Ten years later...

Meteor had done intense damage to the structural integrity of Midgar, without question the worst damages that had been done to the city. Cloud's fight with Kadaj and Sephiroth two years later had increased damages to the fallen ShinRa Tower, and the fight against Deepground had continued to reduce much of the once-impressive city to so much rubble. In interest of trying to protect people from the unstable mess left behind, the WRO had put up all sorts of barriers, doing their best to keep people from coming in. It didn't stop truly determined scavengers, but it helped.

Of course, knowing what sorts of secrets could be found there, Reeve did occasionally send people, so far as he thought was safe. Vincent, with his unique abilities, was one of the few to go into the areas that had been deemed completely unsafe. Sometimes for Reeve, sometimes for himself. Sometimes, rarely, as a favor to the Turks. Not Rufus' small band, however; he was still wary of them, for the simple fact of who they called sir, but the collection that had defected and to this day still followed his old partner. Veld was slow to ask for anything, so when he did, more often than not Vincent found himself doing what he asked.

Admittedly, getting a hold of the department's classified files was something that he also believed needed done. The chances of anyone else making it that far into the devastated building were slim, but it wasn't impossible, and the part of him that still called the Turks family balked at the thought of leaving it available for anyone to get their hands on.

The instructions were simple enough: get all that he could salvage out, and destroy anything that he couldn't take with him. Old hard drives from computers, flash drives and floppies were set aside to be taken out in a reinforced case, the digitized information by far the easiest to grab. There were entire file cabinets worth of hard copy, however, and he ended up sifting through things to try and determine what was and was not of use. It had been decades since he'd been an active operative, but it felt far shorter, and Veld's system of arranging things hadn't changed a bit.

It would have been tedious work, if it wasn't also very educational, giving him some of the missing pieces of what had happened while he was gone. It helped, and he made a mental note of some of the things he'd want copies of later to revisit in more detail. For now, it was enough to skim things and start building a general picture of how life had been, through a Turk's scope. It was more familiar than he'd expected.

The last thing he got to was heading into the offices themselves, and breaking into the safes. No need to fool with combinations when you could just pry the door off, but he'd had Veld's anyway.

Looking through the safe didn't really have any surprises for him at first; more hard copy, an external hard drive and a stack of discs were all tucked away for safe keeping, until he got to the bottom and paused. A slow smile spread across his face, laughter bubbling up to a low rumble from his chest. Well then, wasn't that a nice surprise? Maybe he'd make the drop off to Veld tonight after all.

Veld honestly had never expected to be retired. Or rather, to be living his retirement - he'd fully expected to 'be retired' by the company. And in a way, he supposed he had been. He still had the scar from Tseng's bullet as a reminder, but better scarred than dead. He had his daughter back, and they were slowly finding their way around each other again. He had most of his Turks, still, though some were talking about going back to the company now that it truly seemed that Rufus had changed his tune. And he had his partner back, which was a surprise he was still processing. It was strange. Sometimes the years were a gulf between them, but more often than not they fell right back into step, as easy as breathing, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. Some bonds were just that strong, he supposed.

Vincent wasn't around as much as he had been back in the day, admittedly; he'd taken to roaming the world, both to catch up on everything he'd missed and because staying stuck to a pattern was something he couldn't make himself go back to yet, not that he'd ever said as much. It was enough to see him every few weeks, for now. Vincent was still able to keep a pace that Veld wasn't up to anymore, and his enhancements meant he pushed the limits even harder than he had before. And once he'd adjusted to the idea that Vincent was finally really able to push that much, that he'd survive it, Veld had let himself ask for some help that he really wasn't sure there was anyone else he'd trust with. Tseng, maybe. He was still loyal, but he didn't want to press and find if he was more loyal to his president or his old mentor.

He wasn't expecting to hear from Vincent for another couple days, so it was a pleasant surprise to get a call that he would be coming by that night after all. He had time to throw together a modest meal, and settled in to wait to see him. As usual, Vincent made his way in precisely when he'd said he would, and not a moment earlier.

"Veld."

If he'd been asked what tipped him off, Veld couldn't have said. Vincent's tone was even, his expression was to that defaulted neutral he kept to these days… there was nothing obvious there. But something tipped him off, and he gave his partner a suspicious look. "Vincent."

There. A hint of a smile, more a light to those familiar red eyes than an actual curve to his lips, but it was proof enough that something was up. Vincent breezed by him, a duffle bag over his shoulder, and headed to the table with it. Veld followed, watching him move, trying to judge the nature of whatever was coming. "You were successful?"

"Of course." Vincent opened the bag, removing several secure cases where he'd likely been storing more fragile electronics. "Very, in fact."

"Very, huh?" Veld arched a brow, coming around the table to watch his face. Vincent's tells were small, almost invisible, but he knew the man better than anybody. Bastard was damn pleased about something. "What'd you do?"

"Just a trip down memory lane. I didn't expect quite so much nostalgia from your safe."

Veld frowned, wracking his mind trying to think of what, exactly, there could possibly -

There was the sound of paper hitting the table, and he looked back over to see two damnably familiar magazines.

Vincent grinned. "You missed me, huh?"

Veld groaned, covering his face as if it could keep Vincent from knowing he was smiling. "Yeah, fuck you Valentine."

Vincent's laughter was clear and free like not much could make it anymore, and privately, Veld admitted that maybe he didn't mind quite so much from him.