Chapter 66: Meeting Mommy

Vincent and Ifalna returned to Midgar with Lucrecia's unconscious body. Going immediately to the lab to let the people there check up on her. "Hmmm, who is that woman?" Scarlet who was lobbying in the lab because she was tinkering with Cid saw Vincent and Ifalna rush a woman inside.

She went to the med bay and Vincent was ordering people to see if there is something wrong with Lucrecia. "Father, who is that exactly?" Scarlet teased him, calling Vincent his father. Which isn't exactly wrong.

Vincent frowned and was annoyed by her constant sharp tongue. But he decided to have some payback. "Her? She's Lucrecia Crescent, your mother in law. Who looks younger than you by the way." Vincent quipped and Scarlet was shocked.

"R-Ramiel and Alexandra's mother?" Scarlet looked at the sleeping Lucrecia and she looked like she was in her mid 20's. She then clicked her tongue as she didn't have a good retort to Vincent's words. She is 13 years older than Ramiel and Alexandra. She received Minerva cells when she was in her 30's.

"Vincent, that's rude. She's basically your daughter in law. Why can't you two be nicer to each other?" Ifalna chided them both and they clicked their tongue. "She started it Ifalna." Vincent placed the blame on Scarlet.

"She just called you father, which I think is sweet." Ifalna countered and Scarlet smirked at him. "That's right Vin-chama. I might not be super lovey dovey with Ramiel. But I'm still his lover, doesn't that make you my father in law?" She had a smug smile on her face and Vincent winced when she called her Vin-chama.

"Tch, only Ramiel and Alexandra can call me that woman!" Vincent hissed and sparks were setting off between them. "Hah, these two are so bad with socializing. You're exactly the opposite of Ramiel who is always positive and playful." Ifalna shook her head at their bad relationship.

"Hmph, it's not my fault that Vincent's such a gloomy guy. Why do you and Elmyra even hang out with this guy?" Scarlet spat venom from her mouth and Vincent furrowed his brows. "That's it... I'll... I'll tell Ramiel that you used to bully Aerith." Vincent threatened her with a made up story.

They started quarreling and didn't notice that Lucrecia was coming to. Ifalna went up to her and helped her sit up. "Lucrecia, are you alright?" Vincent looked at her with concern and the scientist was a bit groggy, but she was sobering up.

"Vinny, I... I'm fine." She couldn't look him in the eyes and Scarlet narrowed her eyes, she could feel the delicious story behind their awkwardness already. "Hello, Lucrecia Crescent. I am Scarlet, Ramiel's head in the weapons development department." She introduced herself and Lucrecia was confused on who that was.

Vincent frowned at what she was doing. But before he could intervene, Lucrecia already asked the question. "Who is that?" Lucrecia's memories were a bit hazy, not quite remembering Alexandra and Ramiel.

"Well, your son of course." Scarlet grinned at her and Lucrecia went wide eyed. "V-Vincent! Where is he? Where are they!? My son and daughter!?" Lucrecia started having a panic attack and Scarlet was surprised at her strong reaction.

"Calm down Lucrecia! They're fine, Ramiel is busy taking care of something, but Alexandra is on the way back to Midgar. And she won't take a long time to get here at all." Ifalna put her hands on her shoulders and hypnotized her a bit to make her calm down.

"My... My children." Lucrecia looked at the ground with a gloomy expression and Vincent sat beside her and rubbed her back. "I don't know what's happening here. But there's something very important here." Scarlet raised a brow at Vincent and he sighed.

"You're a high ranking member of Shinra even before Ramiel and Alexandra took over. You have context about this, it's about their birth." Vincent squinted his eyes and could still vividly remember the day in Nibelheim where he saw that they were treated as test subjects.

Lucrecia winced and she started rubbing her shoulder in anxiousness. She was about to have another panic attack. But before Ifalna could do her thing, the door of the medbay got kicked down and they saw Alexandra enter the room.

"Great... Perfect timing." Scarlet sighed and thought that shit was about to go down. Alexandra's red eyes glowed as she saw Lucrecia. Meanwhile, the scientist just stared at her daughter as tears started rolling down off of her eyes.

"A-Alexandra... My baby girl." Lucrecia couldn't take her eyes off of her and thought that she was all grown up now. "You're Lucrecia Crescent?" Alexandra raised a brow and her mother gulped audibly, nodding at her question.

Alex walked up to her and helped her stand up, looking her in the eye. "I... I'm sorry. For everything. I don't know what went inside my head. I... I agreed to the Jenova project and it was the worst mistake of my life." Lucrecia apologized immediately and thought that her children must hate her.

"Is that so? Then clench your teeth." Alex ordered, Lucrecia looked up at her with confusion and before she could grit her teeth. Alexandra slapped her square on the face. "Ooooh. Shit." Scarlet was surprised, Vincent and Ifalna were shocked and Lucrecia could only hold on to her cheek.

"I... I deserved that. Sorr-" Before she could finish her sentence, Alex backhanded her on her other cheek. Which made the onlookers hiss from the coldness of her actions. "The first one was for me. And the other is for my brother."

Lucrecia was about to cry, it was all but confirmed in her mind that at least her daughter hates her guts. But Alexandra hugged her and that made her confused. "You're my mother, thank you for bringing me into this world with my brother. I could never imagine myself without him by my side."

She was confused and overwhelmed with was happening. Just deciding to drop on the bed and cry her eyes out while looking at her daughter. "Alexandra... Forgive me for everything. I love you two very much."

"Oh wow, I didn't expect that from you." Scarlet commented on the side and Alexandra raised a brow at her words. "What do you mean? I'm not a heartless bitch like you that agreed in imprisoning Ifalna and Aerith for experiments." The two women exchanged poison.

"Now, now, that was in the past. And that was Scarlet's job. Those were unavoidable circumstances." Ifalna glared at them and they shut up. "Fine." Alexandra rolled her eyes and sulked a bit that Ifalna defended her.

"You're a good person Ifalna, did you know that?" Scarlet held her hands and smiled at her. "Hmph, so? Have you guys talked yet Vin-chama?" Alexandra looked at Vincent and he winced when she called her that.

"Vin-chama?" Lucrecia sniffed and wiped her tears. "That's their pet name for Vincent." Ifalna smiled and exposed Vincent's nickname. "Hey, messing around is fine and all. But don't you guys have some things to settle?" Scarlet intervened and they all nodded.

"Come on, Ifalna. Let's leave them for a bit." Scarlet pulled the Cetra and they exited the medbay. "So, let's get down to business. What's the big idea? Putting us in the Jenova project and then regretting it like an idiot that knew exactly what they were getting into?" Alexandra didn't mince words and Lucrecia looked down on the ground with shame.

Vincent was about to defend Lucrecia, but Alexandra's glowing red eyes stared at him. Daring him to. Vincent gulped and just decided to listen to Lucrecia's side of the story. "I... My research about the protomateria and Omega got taken down. I was ridiculed by the research department."

"And I thought that being part of the Jenova project will be a one way ticket to acknowledgement. And with it, renew my research about it. Especially because Vincent's father died due to him protecting me from the tainted lifestream of Chaos." Lucrecia looked over Vincent.

He got surprised by that information, but it was the decision of his father. It wasn't Lucrecia's fault in his eyes. Vincent then had a realization. "Is... Is that why you broke up with me? You think it was your fault my father died?"

Lucrecia nodded and Alexandra sighed. "So... It was for fame and funds. And you broke up with Vincent because of survivor's guilt? Then you regretted it and tried to fix it, but you not only got him killed, you also failed miserably." Alexandra doubled down on her.

"Wow, I don't know if you're just genuinely bad at making decisions or you are insufferably stupid. I'm glad Ramiel and I didn't inherit that from you." Alexandra got annoyed by Lucrecia's horrendous decision making.

"H-hey... That's a bit much." Vincent couldn't help it and defended Lucrecia from the verbal beatdown. "Shut up, you. You were a turk, you're an elite group of Shinra that have special training. And you confronted Hojo without any weapons or defenses at all. You could've just killed him and ran away with her. Don't try to defend her, you're just as bad."

The two hung their heads low and was ashamed at their failures. "Hah, but that's all in the past. There's nothing we could do about it. It just annoys me so much." Alexandra gripped the metal frame of the bed and crushed it with her hands, doing deep breathing exercises to calm down.

"Fuuu~ So? Care to tell us more about the protomateria that is in Vin-chama and Chaos as well?" Alexandra asked Lucrecia to continue and they talked more about it in detail.

The two learned that the protomateria is responsible for controlling Omega, the last resort bio-mechanical weapon that the planet created against threats on the world. And it simply was a world ending scenario.

"Ramiel-nii needs to learn of this." Alexandra compiled a report immediately as she typed on a computer to send the data to Ramiel. "Alexandra... Can I call you that?" Lucrecia was still nervous in interacting with her. Especially knowing that she has quite a strong personality.

"Of course you can call me that, that's the name you gave to me." She rolled her eyes, continuing her report. "H-how's your brother? Did he grow up well?" Lucrecia's curiosity was killing her and she wanted to know more about her son too.

Vincent broke into a cold sweat, thinking of ways to break it to Lucrecia. The news that her twins were lovers. Alexandra's eyes lit up as her favorite topic came into the conversation. "Ramiel-nii huh? Well of course he grew up to be a fine person~" Alexandra went giddy and excitedly took out her phone, showing Lucrecia a picture of him.

"There he is, he raised me all on his own and countered all the brainwashing of Shinra. And he protected me from the experiments. Isn't he so sweet?" Alexandra happily recounted stories of them growing up.

"I see, it seems that he was there for you at least." Lucrecia gave a sad smile. Imagining all the time that she couldn't spend with her children. "Yeah, we even took Shinra under our control. Pretty awesome right?"

The two talked about Ramiel and the question that Vincent dreaded came. "Hey, Alexandra. That woman from earlier, Scarlet. He called Vinny father, is she Ramiel's lover?" Lucrecia was curious, like all mothers that learn of their kid's boyfriend or girlfriend.

"Ahhh. That sneaky little. Ahem... Scarlet is one of his lovers yeah. Well, she's competent enough. Though I'm much better of course." Alexandra snorted. "What do you mean?" Lucrecia didn't understand and Vincent panicked.

"Okay! Lucrecia, aren't you hungry? You've been there for more than a decade! Let's get you something to eat!" Vincent tried the forbidden technique of changing the topic. But he didn't pass the charisma check. Especially against Alexandra.

"Why are you so nervous Vin-chama? Afraid to tell her that Ramiel-nii is going to be my husband?" Alexandra huffed and she was proud to be his. Lucrecia choked on her spit and coughed violently. "Y-you're what?"

"I'm Ramiel-nii's first lover. Hehe~ I couldn't help it. He's just so sweet. He's the only one for me. We're very compatible too, we still can't have the perfect little babies because Hojo is on the loose. But I've been planning one since forever." Alexandra got dazed as she imagined being pregnant.

Lucrecia shut down and she passed out from information overload. "Lucrecia! Hey, stay with me!" Vincent tried shaking her, but she was out cold. "Hah... This is why I didn't want to tell her." Vincent whined at Alexandra. "Not my problem. You explain things to her later."

Alexandra shrugged and walked out of the medbay to leave them to their own devices. "Shit, this is gonna be difficult." Vincent started thinking of ways on how to break it to Lucrecia without her having a seizure or something.

__

Thank you for reading everyone, ciao.