Valentine: Ex-Turk Sideshow
Chapter 2: Meteor Shower and Saving the World
Basement, Shin-Ra Mansion, Nibelheim. Vincent Valentine sleeps inside a coffin, with the nightmare implanted in his brain by Hojo, the scientist who stole first his love, now his mental freedom. He sleeps with the memories of him with his love; however, the nightmare is that wherever he sees himself, Hojo replaces him. Several years he sleeps, resolved to the fact that he will never be freed from his nightmare, and that he will sleep until eternity.
Outside the mansion, a renegade SOLDIER, named Sephiroth, has summoned Meteor, the spell that will soon end the world with its might. An anti-Mako terrorist group, Avalanche, has joined with a motley crew of others bent on saving the world. Cloud Strife, the unspoken leader, another Ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary, Barret Wallace, the leader of Avalanche, Tifa Lockheart, sexy yet powerful femme fatale barmaid of Avalanche, Red XIII, whose true name is Nanaki, the beast guardian of Cosmo Canyon, Cait Sith, a robot fortune-teller who rides on a stuffed Mog he brought to life from the casino Gold Saucer, and Aeris Gainsborough, a flower seller from Midgar, whom Cloud sort of…dropped in on after an accident while he was still a mercenary hired by Avalanche.
*~*~*~*~*
"I remember this place…a long time ago I was here…" Cloud said, walking down the stairs into the basement. "I don't remember what happened, but I was here. I know that for a fact."
They went through the basement, and past the room where Vincent was, and into the laboratory in the back. They were looking through there when Cloud found some logs books on the desk.
"Today, we implanted Jenova cells into specimen A. We left specimen B alone."
"Today, specimen A showed an increase in negative activity. We had to slightly subdue him to prevent endangering the holding tank's integrity."
"A terrible thing has happened! Specimen A escaped, freed specimen B, and were seen running out of Nibelheim away from the mountains. We have sent a team to recapture them."
"Specimen B was killed today, in the plains between Midgar and Kalm. Specimen A, however, got away. We are still searching for him."
"We have given up the search for specimen A, surely by this time he is most likely dead or too close to death to worry about."
"Who are these people? Surely, from what it says here, they were both members of SOLDIER…" Cloud wondered.
"Who do you think they are?" A mysterious voice called to them from the door. They turned to see him, a tall man, thin, long silver hair, and the familiar glow in the eyes from being exposed to Mako, a long sword at his belt.
"Sephiroth? Are you Sephiroth, the SOLDIER who has disappeared all too long ago?"
"The same. I ask again, puppet, who do you think they are? If you want to know, scale Mount Nibel."
"Wait," Cloud said suddenly. "Puppet? What do you mean?"
Sephiroth turned, and walked out of the room. Cloud ran after him, but when he got through the door, Sephiroth was gone, but the door to the coffin room seemed to call to him, like he sensed a presence there…
Cloud found the key and opened the room, and started at the sight of 5 coffins in the room, one not quite as dusty as the rest. He opened it, and Vincent Jumped out, did a backflip, and landed behind the coffin.
"Let me sleep," Vincent said coldly.
"Who are you?" Cloud asked, the others behind him ready for anything.
"That matters not. Let me sleep, you do not know what you are getting involved in."
"Did you see…wait…your eyes…they glow like mine…you have been exposed to Mako! That means you are, or were, a SOLDIER. You would know who I am looking for. Did you see Sephiroth just a minute ago? He was in the back room, but then he walked out and disappeared."
"Sephiroth…I know not the name. Now please just let me sleep," Vincent said, climbing into the coffin, and pulling the lid shut. Cloud tried opening the lid again, but Vincent told them again to let him sleep.
"Whatever. This guy's not gonna help us anyway. Let's just go," Cloud said, disappointed.
The party walked out of the room and started heading up the stairs out of the basement.
"Wait. I will join you. I see no point in staying where I am."
Vincent stood in the hall, his dark, cold glare cutting deep gashes in Cloud's mind. Cloud looked him over, wondering if the man could be trusted. All of a sudden, down the stairs, appeared a huge beast, like a zombie with two heads, staggering towards Cloud. Vincent drew his custom-made pistol from the holster on his hip, spun it on his finger, pointed, and shot the beast twice, once in each head. The beast fell inches away from Cloud. Turning around, Cloud noticed what happened.
"Wow. Thanks. Come on, we have to climb Mt. Nibel, and it's getting dark. We should get there before it gets too cold. Unless we want to stay at Tifa's house here for the night, and get an early start."
Tifa chimed in after a brief pause, "I'm getting pretty tired, and can we please stay at my house tonight? We could all probably use the rest, being that we haven't had a restful sleep for weeks."
At Tifa's house, everyone was asleep except Cloud and Vincent. Vincent stood outside, looking up the mountain towards the peak of Mt. Nibel. He knew he had been here before, and he knew Cloud from somewhere…that glow in his eyes…
*~*~*~*~*
At the peak of the mountain, they found the last thing they thought they would find: a Mako reactor, the plants that converted the Mako energy into the power that ran every civilized area in the world. They went inside, and went to the very back room of the plant. Vincent soon had the weird gut-wrenching sensation of deja vu, and Cloud and Tifa both fell short of breath and looked at each other. They both went off to the side to talk about some matter, but Vincent, being the enhanced person he was, heard their conversation.
"We've been here before," said Tifa.
"When?"
"You don't remember our promise, do you?"
"No, I can't say I do."
"When we were both kids, we sat at the well in the town square, and I asked you what you were doing, out there in the middle of the night with all your clothes. You said you were running away to join SOLDIER, and that you were never coming here again. I said you had to promise me that at least, if I were in trouble and you got into SOLDIER that you would come and save me. You said yes. Then, one day, two guys in SOLDIER uniforms came with a guy in a black trench coat and long silver hair, and that huge sword, and you needed a guide to get up the mountain. When we got there, one was stationed to keep me out of here, but I hit him and got in. there, the guy in the trench coat had run one of the guards through with his sword, and he was kneeling on the deck, right up there. He then slashed me, and that guard got up, and saved me. That SOLDIER was you. You kept your promise. Wait…that guy in the trench coat…Sephiroth?"
"I remember now. Yes, it was Sephiroth. He went up there to see his mother."
"His…mother?"
By now they had worked their way up the stairs, to a thick door, with one word on it…Jenova. Cloud opened the door, and Sephiroth was floating there, in front of his mother, who was hooked to all kinds of various tubes and wires, preserved in a serene stasis, yet surrounded by an aura of violence. Sephiroth suddenly turned, his sword pointed towards Cloud.
"Well, puppet, you finally decided to show. Now I must eliminate the clone…the defective clone." With that Sephiroth ran Cloud through with his sword, but dropped the sword and ran when he was rushed from all sides by the rest of the party. Aeris removed the sword and tended the wounds.
"That bastard! What does he mean by puppet, defective clone, and all that crap!?" Cloud screamed, in pain and anger. He would not know for a long time, and not before so much happened…
*~*~*~*~*
About a year later, the Northern Continent. The party, after the incident at the Nibel Mako Reactor, went to the other side of the mountains and came to Rocket Town, where the pilot Cid Highwind joined their party. They then went to the Western Continent and the ninja palace-turned tourist resort known as Wutai, where the ninja Yuffie Kisaragi, who they found on the Eastern Continent outside of Midgar, had her homecoming. Soon they went to the Temple of the Ancients, where they saw the prophecy of the end of the world. A huge rock falls to the earth and destroys everything. Sephiroth held the key to this: the Black Materia, Meteor. Materia was a stone of sorts made from compressed Mako and embedded with a spell. The Black Materia was the only one of its kind, and no one knew how or where to find it, except him, and there was only one way to stop him. The Temple had a puzzle with it, and the one who solved the puzzle would be the one who received the Black Materia. Cait Sith was the one who figured this out, and volunteered to do the job. He also knew how the Black Materia was made: it was actually a series of puzzles, and each time a puzzle was solved, the Temple shrunk, to the point where it was small enough to be considered a Materia…the Black Materia. Being the expendable machine he was, Cait Sith took care of the job. Cloud's party got the Black Materia, and a second Cait Sith joined the party. They did not hold the Black Materia for long, however, as Sephiroth took over Cloud's mind and caused him to give up the Black Materia. They chased him afterwards to the City of the Ancients, where Sephiroth killed Aeris, and a seemingly (and according to Aeris) useless Materia fell to the bottom of a Lifestream pool, where Aeris's body was soon sunk. That Materia would soon be called Holy, the only defense against Meteor. Speaking of, Sephiroth soon gathered up enough energy, and summoned Meteor, and now it looms over the earth, threatening it with utter destruction. They chased Sephiroth to the Northern Crater, with the airship named after Cid, the Highwind, where they knew the last battle would occur.
*~*~*~*~*
Vincent stood on the battlefield, facing the nicknamed one-winged angel final transformation of Sephiroth. He had transformed many times before, and could feel he would again soon…he had already been the Galian beast, named after project Galia, where Vincent became his enhanced self, he had become a weird Frankenstein-like creature, and a chainsaw-toting zombie. But this feeling inside him was unlike any he felt before. He could feel himself changing. His clothing became tight, skin tight, then even tighter, melting into his skin, his red cloak turning black to match the rest of his outfit. His feet became clawed and four-toed, almost like a bird. He thinned slightly, then puffed out with his great increase in muscle mass. Horns and pointed, Spock-like ears sprouted from his now-bald head. He doubled over, screamed, and sprouted batlike wings. He had become the hellish incarnation of Chaos. Sephiroth knew he could be done for, and unleashed his most powerful weapon on Chaos – a supernova. Not even the power of an exploding star could stop Chaos from striking down Sephiroth, and sending him into the Lifestream. Cloud followed him, not necessarily willingly, but he fought Sephiroth, in the Lifestream, and struck him down with one blow. He came back, and they barely escaped the crater as the pure evil of Sephiroth melded into the peace of the Lifestream. Now all they had to worry about was Meteor. Meteor was within an hour of destroying the world, and they had no way to stop it.
Cloud soon fell into a trance, and when he came around, he said, "I think Aeris is trying to talk to me from the Lifestream! She says that that Materia that we lost was Holy. Even though no one has equipped it, it can be remotely triggered by a great mass of thought towards it. Everyone, concentrate on Holy! Concentrate on saving the world!"
They concentrated, and soon the Lifestream came forth from the earth and slowed, then destroyed Meteor before it hit the earth. Now, that the world was finally saved, Vincent soon left on a quest. A quest to find himself. A quest to find his life, his love, his Lucrecia…