Cause and Effect
Epilogue
Somehow, despite Deepground, Omega and Vincent-bloody-Valentine, they had survived. He had survived and trapped was inside the body of a dead man named Weiss. They had found him, broken, torn and bloody, but still alive on the edges of the ruins of Midgar and then brought him in. He was sure to be locked up, sent on a trial just for show that the W.R.O. were the good guys by giving him a fair trial and with the already pre-approved sentence, he would die with complete finalty.
However, that was not meant to be. Instead of locked up and killed like some animal put up to a farce of a trial, he had been taken to a special facility where he would be watched and observed; the world was dying and they needed his help. He was still locked up, of course, and the cage they had placed him in was bigger and fancier than the cold cell he had expected, but it was still meant to be his prison.
In his new body he could not be so easily contained. He could have left so easily and restarted from the beginning. He had all the time in the world. All he had to do was to break free. Why fix the world when he could just destroy it all and start anew?
He was set to take down the guards and smash his way out – destroy them all with brute force, though it wasn't his usual style. The men stationed outside and within the facility felt restless; they all had a reason for wanting him dead – lost lovers, family members, friends – and were just waiting for the right moment to take him down with extreme prejudice. The commissioner had told them that they could use deadly force with him, should he become a threat.
They were waiting. All of them, waiting for the right moment…
It was evening and the light filtering in through the skylight of his new laboratory was changing into a dusky orange. He had been waiting for this moment all day, knowing that the change of guards came at precisely this time and made for the door.
The door operated on a pass code and he had spied upon his captors often enough to know the exact sequences of numbers that would release him once more upon the world.
Halfway through inputting the numbers, the door to the lab slid open and someone stepped in. On instinct, he lashed out at the intruder with his fist and only met air. He let out a cry when he was kicked in the ribs and another roundhouse kick had him sprawled on the ground before he knew it.
"Good evening, sir. I'll be your bodyguard from now on."
The voice was even, soft and familiar. Whose voice was this? Was it Lucrecia? No, no…her voice had a slight whine to it. That girl, Shelke? Or perhaps, that brat princess that had been following Valentine around? No matter the voice that he brought up to the forefront of his mind, there wasn't anything that matched.
And what kind of 'bodyguard' did bodily harm to the person they were guarding?
"My name is Megami Tenno, a pleasure, sir."
Tenno, that name clicked in the depths of his memory banks, though for what reason, he couldn't fathom why.
A hand was held out in front of his face.
"Professor, you shouldn't be lying down on the floor, you'll catch cold."
Looking up, a young face framed by neatly cut brown hair was staring down at him quietly, expectantly.
His borrowed heart skipped a beat.
No, it couldn't be…
"Is something the matter? You look as if you've seen a ghost, Professor."
END