Ever since we returned from the Northern Cave he has seen Sephiroth
slaughter his wife and his child in his dreams, so I think you can
understand how he feels about this new development."

"Well, I feel like a real jackass now," Cloud muttered. "He told me he
didn't think Sephiroth was alive. Why the hell would he lie to me about
something like that?"

"Because he didn't want you to overreact. He knew of your fear as well."

"Well," Reeve sighed, "someone needs to go out there and calm him down
before he really DOES come back in here and beat me up..."

"I'll talk to him," Vincent replied and left the office.

*			*			*

Vincent found Cid not too far away, with his back against a wall and his
arms folded over his chest, staring at the floor. Vincent said nothing; he
simply leaned against the wall as well. When Cid was ready to talk, he'd
talk. 

And after a few minutes, he was ready. "Hey, Vincent."

"Yeah."

"You remember that time you told me you wished you had my go-get-'em
attitude?"

Vincent chuckled softly. "Of course."

Cid was silent for a moment, then he spoke up again. "Sometimes I wish I
could be more like you, y'know?"

"No you don't." Vincent shook his head. "The way I am is a direct result of
having nothing left to lose. You have a wife and a daughter to think of,
and you have every right to get upset about any chance of anything
happening to them." He smiled. "And you've seen what happens to me when I
DO get angry."

"Yeah, well." Cid shrugged. "The changing-into-gargoyles-and-shit part I
could do without."

They shared a bit of a laugh at that. "You're right. I don't think I can
quite picture Chaos with a cigarette in its mouth."

"Oh, Lord." Cid laughed a bit harder, then he sighed. "Sorry about makin' a
scene like that in there."

"No need to apologize. I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of
explaining your situation to Cloud and Red."

"Ahh shit, Vincent...oh well. I guess it's better if Cloud knows he's not
the only one scared shitless about Sephiroth. And he was right, Red does
have a better picture of what's goin' on than the rest of us do." Cid
stepped away from the wall and started back towards Reeve's office. "Guess
I better go back in there before they start thinkin' I flipped out or
something."

*			*			*

Vail yawned and rubbed her eyes. God, she was tired. She'd been awake for
two days? Three days? She didn't know. But that was all right. After she
checked out the first batch of SOLDIER troops in the morning she could go
home and have a nice long nap. 

When she heard someone calling her name, she automatically assumed she was
dreaming on her feet. Then she heard it again.

"Vail."

Vail blinked and looked around. Yes, she was alone. The voice had come from
thin air, not heard with her ears but with her mind. She set down her notes
quickly.

"It's about time," she said. "I didn't think you were coming back this
time."

"You underestimate me." Was that a hint of amusement Vail heard in the
disembodied voice? "And it took five years the last time as well. I would
have returned sooner, but there have been...complications."

"What sort of complications?"

"Nothing really. It may even work out to my advantage." The voice paused.
Then: "Have you done what I asked of you?"

Vail grinned. "Of course. It took some fast talking, but I convinced
Scarlet that I needed to get some core samples at the Northern limits.
Nobody else cared to go in there with me. I found it just where you said it
would be." She stood, inserted a keycard into a slot on the wall, and
watched as a hidden panel slid back to reveal a secret vault.  Vail reached
into this vault, closed her fingers around a leather-wrapped handle, and
pulled out a sword as long as she was tall, with a blade of blackened
steel. "What should I do with it? Hang on to it until you find a body?"

The voice laughed; its tone hollow and chilling. "I've already found a
body, but it isn't ready yet. I will come for my sword when it is." Vail
shivered as she thought she felt a finger running itself down her jawline
and under her chin. "Don't fail me."

"No." Vail forced a smile. "I will not fail you, brother."

---

Author's notes: Well! Now we know what Vail's problem with Hojo is. The
question is: exactly who is her mama? Yet another slow-moving chapter;
don't worry, the action will pick up quite nicely very soon. Web page news:
I have just received a gift from the Captain himself--a very kawaii little
CG of Cid Junior on the battlefield! Wai! It's on my Cid shrine; URL in
.sig as always. See ya.

--Sailor Solathei
"Ice...snacks...and--fifty gallons of BEER!? What kind of life does she
lead, anyway!?" --Shinji Ikari
"Hang on to your drawers and don't piss in 'em!" --Cid Highwind
"A new ML to blow up! Wai!" --Zen
--------------------
Happiness is a belt-fed weapon
--------------------
Sailor Solathei's Cid Highwind shrine (still under very heavy construction)
http://members.xoom.com/ssolathei/cidshrine.html and the Cid Highwind Otaku
Ring: http://members.xoom.com/ssolathei/ring.html