"So much blood I'm starting to drown
Runs from cold to colder
Time to time the sky's come down
To help me lose my way
Lord it's a storm and I'm heading to fall
These sins are mine and I've done wrong" -"Long Gone Day", Mad Season
**********************************************************************
Midgar was not what it was. The once proud city, which stared down arrogantly from its high perch upon the plates, was now no more than miles and miles of rubble. Even as the sun beat down from high in the azure sky, no amount of light could reach this cold, barren wasteland. Ironically, there was only one building, barely left standing. Shin-ra Inc. Vincent Valentine stared at this building with the outmost hatred one would see in a person subdued by madness. Everything this structure stood for was the cause of his pain.
It had been six months that he had been traveling... so utterly alone, yet unwanting of human company. He deserved no comfort, no love or peace. He was a murderer roaming the lands, destined to wander in despair for eternity. He had failed in his attempts to atone. Not only was Lucretia dead, but her son also slain by his hands. If she did not hate him before, and he truly doubted she didn't, then for sure she despised him for failing her so again. Sephiroth was evil, he knew of this reality, Vincent had not gone insane, but it was his fault that he had turned out that way. Had he been there for Sephiroth? Had he kept Lucretia's dying promise? The answer was only no, and his sins were his fault, and his alone.
Dismissing his burdening thoughts for a moment, Vincent looked up at the cursed building again, and wondered why he had come here. His mind ached with a sense of foreboding, but an invisible force seemed to push him forward.
"Why is this building so important?" he wondered aloud, "What strange vibes lead me here?" The debris gave him no answers, and he was forced to only think about the answer himself. There was something in the air, he noted, but had his ability to sense these frequencies be part of his unique... abilities?
Then, it hit him like a tonne of bricks; he recognized this feeling! It was a feeling that left him uneasy, and though he would have not liked to admit it, it also frightened him a little too.
His eyes narrowed to mere slits "...Hojo.." He nearly spat the bitter word. But how could that be, he wondered. They had killed Hojo, not too long before they had saved the world. He had become terribly mutated from his self-experiments, but they had killed him all the same. Vincent thought about this a little more, becoming more perplexed with each coming second. Hojo had experimented on him more than 30 years ago, but he hadn't aged a day since that... he had come to believe that he would live until he was inflicted with great injury. The injury would have to be very great, though, as Vincent noticed that he had gained very expansive limits, and even healed at an extremely fast rate. What if Hojo did the same to himself? What if they did not even succeed in killing him? The thought of Hojo being alive boiled his blood with anger, as it also almost paralyzed him with fear. If Hojo was alive in this building, Vincent vowed to seek him out and destroy him for good. He would not call upon his former team mates... no, this was his battle, and a very personal one at that. He would settle the score right here, right now, and make sure Hojo got what he deserved.
***********************************************************************
Brushing a stray cable away from his ashen face, Vincent carefully made his way across the dilapidated Shin-ra halls. Even though he knew it wouldn't cause him much harm, he wanted to avoid falling through the crumbling floors at all costs.
If destruction had ever described anything, it would be apparent in the remains of this once-proud landmark. Not a window was spared, as sharp slivers of broken glass littered the floor along with debris and wires, forming an obscure mosaic of obliteration. All the while, Vincent found that the same strange force coaxed him throughout his journey through the mass destruction. Was Hojo calling him to his death, luring him into a trap in which he would be defenseless? He would not put it past Hojo to fight dirty, and instead kept his sharp eyes open from deception.
He barely recognized the next area from all of the wreckage, but apparently, this particular hall gave him a familiar feeling in his chest. "This must be the research wing.." He mumbled to himself. He had, in fact been here several times, meeting with Lucretia... trespassing. He had only met her a few times before he had come to see her, he remembered, and barely got caught by Hojo in the process. He considered himself lucky back then, knowing Hojo's intense disliking for the members of the Turks... and later, the deep hatred of Vincent himself.
He then brushed away the memory, pushing away the ghosts of his past like he had done so many times before. He had a mission at hand, and nothing, not even those things most dear to him, must distract him and make him so vulnerable.
Looking up at the doorway that the feeling had lead him too, Vincent scarcely recognized it as Hojo's lab. Cloud and the rest of Avalanche had told him of the horrible things they had witnessed in this room when they had rescued Aeris. What they told him did not surprise him in the least. Vincent had worked near Hojo for months in Nibleheim, and from Lucretia, heard all of the inhuman things he had committed. In his opinion, Hojo was more a monster than all of the wild animals they had encountered combined.
Making sure his trusty Death Penalty was at his side, Vincent checked to find it loaded. He took it out, knowing that he was armed and ready for whatever came his way. The lab was huge, and Vincent could tell that an expansive amount of the budget fueled Hojo's cruel experiments. He knew from experience that President Shin-ra was just as cruel, but on the other had, extremely power-hungry. It was a deadly combination, he understood... but he also realized that there were quite a lot of things that were worse than death.
Banishing his morbid thoughts, Vincent focused on the task at hand. Indeed, the sheer power of the force intensified, and he knew that he must have been close to the source of the strange vibes. Then, there it was. In the middle of the room, slightly buried under heaps of plaster was the oddest looking machine that Vincent had ever laid eyes upon. Taking a cautious step forward, he moved closer to examine the strange structure. Despite the obvious power loss, lights blinked throughout the entire machine. Buttons and levers filled the expanse of machinery, but Vincent found his eyes straying to the boxlike structure between metal stations. It was lined in surprisingly unbroken glass, a door graced the front, and he noticed that it was big enough for a person to enter.
"What the hell is this?" He exclaimed aloud. The feeling was still with him, growing stronger the closer he got to the machine, but his curiosity won out in the end, and he moved forward. It was then that a dusty clipboard caught his attention. He reached for it with ease, and was soon blowing off the excess dust that had collected there during the attack on Midgar. Furrowing his brows, Vincent flipped through the pages. Blueprints and incomprehensible equations filled many of the pages, sending him into a loss of an explanation. It was beyond his understanding, and he wondered if it could be at anyone's level.
Just as he was about to throw the sheets unto the floor with frustration, Vincent discovered a note on the very last page. Skimming through it with prying eyes, Vincent could not believe what he was reading. After taking a deep breath, he began to read the note out loud to himself, to convince himself of what he was really reading.
"Hojo's Log..................... April 9, 2397
I've finally finished it! All of my hard work will not be in vain. They said it was impossible, they said I was crazy. But the joke is on all of those closed-minded imbeciles! For, I will go down in history as the greatest scientist that ever lived. Tomorrow, everyone will be saying, "Gast, who?"! haha, they were all wrong to have doubted me, and now I have the power to defeat them in ways they cannot even imagine! With this machine, I will be able to partake in time travel! Surely no one can stop me now! It is too bad that I have imperative issues at hand. But as soon as I help my son, Sephiroth, the world will tremble at my feet!
-Hojo"
***********************************************************************
Runs from cold to colder
Time to time the sky's come down
To help me lose my way
Lord it's a storm and I'm heading to fall
These sins are mine and I've done wrong" -"Long Gone Day", Mad Season
**********************************************************************
Midgar was not what it was. The once proud city, which stared down arrogantly from its high perch upon the plates, was now no more than miles and miles of rubble. Even as the sun beat down from high in the azure sky, no amount of light could reach this cold, barren wasteland. Ironically, there was only one building, barely left standing. Shin-ra Inc. Vincent Valentine stared at this building with the outmost hatred one would see in a person subdued by madness. Everything this structure stood for was the cause of his pain.
It had been six months that he had been traveling... so utterly alone, yet unwanting of human company. He deserved no comfort, no love or peace. He was a murderer roaming the lands, destined to wander in despair for eternity. He had failed in his attempts to atone. Not only was Lucretia dead, but her son also slain by his hands. If she did not hate him before, and he truly doubted she didn't, then for sure she despised him for failing her so again. Sephiroth was evil, he knew of this reality, Vincent had not gone insane, but it was his fault that he had turned out that way. Had he been there for Sephiroth? Had he kept Lucretia's dying promise? The answer was only no, and his sins were his fault, and his alone.
Dismissing his burdening thoughts for a moment, Vincent looked up at the cursed building again, and wondered why he had come here. His mind ached with a sense of foreboding, but an invisible force seemed to push him forward.
"Why is this building so important?" he wondered aloud, "What strange vibes lead me here?" The debris gave him no answers, and he was forced to only think about the answer himself. There was something in the air, he noted, but had his ability to sense these frequencies be part of his unique... abilities?
Then, it hit him like a tonne of bricks; he recognized this feeling! It was a feeling that left him uneasy, and though he would have not liked to admit it, it also frightened him a little too.
His eyes narrowed to mere slits "...Hojo.." He nearly spat the bitter word. But how could that be, he wondered. They had killed Hojo, not too long before they had saved the world. He had become terribly mutated from his self-experiments, but they had killed him all the same. Vincent thought about this a little more, becoming more perplexed with each coming second. Hojo had experimented on him more than 30 years ago, but he hadn't aged a day since that... he had come to believe that he would live until he was inflicted with great injury. The injury would have to be very great, though, as Vincent noticed that he had gained very expansive limits, and even healed at an extremely fast rate. What if Hojo did the same to himself? What if they did not even succeed in killing him? The thought of Hojo being alive boiled his blood with anger, as it also almost paralyzed him with fear. If Hojo was alive in this building, Vincent vowed to seek him out and destroy him for good. He would not call upon his former team mates... no, this was his battle, and a very personal one at that. He would settle the score right here, right now, and make sure Hojo got what he deserved.
***********************************************************************
Brushing a stray cable away from his ashen face, Vincent carefully made his way across the dilapidated Shin-ra halls. Even though he knew it wouldn't cause him much harm, he wanted to avoid falling through the crumbling floors at all costs.
If destruction had ever described anything, it would be apparent in the remains of this once-proud landmark. Not a window was spared, as sharp slivers of broken glass littered the floor along with debris and wires, forming an obscure mosaic of obliteration. All the while, Vincent found that the same strange force coaxed him throughout his journey through the mass destruction. Was Hojo calling him to his death, luring him into a trap in which he would be defenseless? He would not put it past Hojo to fight dirty, and instead kept his sharp eyes open from deception.
He barely recognized the next area from all of the wreckage, but apparently, this particular hall gave him a familiar feeling in his chest. "This must be the research wing.." He mumbled to himself. He had, in fact been here several times, meeting with Lucretia... trespassing. He had only met her a few times before he had come to see her, he remembered, and barely got caught by Hojo in the process. He considered himself lucky back then, knowing Hojo's intense disliking for the members of the Turks... and later, the deep hatred of Vincent himself.
He then brushed away the memory, pushing away the ghosts of his past like he had done so many times before. He had a mission at hand, and nothing, not even those things most dear to him, must distract him and make him so vulnerable.
Looking up at the doorway that the feeling had lead him too, Vincent scarcely recognized it as Hojo's lab. Cloud and the rest of Avalanche had told him of the horrible things they had witnessed in this room when they had rescued Aeris. What they told him did not surprise him in the least. Vincent had worked near Hojo for months in Nibleheim, and from Lucretia, heard all of the inhuman things he had committed. In his opinion, Hojo was more a monster than all of the wild animals they had encountered combined.
Making sure his trusty Death Penalty was at his side, Vincent checked to find it loaded. He took it out, knowing that he was armed and ready for whatever came his way. The lab was huge, and Vincent could tell that an expansive amount of the budget fueled Hojo's cruel experiments. He knew from experience that President Shin-ra was just as cruel, but on the other had, extremely power-hungry. It was a deadly combination, he understood... but he also realized that there were quite a lot of things that were worse than death.
Banishing his morbid thoughts, Vincent focused on the task at hand. Indeed, the sheer power of the force intensified, and he knew that he must have been close to the source of the strange vibes. Then, there it was. In the middle of the room, slightly buried under heaps of plaster was the oddest looking machine that Vincent had ever laid eyes upon. Taking a cautious step forward, he moved closer to examine the strange structure. Despite the obvious power loss, lights blinked throughout the entire machine. Buttons and levers filled the expanse of machinery, but Vincent found his eyes straying to the boxlike structure between metal stations. It was lined in surprisingly unbroken glass, a door graced the front, and he noticed that it was big enough for a person to enter.
"What the hell is this?" He exclaimed aloud. The feeling was still with him, growing stronger the closer he got to the machine, but his curiosity won out in the end, and he moved forward. It was then that a dusty clipboard caught his attention. He reached for it with ease, and was soon blowing off the excess dust that had collected there during the attack on Midgar. Furrowing his brows, Vincent flipped through the pages. Blueprints and incomprehensible equations filled many of the pages, sending him into a loss of an explanation. It was beyond his understanding, and he wondered if it could be at anyone's level.
Just as he was about to throw the sheets unto the floor with frustration, Vincent discovered a note on the very last page. Skimming through it with prying eyes, Vincent could not believe what he was reading. After taking a deep breath, he began to read the note out loud to himself, to convince himself of what he was really reading.
"Hojo's Log..................... April 9, 2397
I've finally finished it! All of my hard work will not be in vain. They said it was impossible, they said I was crazy. But the joke is on all of those closed-minded imbeciles! For, I will go down in history as the greatest scientist that ever lived. Tomorrow, everyone will be saying, "Gast, who?"! haha, they were all wrong to have doubted me, and now I have the power to defeat them in ways they cannot even imagine! With this machine, I will be able to partake in time travel! Surely no one can stop me now! It is too bad that I have imperative issues at hand. But as soon as I help my son, Sephiroth, the world will tremble at my feet!
-Hojo"
***********************************************************************