Altered
His fate was changed
Thirty years ago Hojo was stopped, and brought back to his senses, ultimately this saved Vincent Valentine's life. This is the altered tale of the Final Fantasy plotline.
Hojo looked around the lab; he clutched a box in his arms. This was his last day at the Shinra Manor. Since the events that almost took place here a few weeks ago, ShinRa had opted that they stop with the Jenova project. The president was overturned and the ShinRa board or directors and a small select committee where now running ShinRa. Hojo sighed, maybe this was for the better, his wife's bodyguard was heading back to headquarters and the Jenova and Mako projects were eliminated.
"Hojo?" She called into the room. Lucrecia. She walked into the room and smiled. "Ready to go Hojo?" He nodded and sighed.
"I owe him Lucy. I owe him forever." He said, "He saved me…from myself" Lucrecia placed a hand to Hojo's cheek.
"I'm sure you'll be able to repay him somehow," She said with a smile, she removed her hand from his cheek and walked out of the room. Hojo took a good look around the room, this was the last time he'd be here, or so he thought.
Vincent Valentine hugged her goodbye, "I'll be back soon I promise." She nodded.
"Vince, go save the world," She said with tears running down her face.
He wiped one away, "I'm only going away for a month." He smiled, "Why so upset?" She shook.
"I'm afraid I'll never see you again." She said shaking uncontrollably, "Your job is so dangerous." He looked down and sighed.
"I'll be safe I promise." He walked out the door with a bag under his arm; she waved until he was out of sight. She folded her hands and begun to pray.
"Oh please be safe, Vinnie, my baby boy." Yume Valentine shivered and closed the door to her home.
Later that month a chopper flew over Wutai, "Plan Alpha." He said into the earpiece, "Veldt take the chopper down," He ordered, to the younger Turk. He nodded and the chopper started into a decent. The chopper began to shake and when it touched the ground Vincent Valentine jumped out of the chopper and began to unleash a load of bullets. He didn't have enough time to guard himself before a bullet was placed right below his heart.
Veldt jumped out of the chopper and began fired at the man that had attacked his superior. The rest of the remainders of the squad retreated with their leader now dead. He began to carry Vincent to the chopper. Once loaded into the chopper, Veldt started it up and began to fly to the ShinRa Headquarters. "Hold on sir! I'll get you help!" Veldt said to the copse-like body behind him.
Hojo stood in the med lab with his clipboard in his hands; this was his new job, "Gast? Can you get me Mister Juvous vitals?" Gast nodded and put down the vital of blood he was working with and changed gloves.
"So Hojo? What are you and Lucrecia doing this weekend?" Gast asked as he filed through the cabinet and pulled out a manila folder and thumbed through it. He pulled a file out and placed it on Hojo's stack of papers. Hojo picked it up.
He shrugged, "Well we have to-" He was cut off as a man bust through the doors and Hojo dropped his clipboard.
"Doctor Hojo!" The man yelled, "We've got a gun shot wound and we're losing him."
Hojo pulled on gloves and pushed pass the man. "I need his name and stats." He said pulling on the elastic in his gloves. The shaking aid handed Hojo the stats and Hojo's eyes widened. He dropped the papers and began to run down the hallway. "Follow me, aid!" He yelled. "I have a job to do." When Hojo arrived at the room where Vincent was situated, and prepped for surgery, he gulped, it looked grim.
"Aid if you please," He paused, "Will you get me my tools from my locked cabinet over there?" He handed the keys to the aid and he did as he was told, bringing Hojo a syringe and a small bottle of mako. He put the syringe to the side and took a scalpel and cut around where the bullet was embedded. He then used tweezers to remove the bullet. Quickly he sewed up the wound and cleaned the area.
"Doctor Hojo? Why did you have me get the Mako? He'll recover now, won't he?" Hojo shook his head and filled the syringe. When it was filled, Hojo injected Vincent with it. He cleaned the area again and placed the syringe on the operating tray.
"That should be enough Mako to keep him stable until he comes out of his coma…" Hojo sighed, he turned around. "Aid, if you would, contact Maev Fallon, of the Research and Development department. I need to speak with her." The aid nodded and rushed out the door. Hojo stripped the gloves off as the other aids rushed Vincent to an ICU ward to hook him up to a more stable ventilator.
Hojo walked down the ward halls and stopped at a bright colored room. His wife was sitting on the floor with some children, she was reading aloud to them, "And I'll huff and puff…and blow your house down!" She said as the children began to giggle. Hojo knocked on the door.
"Hello children, can I borrow Misses Lucrecia?" The children nodded and Lucrecia got up, her stomach was beginning to bulge. She walked over to him and smiled, "How are you feeling Lucy?"
"Good," her smile faded, "Hojo you look like you've just seen Gaia's ghost!"
"Vincent is here." Her eyes widened.
"But how!" She stopped, "He's was always so healthy!"
"He's not sick Lucy, he's injured, by a bullet, but that's not all, I expect him to be in a progressive coma, from shock and from his wounds."
She stuttered, "What…what…happened?"
Hojo sighed, "I'll I know is that he was assigned to the Wutai front and was shot down by a Wutai commander, a Genji bullet most likely." He paused, "I have it in my office if you'd like to have a look at it."
She nodded, "I would like to have a look at it." She smiled, "You're here for another reason, Hojo, and I can see it in your eyes."
He looked at the floor, "I injected him with fifty milligrams of Mako, not enough to do any damage, but just enough to help him, and it will keep him preserved until he wakes up."
"Hojo!" She scolded him, "Mako is illegal." She looked around, "If word of this get out, the board will think you're up to no good again." She hissed through her teeth, "They will not hesitate to lock you up." She placed a hand on her stomach.
"Are you alright?" He asked. She sighed.
"I'm fine, he's just been a little jumpy today." She said. She paused and thought, "What if they test his blood? What will you do then?" Worry was laced in her voice.
Hojo leaned down to Lucrecia's ear, "I'm going to move him, and I'm going to put him in a healing tube until he wakes up."
She bit her nail, "Where to move him too? Our apartment isn't big enough Hojo."
He smiled, "I've already got that figured out."
Maev Fallon sat at her desk and skimmed a paper. A buzz on her phone, "Miss Fallon, Doctor Hojo of the Med Lab is here." She pressed a button in return.
"Send him in." She said laying down the papers and pulling out a brown book. Hojo stepped through the doors and smiled.
"Maev." He said, "I need a favor," She raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of favor, Hojo?" She said scribbling a note in the brown book.
He sighed, "I need to buy the ShinRa Manor."
The woman's eyes widened behind her glasses, "Why would you want to buy your old lab?" She thought for a second, "You're up to something…and it has to do with Mako I'm guessing."
He looked around the room and unplugged the phone, "Maev, I'm begging you to keep this quiet. I can't let this man die. If I do…I'd never forgive myself. He saved me…and now…I'm saving him…" She sighed and shut her book.
"So explain this too me…Slowly…"
Lucrecia watched Vincent, "It's been almost a year now, and every time a look at you, all I see is your father Vincent." No response, but the hum of the machines and the steady pulse. She sighed, "I'm sorry. That I couldn't save him." A tear slipped down her face, "I'm so sorry." She stood up and walked to the end of his bed and took his file off the clipboard, she thumbed through it and found what she was looking for, Yume's number. She picked up the phone and dialed the number.
Yume was humming an old Wutaian tune that she use to sing to Vincent, she dried the dishes and began to stack them away. Her dog scurried around her feet as she did this, just incase she accidentally dropped a morsel for the dog. Yume's phone began to ring and she put the plates back on the counter and she picked it up. "Yume Valentine, how can I help you?"
"Misses Valentine? This is Lucrecia Crescent at ShinRa Med Labs…" Yume held her breath, "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your son was hurt in an attack on Wutai." Yume began to feel her hope slipping away.
"Can I see him?" she asked, tears now running down her face, "Please let me see my boy." She sniffed, "Let me see my son, please!" she gasped, "Just once!"
A sniff from the line, "When we have him situated in a better faculty than this, we will contact you Misses Valentine." The woman on the line paused, "I won't let him die Misses Valentine, not this time." The line clicked and Yume fell to the floor crying, only her dog there to comfort her.
Hojo walked into the room, Lucrecia sat next to Vincent stroking his hand. "We can move him."
She jumped up out of her chair, "Where, where?" Hojo show her the keys and the deed.
"I own the ShinRa Manor now." He said, "You can give our family a real home, and I can start a private practice in Nibelhiem." Lucrecia smiled and hugged her husband.
"Thank you so much." She whispered.
Three months later, Hojo had successfully moved Vincent to the Manor and stabilized him in a healing tube. During this time, he had Maev Fallon wipe the Shinra hard drive clean of any Turk by the name of Vincent Valentine. To the world Vincent Valentine was a memory that was fading faster as the days passed.
Lucrecia was cleaning the kitchen as the house bell rang. Lucrecia stopped what she was doing and walked to the door. She opened it up to reveal a short Wutaian woman. "Hello Misses Valentine." Lucrecia said solemnly. The woman smiled.
"Thank you for letting me see him." She said with a deep bow. Lucrecia stopped her.
"Please don't bow Misses Valen-"
Yume placed a hand in the air, "Call me Yume, Lucrecia." She said, "Now please take me to my son." She said with pleading grey eyes. Lucrecia nodded and led her down the stairs. When they made it to the room where Vincent was being held, Hojo was slaving over a paper.
Lucrecia spoke, "Hojo," She paused, "This is Vincent's mother, Yume Valentine."
Hojo bowed, "Misses Valentine, your son saved my life." He paused and took a breath, "I will do anything to wake him up."
Yume smiled and walked over to Vincent's tube, "That is so typical of him. He gets it from his father," She said turning around, "He always putting his life on the line for others." She smiled, and turned to Vincent, "And see where it got you? You have to stick your pretty little neck into everything, Vinsento?" She placed a hand on the tube and smiled, "Your so your father."
"Misses Valentine can we offer you anything?" Hojo asked.
She turned around and smiled, "Just one thing."
"Anything."
She went stiff and sighed, "I want to see him every so often."
Hojo nodded, "I would be insulted if you didn't come to see him."
During the thirty years that Vincent was in the coma Yume made a trip every three months to see her son for a day, but those days turned into weeks when little Sephiroth was born to Lucrecia and Hojo, Yume would stay and help the couple. Throughout the years Hojo kept putting off Vincent's termination, Yume seemed to be grateful that he did. But Yume got too old to make the trips as often as she did. So she just stopped coming and hoped that if something happened he call her. But that call never came…and Yume gave up hope.
Hojo heard beeping from the room next to his lab. The beeping got louder and louder, until it stopped. Hojo rushed into the room. "Lucrecia!" He yelled. "Call Yume! Now!"
Lucrecia walked down the steps, "Why Hojo? Oh my god…" There standing in front of her dripping wet was Vincent Valentine, not a day over twenty seven. Hojo stood proudly.
"I think my debt has been settled." He said, "Now to start living again." Vincent cocked his head.
"What has happened, I felt like I've been, asleep for a long time." Lucrecia laughed and smiled, half crying.
"You don't know half the story Vincent." She said, "You've been dead to us for thirty years." Lucrecia picked up the phone on Hojo's desk and dialed Yume's number, for the last time.
When Yume entered the house, a small sliver haired boy attacked her legs, "Great Grandmamma!" He cried. She smiled.
"Hello Kadaj, can you take me to your Grand-" Steel boots cut her off.
"Mom," The man said.
Yume began to cry, "Thirty years, and you still are the same." She began to shake, "Vinsento." Kadaj released her legs as she moved forward and crashed into her son's chest. He wrapped his arms around his mother.
"I'm so sorry." He said, "I didn't follow your orders." She hit her son on his chest.
"Well maybe if you thought with your head and not your heart," She scolded, "I'm glad to see you again, even if it's been thirty years."
After the tearful reunion between mother and son, Vincent left the manor; he left the manor in search of his life, maybe in this world now unknown to him, maybe he'll find his life again.
Three months later, Vincent Valentine stepped into Midgar, "I don't remember this place like this."
"Hey, outsider!" A man with spiky hair yelled, "You lost? This is AVALANCHE territory."
Vincent blinked, "Valentine, Vincent, first class Turk," He said. The man searched the database for the name.
"Nobody by the name of Vincent Valentine on our servers, get lost!" He yelled again.
"Okay that's enough Zack." The man said. "Why are you here in Midgar?"
"I'm looking to restart my life." He paused, "I was told by Doctor Hojo that this was the place to come to." The dark-skinned male nodded.
"One of Hojo's boys. Okay that's enough for me…Zack let him in." He said, "I think I know where he needs to go."
"But…Barrett!" Zack protested.
Barrett raised a hand, "Hojo, has never been wrong before." Zack sighed in defeat and opened the gate, "Now you will take him to Cloud." Barrett said poking the black haired man in the chest. He turned to Vincent, "Enjoy your stay…and watch out for that Wutaian Rat…"
Zack mumbled, "Sephiroth says it's Wutai Flee, not rat."
"Ah what ever. Zack while you there, check up on Marlene."
Zack sighed, "Whatever, boss man," He paused, "Now c'mon." He started to lead Vincent through a maze of city. Vincent was amazed that the boom town that he knew as Midgar was now a bustling city.
"What happened to the old corner shops?" Vincent asked.
Zack raised an eyebrow, "The hell?" He paused, "You're serious, and you don't know what happened here a few years ago?" Vincent shook his head no. "Well, Barrett, my boss, found oil here. And his boss, who was a ShinRa head at the time, wanted in…so the built up Midgar…we are now the electric source of the world," Zack frowned, "Kinda sucks sometimes." They approached a bar, in red letters read Seventh Heaven Lodge and Bar. "Well this is it."
"A bar."
Zack smiled, "Yeah not much, but its home to our little mix matched group." He laughed, "You'll fit right in." He pushed open the door and whistled, "Tifa! I've got somebody for Cloud and Reeve!" A brown haired woman and black haired woman appeared from behind the bar.
"Spiky and Mister Leader aren't in." The black hair woman said, "He'll have to wait around. Spiky and Mister Leader went with Cid to Junon."
"Yu, shush!" The other woman warned. Yu shook her hands in the air.
"I will not be silenced!" She said wobbling back and forth, finally falling to the ground. Zack laughed.
"Well, Shut up anyway, Yu." The woman named Yu pouted for a second and then looked at Vincent.
"Who's he? And more importantly, what is a Turk doing here!" Vincent looked down at his uniform.
He sighed, "My apologies Miss Yu," he bowed, "I am Vincent Valentine, a retired Turk."
Yu cocked an eyebrow, "Yeah, yeah…well…Turks aren't taken too highly in this part of town." She paused, "Since you were so kind to give me your name…I guess it's only fair to give you mine." She paused, "I'm YuFi Kisaragi. You can call me Yu or Yuffie. Everybody calles me Yu though even Doctor Hojo."
"You know Doctor Hojo?" He asked.
The brunette spoke up, "Everybody in this room has a connection with him, he's the reason we're collected as a group." She smiled, "I'm Tifa Lockheart, call me Tifa."
Zack sighed, "Zach Fair is my name…but eh…you sorta knew the first part."
Yu drummed her fingers on the bar, "Okay why is he here, no offence, Vince."
"Vince?" He asked.
Yu nodded, "Yeah if you're going to be a part of our group, you need a nick name. See I'm Yu." She pointed to Tifa, "She's boobs," Her finger moved to Zack, "He's Sonic." She laughed, "You know Sonic the Hedgehog?" No laugher came from Vincent, "Okay…maybe not…" She rubbed the back of her head and ducked down below the bar.
Tifa smiled, "That's Yu's way of saying that she cares."
"No it's not!" She yelled. Vincent blinked.
Zack wagged a finger, "I'm here for Marlene too." He sighed, "Barrett wants to know if she's okay today." Tifa nodded.
"She'd doing better, Aerith is upstairs with her right now, and I think Shalua also said she was getting better." Zack nodded and ran up the stairs to the lodge above, Vincent cleared his throat.
"May I know the purpose of this mix matched group?" He asked.
Tifa smiled, "We are all looking for something."
"And what is that?"
She smirked, "A way to restart our lives. Hojo gave us all that chance." Vincent understood.
A/N: Hojo? The Hero? Nah….can't be. Read? Review! Maybe I'll do a follow up.