21. Memories of Dark Times.
Aeris came back to consciousness reluctantly. Every part of her body felt as if it had been hit with a hammer. Deep inside she felt an ache that she knew would never really heal and, curling up into a tight ball, she let go her pent up pain and terror in dry heaving sobs that shook her whole body.
Suddenly she heard footsteps coming towards her, and she curled even tighter into herself, her mind numb with terror at the thought that the Tal'Karrah was returning to rape her again and again. She abruptly sat up straight, completely unaware of her surroundings. She could not let Rahellar do that to her again. She would die first.
Aeris cast frantically around her for something sharp, anything that could end her suffering her eye finally lighting on a shard of flint that had chipped off one of the rocks nearby, just as a man stepped around the boulders that surrounded her resting place; she snatched it up and placed it against her breast, ready to slam it into her heart.
x x x
Vincent rounded the rocks and came to a sudden halt at seeing the resolute young woman on the verge of death. Without a thought he dived across the space between them and crashed into Aeris, tugging her thrust off target, turning the killing stab into a glancing blow that open a deep but not deadly gash on her arm. He enveloped her in his strong arms attempting to quell her struggles and found that he needed all of his strength to pin her down.
Aeris, at finding herself again at the mercy of a strange man, went limp. There was nothing she could do now except hope for a quick, relatively painless death. But instead of the violence that she expected to come, the man only held her, tenderly in his arms, and she realized that the man who held her was not the vicious Tal'Karrah.
Vincent lifted Aeris off her back into a sitting position and held her close, trying with his closeness to stave off the terror that consumed her. He gritted his teeth at the recollection of what this woman, barely more than a girl, had been made to suffer and stroked her long, auburn hair tenderly, determined to find her people and save her from the ravages of The Angel's conquests.
Aeris cried herself to sleep in the arms of the strange but gentle man who freed her from the cruel captivity of Rahellar and when he was sure she was asleep, Vincent carefully carried her to a soft bed of leaves and left her to sleep, unconsciousness would hopefully lessen the harsh memories left behind by a heartless assault.
Vincent sat just outside of the circle of boulders that lay around Aeris' bed; from outside the stones looked like a small army of shadow dragons to guard her sleep. He stared up at the coldly glittering stars, his face stained red in the glow of the blood-moon Talakhi.
The tall mercenary gazed blindly at the dark sky and his thoughts flew back across the ages to a time when he knew a woman who matched the beauty of the ill treated girl he had saved from a life of abuse and horror.
Vincent sighed in contentment as he slipped an arm around the shoulders of the tall woman standing next to him. Together they gazed at the three shining crescent moons of the small planet S'Arqui and they smiled at the tranquility of the moment.
Lucretia looked up at the stars and hugged herself closer to Vincent. She had something to tell him, but she hated to spoil the serene mood of the night with the huge news that she had to tell him.
'Vincent.' she finally said after a long moment of silence. 'I have something to tell you. It's . . . I don't know how to say this so please be patient my Love.'
Vincent stiffened slightly but tightened his arm around Lucretia's shoulders. 'Of course Love,' he murmured softly. 'Whatever it is you can tell me.'
Lucretia's face broke into a gentle smile and she stroked her hand over Vincent's cheek, drawing in a deep breath. 'I, well, I'm pregnant.'
She hesitantly raised her eyes up to his face, ready for an expression of shock or rejection, but instead she saw his face break into the biggest grin she had ever seen.
He did not even bother replying to her unspoken plea for acceptance, instead he pulled her in for a passionate kiss. They lowered themselves slowly down onto the grass and they lost themselves in each other. Through their intense yet tender lovemaking they rose to heights of ecstasy and together they flew among the stars on the wings of their love.
x
Lucretia screamed, a sound of pure agony, and Vincent gripped her hand as though to offer her his strength. She shrieked again, and Vincent turned frantically towards the quiet figure sitting across the bed.
'Healer what is wrong!' he cried. "Is there any way to ease her pain? Her suffering is killing me because there is nothing I can do.'
The unassuming holy man looked up at the distraught man and said, 'She is young for such a birth. This child shall bring pain and destruction to many as well as bringing about the end of the one that you love. She will be known as Kalika Kali Ma, the destroyer of life, if she lives to draw breath in this world.'
Vincent stared in horror at Eldai, the old healer and felt his breath hiss from his lungs at the dire prediction. "Old man, you condemn my child to living hell with your words; is there no way to thwart the fate destined for my daughter?'
Eldai lowered his eyes and turned away from Vincent. 'The only way to save countless thousands from the Dark Destroyer is to end her existence before her first breath of life. The child must be killed now.'
Vincent's legs gave way, and he sank to the ground his eyes filling with tears. 'My daughter.' He moaned heartbrokenly. 'I must kill my first child to save the future of many?' he sucked in a quick breath and turned to Eldai. 'Do it.' he whispered.
Eldai sat unmoving and spoke quietly. 'To end the life of the Destroyer would do more than just kill your daughter Vincent. It would also kill the one you love the most. It would kill Lucretia.'
Tears filled Vincent's eyes and he buried his face in his hands. 'This you cannot ask of me.' He cried helplessly. 'I want you to save the life of Lucretia and Kalika! Please save the woman I love!'
The healer sighed and nodded slowly. 'I knew that you would ask this of me. I knew that the Destroyer would be born. Yet I had to warn you of your daughter's fate. You were to know of what your wife bore within her. I will save their lives, but you will always bear the burden of the Destroyer's existence.'
Vincent dragged himself out of the troubling memory. He had almost forgotten over the ages that it was because of him that The Angel walked the earth. His mind again soared backwards through the years and he found himself in another time and place.
Again Lucretia's scream cut the air and bit deep into Vincent's soul, but this time there was no healer to help her through the difficult birth.
Suddenly through the door came someone Vincent hadn't laid eyes on in what seemed like forever. It was Kalika.
He ran to her and grabbed her arm looking into her eyes pleadingly. 'Your mother is giving birth Kalika.' He cried. 'Can you help us please?'
His daughter stared at him with fathomless eyes like large purple jewels. 'My father,' she said emotionlessly. 'Mother is going to die. The child inside her is not that which was once your son and nor is it hers anymore. Her experiments of science carried out with the scientist Hojo were more than simple genetics. They took your child growing inside of Lucrecia and then they instilled in him the power of the Outsider Jenova. This child to be born is not properly of Lucretia's or your body. It will be something else. Something that must not be allowed to live.'
Vincent stared in horror as Kalika talked of the murder of her own mother and could only stand by as she turned to him and said, 'Father of mine, I must destroy this being. Stand aside and let me carry out this duty.'
A groan ripped from his throat and Vincent fell to his knees, blackness tugging at his vision, his mind fogging. How could the child of his body have turned into such a hateful creature? She was about to kill her own mother without a single sign of regret or remorse.
As Kalika moved closer to Lucretia's writhing body however, Vincent leaped to his feet and hurled himself at her. Lucretia meant more to him than life and he would not just sit by and let his own daughter kill the one woman that he loved.
Kalika had already begun her incantation of oblivion when Vincent crashed into her, knocking her sideways off her feet. The spell was almost finished, but the final syllables of the chant were obliterated in her cursing as she fell hard to the ground.
Vincent felt a wash of searing hot air pass his face, barely missing him and he screamed in mindless agony as the spell traced a glowing arcane symbol on Lucretia's forehead and sank into her head, stilling her labored breathing and sending her soul soaring out of her mouth in a formless mist of silver-gray.
Vincent screamed. A sound that came from deep in his throat and tore out of his mouth, shattering the deathly silence left by Kalika. Then he heard a small wail; the cry of his newborn son. Kalika had achieved the murder of her mother, but the incomplete spell had failed to take the life of the baby.
He gathered the small bundle into his arms and left the hut without a backwards glance. Many times throughout the following years he would wish that he had taken the time to give his Love a decent burial, but all he could think about then, was finding Jenova and giving her son over into her powerful protection.
Breathing hard, Vincent jerked out of his hideous memories. For a thousand years he had refused to believe that evil had consumed the soul of The Angel, but it had taken the rape and near death of an innocent young woman to force him to see the truth of his daughter.
He had an obligation to this young woman even though he did not even know her name. She was a victim of his daughter's malevolence and thanks to his weakness and love those thousands of years ago, she was suffering; she had suffer the worst of all violations and it all came back to him. He would help her return to her old life, away from The Angel, he would return her to whomever she called family.