Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII is not mine, I'm pleasuring myself by writing fanfiction and gain no profit from doing so.
Green Pig: long time no see? Enjoy this part.... my pulse rate was increasing all through this chapter when I wrote it....sorry if it's a little confusing but it's a bit difficult to put into words what I see in my head y'know-
Rajin: Ya Know?
Green Pig: WOULD YA MIND NOT INTERRUPTING ME LIKE THAT???
::Rajin grins cheekily and escapes::
Green Pig: I've really gotta put a lock on those doors... anyway, just read please and give me any comments - except FLAMES PLEASE! - comments that are meant to be helpful critiscism are gladly welcomed, but please, whatever you do, don't forget to review!
~Hojo, leader of the Turks in the beginning, an assertive man with a good clear mind and great potential to become something better. The scene in the Shinra Headquarters was on one occasion that the man left his laboratory (he studied science as a part-time hobby) to get a hopeful future Turk to accept what Shinra wanted. It was clear to Hojo after visiting Snow village once a year before that one boy there was good Turk material, he had been up so north to study the Northern Crater where he believed a long dead corpse of an Ancient remained unaffected by the troubles of time… if he could just get part of the body… it would help him get out of being the leader of the Turks and help him become head scientist of the Shinra Inc.
In Snow village Hojo found the skills of one boy particularly appealing – he had the intelligence, the swift reflexes and strong able body that could lead the boy to greatness as a Turk in the Shinra. So after many letters to Mr Valentine offering the boy the chance to go on to a better life, random threatening telegrams were sent and still Mr Valentine said his son didn't want to become a Turk. The time to be patient had passed and Hojo had to take matters into his own hands, so he had the boy kidnapped and brought to Midgar (Mr Valentine was thereafter handed a huge cheque for co-operating with the Shinra with promises that he would see his son again someday… one day). Now Vincent was here and still refusing to accept the chance of a lifetime Hojo was giving him, in fact the boy was distraught with fear and sadness but was too stubborn to change his mind.
Well, the Turks had ways of getting what they wanted - they were known for it…~
Yuffie was angry, angrier than she had ever been with Hojo and worried what they were going to do to Vincent, but this was all just a memory, shadows of the past that couldn't be altered…
… Could they?
"You shall be a Turk, Vincent Valentine, you will train hard every day until you get to be one of us who wear the big suits and neat black glasses," Hojo said, he clicked his fingers and a man in the corner, that Yuffie had not seen, stepped forward. "Take Vincent to the training room, the special one for disobedient little boys."
((((NO!))))
It had been her voice all right, it resounded across the room but didn't seem to affect Hojo or the other Turks that were leaving with Vincent, but had Vincent heard her…? The boy momentarily stopped and looked wildly around for the voice but was pushed roughly along with the men. Yuffie followed determined to put an end to this harsh treatment, she wasn't very off put to walk through the walls anymore and she even walked through two Turks to get alongside Vincent.
his heart was pounding badly, so fast that he felt it beating in his throat and it hurt – he wanted to cry but was too scared to. They were taking him somewhere he was sure was going to be a torture room or something (he had heard stories), but…had he just heard someone else back in that room?
Vincent felt cold and trembled more than he had been before, then even more when he thought he saw a very faint, almost transparent figure of a person walking next to him. It was very brief what he saw but it had most definitely…been a girl.
Vincent shut his eyes telling himself off for hallucinating in the worst of situations – there are no such things as ghosts there are no such things as ghosts…
He was put into a cold dark room with one bed (it didn't look too inviting but it was better than nothing) and a sink and a toilet.
"You stay here tonight, rest well boy; you'll need your strength for the training tomorrow." Then he was left alone. He went and sat down on the bed, shivering, in thin new clothes the Turks had given him now that he didn't need his thick furs in Midgar. This was the first time he had been away from home and from his father – the only family in his life since he never knew his mom.
The room was cold… dark… he was utterly alone.
One tear followed another, his shoulders shook as he let out soul wrenching sobs that he had been dying to let go of since he was kidnapped. It seemed though that this made him feel warmer inside and he thought he heard a voice telling him that it would be alright, if he just let them have what they wanted he would be alright as a Turk. It was either that or spend forever lengthening this pain and then he wouldn't have any good adventures.
He looked around him because he wasn't sure he was thinking straight; he wondered if he was hallucinating again. Maybe it would be alright to be a Turk after all; he could grow strong and get to know all about the world, much more than he could ever do in Snow village and after a good life career he could return home and snowboard all he liked until he died. It was going to be all right - he was going to be a Turk and he was going to be great.
The ice cracked, a shard fell.
"What happened…?" Yuffie wasn't in the room anymore but back in the Lifestream where Vincent still hung trapped in ice.
///You are doing well!///
"What? OH LOOK!" She saw that part of the prison had fallen already, but it was only a little bit destroyed.
///Don't stop now, keep going!///
"But it's such a small part… it took ages to do that. What happened? I was in there feeling all sorry for him and then now I'm back out here."
///You spoke to me didn't you?///
"Well, when you say 'me', yes, I said something… not much. I had to say something it was really awful!!"
///And by doing so you stopped me from accepting much, much later and so cut away all the pain of torture from my life///
"Vincent was going to be tortured? WAIT! How could I? That was the past how could I have affected it?"
///This is the Lifestream! I do not know the answers///
"Yeah well…" She peered up into the shining ice at the lifeless body and pictured the boy again on that old mouldy bed, crying on his own in the dark with no one to comfort him. Well… she had been there for a little while, she felt better knowing she had been there, if only for a little while.
///You have to keep going – there are many sorrows in my life///
"You're starting to confuse me saying that you're Vincent and that He's Vincent and that guy who looks a lot like Vincent saying that He's NOT Vincent. Look, I'll just go help him yeah?" Yuffie went over to the next figure – she noticed that the memory she had just travelled through had disappeared. One down, two more to go.
"Mideel's gonna be a great place to visit after all the repairs are done." Cloud and Tifa were taking the day off working with the people to picnic by the beach, it occasionally got annoying when a creature tried to ambush them but nothing in the world could match their strength, life was perhaps, too easy.
"Even though it's wonderful to get out and relax on a far away island with you Cloud, I can't help but feel depressed about it all."
"Why?" They had chosen to lie on the sand propping themselves up on their elbows, watching the steady drifting of the waves and savouring the warm sun. They had completely forgotten with all their adventuring that it was already summer.
"It's too easy Cloud, with all our strength life's too easy! I can lightly punch a red dragon and it'd drop dead instantly, a life without hardship is a dull life with no problems or worries about anything! If anything gets in our way we really wouldn't have to do a thing and whatever troubles we encounter will be over quickly."
"Er… I thought that was a good thing…"
"Oh Cloud…" Tifa sighed tensely. "Don't you understand what I'm getting at?"
"Of course I do; you think life's gonna be boring because nothing's going to be hard anymore. I think it's just your head trying to make excuses when you know that what you really want is an adventure – like perhaps another world crisis?"
"No!" She spun round to look at him and gasped, shocked with his suggestion, "Of course I don't want another world crisis! I don't wish another Meteor would fall or another Sephiroth to appear!"
"But…?"
"But… but I do miss the adventure…" Cloud sighed.
"Well, we can spend a few more days here and help the villagers repair Mideel – that'll keep us occupied and we can use our strengths to help the work move swiftly on. Then, if you crave an adventure, we can find a place to marry and then… start a family together, how about that for a lifelong adventure…?" Tifa didn't look altogether impressed.
"Oh yeah? A great adventure that'll be – bringing up your children in the happy home while you swan off somewhere else!"
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"No Cloud, I know what you mean. Maybe I do crave adventure…" She stood up and brushed the sand from her legs.
"Where are you going?"
"Back to the motel. I'll see you later." Tifa walked away quickly. Cloud lay back on the sand and watched the lazy clouds drift slowly across the sky.
That's me drifting along there… He thought. Where are those clouds heading? Where am I heading? He sighed and got up, he headed off back to Mideel to maybe get Tifa into a better mood he thought rascally.
~To access what has been happening – you may be a little confused with the times here – I shall explain all: Four days after falling into the Lifestream at the Northern Crater, the rest of AVALANCHE had decided to set the Highwind down at Chocobo Ranch after travelling about finding Marlene, Reeve, Elmyra and they were just going over plans for memorial services for their lost comrades. During this time Yuffie was still sleeping – as she had been the last four days – peacefully whilst drifting in the flow of the Lifestream, Vincent has gathered all his guilt as he slept once more since leaving his coffin, in a nightmare. Then after AVALANCHE stayed one more night at Chocobo Ranch, Yuffie awoke and Vincent was encased in a prison of ice. Her task to free Vincent began and Cloud and Tifa were thus set down in Mideel by their friends, where they were going to wait two weeks for any signs of Vincent or Yuffie.
You have already read about Yuffie completing her first task, in co-ordination with Cloud and Tifa's holiday/rescue mission - that was five days ago. All further events in the Lifestream – you must remember – happened during these five days, so on the sixth night (which is a Sunday) Cloud and Tifa pleased with their new friends and the hard work that had been going on all week – the village looked much better than it had been before Cloud and Tifa came to provide extra items, materia and labour – settled down on the outcrop of the high hill where the new motel now stood just a little way behind, to gaze at the glow of the Lifestream and wonder…~
"I'm sorry for being stupid earlier."
"How so?"
"For complaining about the way peace has restored to the world at long last. It was selfish of me to want some crisis so that I could get into adventuring again."
"You're forgiven." They were quiet, huddled up with their arms around each other – they had taken a blanket from their room to settle under.
"I wonder… if the spirit of Aeris has been reborn yet…" Tifa said. Cloud shrugged.
"Do you think she's in the world somewhere? As a new person with a completely different personality and path in life?" Cloud didn't answer.
"Maybe… she came back as a man… or a… a cat or something…"
"… Maybe she hasn't." Cloud intoned sadly.
"…Did you love her at all Cloud?" Her question troubled him; he was not sure if he had loved her at all, or if he did, was the love stronger than that he had for Tifa?
"I think… I had some love for her, Aeris was such a nice person but could be stubborn and troublesome at times, yet she always knew what she was doing and meant well. She didn't have to die so young in life."
"Yes… I believe, after thinking about it a lot that she kinda knew she wasn't going to live to old age. I think that soon after we left the Temple of Time she finally realised that she had a place in history and that to save the world she had to make a sacrifice. She gave her life up for all of the world, that makes her very special don't you think?"
"Yeah… Aeris was special – the last surviving Ancient on the planet, but that won't make any difference to how she will be remembered. I will always remember her for the time we spent together and, the brief feeling of love I held for her, but… others will remember her sacrifice only. I heard a few people here talk about how the rest of the world were hailing her as an angel sent from heaven to protect our simple little lives. Kinda funny really isn't it?"
"Hmm." It was nice to think about Aeris and the time they had with her, the more they talked about it the more they felt warm and happy knowing that they had spent time with the angel that saved the planet.
"I reckon she's the spirit of the planet now – I think she's Holy," Cloud stopped; he had been watching without really noticing that something was going on down by the pool of Lifestream. The Mideel residents had built up a high fence around the pool but had left room on the inside to walk around the banks, at least two people could walk side by side between the fence and the pool – they had planned to start scientific research when Mideel was up and running again. Tifa had noticed it too and they sat watching as more and more residents and 'pool guards', as they were temporally called, went through the open gate onto the inside ring of the pool.
"Have they-"
"Maybe they-" Clodu and Tifa looked at each other and got the same question in their heads.
"Quickly! Before it's too late to get in there!" They ran down the high hill from the motel leaving the blanket on the grass, and raced across the village to the Lifestream Pool. They had to squeeze through excited residents but they eventually got to the front where all the focus was on.
Three pool guards were reaching into the Lifestream with hooked poles and trying to catch something floating on the surface; it looked like black and red rags you'd put in the rubbish had just been dumped carelessly into the pool like common litter, but when one guard managed to turn the thing over with the hook on his pole Cloud and Tifa held their breath, because unless they were much mistaken – the red they had thought to be rags looked a lot like a long red cape twisted around something.
Three guards had finally caught the mysterious object and they dragged it up to the bank, heaved it up a little way so that suddenly it was quite clearly a body, but also, it was quite clearly Vincent. The men clenched their hands around his sodden glowing green cape and pulled his heavy waterlogged (A/N: well I can't say Lifestream-logged can I? It's heavy with Lifestream stuff okay?) form up and over the bank. A shout went up to fetch the doctor and the message was spreading like wild fire throughout Mideel that someone had been fished from the Lifestream.
Cloud and Tifa were immediately by the guards and explained quickly that this was one of their friends they had lost at the Northern Crater over a week ago, they helped each other lay Vincent out so that he could breathe (if he was still alive) and pushed back his long wet black hair from his face. His whole body was glowing faintly green form being immersed in pure mako for so long, but the glow was slowly leaving, just a few seconds after pulling him out another cry went up from someone in the crowd who had seen yet another sign of something else in the pool.
"It could be Yuffie!" Tifa cried excitedly, sure enough with a little more ease Yuffie's glowing body was dragged out and laid beside Vincent's.
They were breathing slowly and their pulse and heart rate were slow too. The doctor who had treated Cloud the time he had fallen into the Lifestream was there to see over the two bodies again and he said that just like before, Yuffie and Vincent had been subject to extreme high levels of mako poisoning and could wake up in a few hours or days with absolutely no brain power at all; they could wake up to be mindless vegetables.
"But I survived didn't I?" Cloud argued. "I'm sure they could too just help treat these like you treated me, please doctor I know they'll be okay!"
This time Yuffie found herself out in the middle of nowhere somewhere on the world map. Then she realised that it was near the marsh where the Midgar Zolem lived, while trying to work out what was happening her question was already answered for her as she heard the song of gunfire from across the marsh. Regretting stepping into the stinking marsh, Yuffie splashed through the weeds but then remembered that she was just a visitor through this memory of Vincent's and that nothing could possibly harm her here. As she ran on the gun shots became louder and were being fired off more rapidly, the sound of wailing and shouts of anger were coming from further ahead.
Damn this marsh mist! Yuffie shouted; she wasn't able to see what was going on but when she heard the monster cry of the Midgar Zolem she knew someone was being attacked – Vincent.
Or was it Vincent? She got through the mist by thinking hard about her existence in this memory and skipping half the distance by flying across it in one or two light jumps – if she didn't exist here then there was no reason the distance should bother her, hell she wasn't even conceived yet! Remembering that Yuffie suddenly stopped flying and thought about her mother and father. If she wasn't even conceived yet, then were her parents young and courting or young and playing with toys over in Wutai somewhere? Of course! The war! Where she was now was years ago wasn't it, so the war in Wutai is waging and that would mean Aeris' mother Ifalna was probably hiding out in Snow Village right now! How things started slipping together when she thought about them.
She heard a loud shotgun being fired and the Zolem screamed as it was shot, Yuffie flew forward and cut immediately to the action. Lying dead in the weeds were three men in suits all bloodied and past all help – not even a Pheonix Down would save them now. There were two other men alive though, while their fallen comrades looked to be past their twenties these two battling Turks – the suits were so recognisable – looked to be early twenties, maybe even late teens. One of them in a bloody and mud stained previously blue suit was defiantly Vincent, whose hair was cut neatly but because of the battle was all over the place and looked as though he'd been dragged through a hedge and a, well, and a marsh backwards. He'd hurt his leg somehow; he was limping badly and then, strangely, Yuffie didn't notice the giant looming monster until it had slithered right up to the two Turks and herself baring its sharp fangs. With Vincent, obviously now the leader of this butchered band because of his age, was a taller red haired man with a short styled beard and moustache, his weapon was the shotgun Yuffie had heard being fired a minute ago and the Turk had hit the Zolem successfully where it hurt.
The Zolem was clearly weakening and panicking as more and more blood flowed from its scaly thick belly, as it thrashed about and snarled its teeth at the men the red haired man loaded his gun and jumped back to get out of the way of its enormous tail. Vincent was separated from his leader as the giant worm circled round and trapped him within its coils.
Oh no get out get out quickly! Yuffie found herself screaming inside her head, but this had given the other Turk chance to reload and just as the Zolem lunged its final attack onto Vincent – who couldn't avoid the advance due to his damaged leg – the red haired Turk aimed and let out three powerful shotgun bullets that blasted the Zolem's head.
But it wasn't dead even now; all the shots achieved was to thrown it off its course and made it hit the muddy marsh instead of Vincent. The worm's body wriggled and twisted in pain and anger, the tail thrashed and smacked Vincent hard in the side throwing him across the marsh at least twelve feet. Now was the time to escape while the monster shook off the pain and regained its thoughts – three shotgun bullets had clearly confused, hurt and angered the beast to make it especially quick on returning to the fight.
Yuffie's instant concern was for Vincent and she flew to his side quicker than she had ever flown before, he lay in a crumpled heap half submerged in dirty marsh water, stained with blood – some of it not his own – and stinking mud. His neat blue Turk uniform was only showing up its colours in odd patches and his black hair was thick with mud, blood and sweat that hung down into the little weed patch he had been thrown into. When Yuffie got there she saw that he was in great pain and tried to make herself believe that he does survive this ordeal to eventually join AVALANCHE. Oh but it was such a desperate situation! He must have only been about eighteen in this memory and already in such a terrible bloodbath of a battle as this!
You'll be alright just hold on! Please Vincent hold on! She knelled down next to him and so wanted to hold him to comfort him, so it was unlike her to be so caring but this was such a horrible place to die!
(((Stand up and run!!)))
Vincent cried out and clutched at his left leg,
"I can't it's broken! It's got to be broken!" Yuffie was alarmed to find he was actually answering to her words. But how had she managed to make her words heard? How? This was no time to wonder – she had to make him escape from the battle.
The shotgun was fired once and the Zolem screamed again, it was fired a second time and Yuffie stood up to watch as the other Turk leapt around the monster and started to run to where his friend had been knocked to, reloading his gun again, but the Zolem was already recovered and turning to catch the Turk off guard. Yuffie looked down at Vincent's own rifle in his clutched left hand and went to grab it herself to fire at the beast, but she knew she couldn't take it or indeed ever work out how to fire a gun properly – she was used to Shurikens after all.
(((Vincent, get up now and shoot or else you'll both die!!!)))
Vincent heaved his gun up and ignoring the intense screaming pains of his broken leg and battered ribs, he leapt up and fired off his rifle once, twice, three times past the other Turk running ever closer, at the Zolem. They were well placed hits and Yuffie watched as if in slow motion, the worm use all its last strength to throw itself forward at the retreating Turk, who having realised his mistake in turning his back to the enemy and seeing the valour in his friend turned in mid run and let out three more powerful blasts from his bullets right at the heart. The Zolem screamed and blood oozed from every crack in its body, it poured from its wide open jaws in a river of vile red blood and then, almost dead, it caught the red haired Turk by the legs and threw him up over its head, and fell, finally annialated in a marsh full of blood.
Vincent toppled back into the marsh and screamed as he felt another crack in his already broken leg, it was such a loud crack that even Yuffie heard it and winced, not only hearing his piercing screams and feeling her own mixed emotions about the whole scene, but she had also been watching the other Turk that had been flung up into the air and then fallen a little way off into the marsh many ten, twenty feet away.
Sorry Vincent, I know you'll be okay. You'll be okay just hold on. She flew across to find the other Turk who had not been hurt badly from that throw. He actually had no broken bones but just a very large bruise all over. He quickly got to his feet and picking up his shotgun on the way back to the death site, came to Vincent and brutally put his leg bone close to where it should have been, it was harsh but necessary and afterwards using a bit of soggy marshland wood and twine, wrapped a splinter around his leg to keep the bone straight.
"Come on Vincent, you're a Turk to show a little more composure," Yuffie screamed at him – composure? After that?! Sure Vincent was wailing and crying and looking like a girl right now but who wouldn't with what he's just been through? AND I saw the way you shoved his leg back together you stupid heartless bastard! Still, she couldn't do anything to help him right now so she might as well see what else would happen.
"The PHS is broken! We haven't got any means of getting a helicopter from base to pick us up! We'll just have to get back to Midgar by ourselves." Vincent was in too much pain and trying to breathe straight in between every gulp of air to add any comments, all he did was moan and sob about his broken body while the Turk made to dispose of his other comrades, who did not look pretty at all. Yuffie just managed to stop throwing up by looking away and seeing the pitiful Vincent in agonising pain before her.
The mist hung like a thick wet blanket – it wasn't helping things. After a while the two remaining Turks started on their way back out of the marsh – Vincent leaned on his friend all the way and by the time they were safely out of the marsh both were near collapsing.
On the outskirts of the marsh and on the wide-open Chocobo plains, they made camp. Still with them, but having skipped the drudgery of time, Yuffie waited until nightfall when the other Turk had fallen asleep to do something she had been desperate to do all day.
Yuffie sat down beside Vincent's sleeping and frail body and cried. It was the worse battle she had ever witnessed and it hurt to see the pain Vincent was in right now. She wanted to brush the hair from his face and stroke his head like a mother would, anything to help comfort him and take away his pain, but it was just a memory after all. Yuffie sobbed and her body shook with grief in her own pain, the only thing she cared about was seeing him not suffer any more so she lay across his body and laid her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around him to keep him warm and free from the cold.
(((Vincent, please sleep well, please…)))
The ice was cracking again and again, a great big crack broke part of the ice off and it fell to the ground smashing into a million particles that disappeared.
Yuffie sat up and was suddenly very upset and concerned to find herself away from Vincent and back in the lifestream. Tears were still running down her face.
"D-did I do it? Did I help him?"
///You have look/// She looked up above - half of the prison was gone! Vincent's legs were hanging out, it looked kinda funny.
"How did so much of his pain leave? I've only been two places in time."
///One event leads onto another, your actions alter another event after the event you helped him in and so more the ice cracks! You are doing well Ninja now hurry and break the final sorrow!/// Yuffie had an idea she knew what it was going to be.