Assassins in Gaia

Desmond gave a sigh as he sat under the shade of the parasol, enjoying the sunshine and the ocean breeze. He looked at where Ace, Cloud and Tifa were goofing around in the water which looked a little too yellow for his tastes. Ace had assured him it was safe and nothing dangerous so he didn't protest when Ace and the others went to the water. The kids were wearing a set of colorful swimwear. Tifa wore a blue and pink one piece swimsuit, Cloud a green and yellow swimming trunks and Ace wore yellow and blue swimming trunks. Vincent had decided to sit next to him opting to stay out of the kid's games although looking at his bright gaze Desmond could tell he was enjoying the peace.

Desmond eyed Cloud's Cockatrice as she played with the kids. Cockatrice was a female, this time apparently, her Sire was Cloud's father's partner. He had appeared when Cloud had first used the summon Materia three months back. Cockatrice had been prepared to rant at his summoner for forgetting about him. But when he saw Cloud instead he realized what no doubt happened. He greeted Cloud and made it clear, Storm was the only summoner he would answer to and instead offered his daughter. The young female was curious and challenged Cloud to test him in combat. She was very impressed by the battle style Cloud used and agreed to become his summon. Cloud had named her Frigga, one month later due to her mother henning habits.

Ace walked over after a while, "Des, come on, join us!"

Desmond, "Oh, no thanks."

Tifa, "Please Desmond, the water is great."

Cloud nodded, "Please, just for a bit. Even Frigga is enjoying."

Frigga, -Join us elder.-

Desmond sighed smiling, "Fine, but only a few minutes, we promised Aunty, we'll be inside in time for lunch."

Cloud smiled, "Yeah, we will, don't worry."

Desmond smiled happy to see Cloud and Tifa smiling happily once again, especially after everything that happened six months ago. It was in a word a clusterfuck. Shinra had refused to answer the Mayor's requests and questions about the death of the workers, half of whom were the villagers. The villagers were livid and wanted compensation from the company and when they received no answer decided unanimously to shut down the mako reactor. It would take two years to shut the reactor down but they would do it. Vincent had in the meantime, gleefully burned down the mansion after collecting the three materia and weapons scattered here and there.

Flashback:

Desmond stood outside the mansion two months after their little adventure. They had more than once tried to contact Shinra about his Uncle, Cloud's father, but there was no answer whatsoever. Cloud got more and more upset the past two months and Ace and Tifa got upset because Cloud was upset. If Desmond had not known better, he would have thought they were triplets instead of best friends. On top of that, according to Vincent, he was experimented on with demon blood. WTF Shinra! And by that he meant literal demon blood and his body used as a conduit to summon and trap demons. Desmond pinched his nose and gave a sigh at how far the scientist had fallen.

Desmond, "Are you sure about burning it down? Won't it attract attention?"

Vincent shrugged, "They are currently busy with war. The thing about wars,assets are always lost in wars."

Ace, "We have spread the flammable material all around the building."

Tifa, "It's ready to burn."

Cloud was smiling a little evilly, "Go for it!"

Vincent transformed into one of his demons and used demon magic to set it on fire, "It's good to get rid of an eyesore. Hello there~"

Cloud, "Hi... Um... "

Tifa, "So... Who are you?"

Ace eyed him, "You don't feel like Vincent at all."

Desmond, "Kids, be nice, he is helping us."

Tifa, "Right sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude."

Cloud, "But we are curious, that was really cool."

Ace nodded, "Very cool."

Vincent's demon chuckled, "Just call me the Dark One or Dark. I'm not ready to give you my name yet. My experience with humans has not been that good."

Desmond, "That's fine with us. We can wait, don't worry."

Tifa nodded, "Uh huh! It's nice to meet you Mr Dark and no rush. We can wait."

Brian found them outside the mansion, "Kids, Desmond and Mr Valentine?"

Dark nodded, "Yes, this is what they did to me."

Brian took a deep breath, "I see, I'm sorry this happened in my village."

Dark let Vincent take over after saying one last thing, "Do not apologize for other people's mistakes. It's not worth it."

Brian, "Ahem! Right, Tifa, Mrs Strife has invited us to have dinner with them."

Tifa cheered, "Yes, I love her pies."

Brian smiled at his daughter in fondness, "Desmond, as for your request, I'm afraid, Shinra refused to answer stating important confidentiality over the matter. In fact, Mr Valentine they are sending someone to check the place four months from now."

Rob who had supplied the flammable material, "You lot better get out of here during that time. The check ups usually take a week or so, in fact take this as a chance to enjoy the beach in Costa Del as a family."

Cloud, "How will you explain this though?"

Rob chuckled, "Don't worry Cloud, we'll think up of something, besides thunder storms are pretty common thanks to the presence of thunder dragons, the last few months, just like blizzards, due to the ice dragons."

Desmond lifted an eyebrow, "You'll let the dragons take the fall. Will they even believe it? They hardly come to the mansion side."

Desmond though was excited inside, 'I can't believe there are real dragons, period. I feel like a kid going to a candy store.'

Brian, "Actually, the dragons never like the reactor or the mansion at all. In fact, sometimes in the past the younger curious ones always came to town before. We could say one of them wandered here and didn't like the place and burned it."

Vincent who was back to normal nodded, "That could work actually, I remember when I was working we had to fight off an Ice dragon who didn't like us and tried to freeze us to death. I thought, we had entered their territory but now looking back, I wonder, if they had instinctively known about what would happen."

Rob took out a cigarette, "Well, they are very powerful instinct driven creatures. I would not be surprised if they had known. There is a reason we Nibelheimers worship them over Minerva."

That had started a string of story telling and sharing around the mansion bonfire? Desmond had not realized when, but he had leaned comfortably against Vincent and the older man did not seem to mind. In fact, Vincent had admitted that the demons behaved more with Desmond around and didn't try to break free, to take revenge on humans for locking them up inside a human. Claudia seemed to be doing better than two month ago after learning about what possibly happened to her late husband. She was still upset and annoyed with how Shinra tried to sweep it under the rug but, she was not crying to sleep anymore. It also helped that she had people around to care for her and be cared for by her.

Flashback end!

Desmond splashed all three getting squeals from them and cries about getting revenge. Cloud laughed telling Frigga to splash Desmond, before he noticed a man in a suit watching them from one of the open end snack bars. Vincent noticing his look turned in the direction of the snack bar and saw a familiar face he had not seen in a long time. Desmond who noticed the situation got all three's attention.

Desmond, "Time to go, we promised Aunt we would join her for lunch."

Ace, "Right, let's go."

Cloud, "Mom's making shrimp, oyster and crab barbeque."

Tifa, "My mouth is watering just thinking about it."

Vincent got up from his place and walked towards the bar, "I will catch up."

Desmond, "Alright... If you are not back by evening, we are coming in search for you."

Vincent watched them enter the fancy hotel before with a worried Cloud looking back towards him. Vincent smiled and waved him off to not worry much. Cloud looked conflicted to leave but he didn't put up a fuss as Desmond herded them inside.

Vincent, "Been a while Legend."

Legend, "We were told, you were KIA."

Vincent, "By whom? Our dear resident Doctor?"

Legend eyed him, "You are not a normal human anymore, are you?"

Vincent, "Yes, you could say I'm dead in a way."

Legend, "I see. Will you return?"

Vincent, "Too risky... I don't want to put Veld or his young kid in danger."

Legend, "He insists the young lad is not his kid."

Vincent snorted, "My dear old partner would be what my new young friends call a Tsundere."

Legend, "Sorry?"

Vincent, "Someone who cares too much, yet denies it."

Legend snorted before agreeing, "I'm for one happy you are alive, Cerebus. I will not tell anyone else, Turks don't turn on other Turks. However I'll be telling Veld, he's the boss expect him to visit at one point."

Vincent took the cocktail served, "I would not expect anything less."

Vincent and Legend clinked their drinks before drinking it and Legend told him about the new youngsters who joined them. And how most Turks suspect Sephiroth was actually his kid, however with the DNA test proving otherwise they could do nothing. Vincent nodded and told Legend of his own suspicions, making him order a stronger drink chugging it down like water. Vincent rejoined the others after he left his old friend and was met by a worried Cloud.

Cloud, "Are you okay?"

Vincent ruffled Cloud's hair, "I'm fine, do not worry about me kid. He was an old friend."

Cloud looked relieved, "That's good, I'm happy your old friends are still looking out for you. When we read about what happened to your other partners in Nibelheim... I was kind of afraid you were left behind all alone. I am happy that's not the case though."

Vincent, "You are a sweet kid, Cloud, don't let anyone change or tell you, otherwise."

Tifa rushed out, "Vincent you are back, we were worried about you."

Ace, "Soooo, was that your friend?"

Vincent, "An old friend, you can trust him to help you out if you are ever in a pickle and he is around."

Desmond, "I'm very happy to hear that your friends still got your back, Vincent."

Vincent's eyes twinkled, "Cloud said the same thing a while ago."

Cloud looked away a little pink, "I was worried and for a good reason."

Claudia smiled at her son, "Well, how about we all get dressed and head to the main hall downstairs? I heard there is a wonderful banquet going to be held today. There will be Chocobo racing and lucky draws plus many other such games. I remember going to one when I was younger with your grandparents. It was a lot of fun."

Tifa's eyes twinkled, "Ace, Cloud go get changed. I want to go down there and play those games."

Ace, "Come on Cloud, I can't wait to see Chocobo racing."

Cloud got excited too, "Yes!"

Desmond laughed, "You should get changed too Vin, something less attention grabbing, perhaps."

Vincent smirked, "I keep catching your attention, do I?"

Claudia laughed behind her hand, "I have to admit, you are hard to ignore in that."

Desmond, "Come on, I'll help you change."

Claudia watched them go, "Oh my!"

Desmond helped Vincent to change into a dark suit with a reddish tint on it and gold coloured buttons. It truly complimented the golden claws that Vincent had and Desmond would be lying if he said he was not attracted to the older man. The demons inside of Vincent purred at the attention from the younger man making Vincent feel smug about it. He looked at Desmond dressed in grey suit with a deep red coloured vest inside the coat. Vincent was admittedly attracted to the young man, he had always been someone who preferred to know a person before loving them. And he could easily admit that he was very much interested in Desmond even without the goading from the three demonic being inside of him. Who much to his annoyance were very possessive of both Desmond and Ace, something that they refused to explain.

Vincent held out his arm, "Shall we?"

Desmond snorted, "Of course."