From Sixth: This chapter has the biggest addition or revision of all, circa 20xx. The entire scene with Reeve. It's not a story without Reeve, ain't it? Or not, whatever. I just felt like adding him in. I wish I used him more often because he's hot and voiced by Jameson Pierce. Anybody by Jameson Pierce is insta… Ranting. Whatever. This is pretty much all the input I'm… inputting here.
Wait. I just noticed I had Yuffie and some major town hopping towards the middle. Looks I'm swapping all that out.
Blood Feast
Chapter 10: Solitude of Earthen Hollow
Reeve had always been a kind man, even amongst the varied ranks of ShinRa. He never allowed their check-your-conscience-at-the-door policy to lay him out and crush him utterly under its thumb. The man would remain human and humble to the very end.
That wasn't to say his humility couldn't possibly lead him to his doom someday, or stretch him so far thin that he'd have no choice but to give up the ghost of hospitality and repentance at long last, to pass it on to the next bleeding heart. But it was a better way to die than most.
This minor reflection surprised Vincent when he met with Reeve on the steps of one of Kalm's largest buildings, converted from a floundering, old hotel to a bustling refuge for Midgar's survivors. They sat in a sun-washed back office on the first floor, with the other man offering him tea and crackers in greeting. It'd been a long time since they last saw each other—at the big celebration following the Planet's narrow triumph over Meteor, as a matter of fact—and they had parted ways on very few words but still good terms. Here they were again, not far off from where they last kept each other company among others. Reeve's presence he found quite refreshing to some of those his prior, mainly Yatsui.
Across the desk at which both men sat, several manila folders lightly decked in dust, water and fire damage, slipped and slid from one tentative hand to the other. Vincent took and splayed open a fairly light sheaf in his lap, meanwhile sipping from a small cup he palmed in his good hand rather than grip by its handle.
Reeve munched on a cracker then diligently wiped at his fine goatee. "Well?"
"My whole life before my eyes, barring a few details," Vincent said with an unimpressed grunt. "Vital details."
"No good?"
"I should have known. I did know. Hojo was notorious for withholding information from the rest of the company. Frivolous bastard. I'm sure you knew this, too. There must be dozens of dossiers worth of unwritten facts, observations, theories, that were locked up in that head of his. Now they're lost with his death."
"Actually…" Before he went on, Reeve took a little swig of tea, then bent down and sifted through a portable file bin on his left. He pulled from it a rich brown leather-bound portfolio and set it atop the nest of discarded documents they'd already perused. "This one may be of interest. A colleague just happened to have stumbled across it during a recent salvage. It'd been wildly mislabeled, and misplaced, as though entirely intentional. It also seems to be a copy of the original, by the paper quality and ink. Remarkable that it held up so well."
"Hm."
"Note the author's name at the top. A Miss… or rather Mrs. Lucrecia Crescent, Ph.D. Frankly, we weren't sure what to do with it. The Science Department at ShinRa was never any of my business, but I didn't know she'd existed until the crisis and that a large portion of her studies fell into obscurity."
Vincent didn't respond immediately. He thumbed through the papers which had been jammed haphazardly into the portfolio. Several pages stuck together where the ink had run off in thin streams and blotches and dried over a period of time. Fortunately, most of it remained legible.
"It seems that she might have had some insight pertaining to your current state."
"… the vital details I was missing."
"Right. Listen, Vincent," Reeve began, sitting forward in his chair, "before your condition gets worse, if it hasn't already, I'm sure I could call on a few favors to get you some expert medical attention. We can get a sample of your blood, run a few tests-"
The gunman grimaced at the word. The last thing he wanted was to be surrounded by doctors treating him like a culture of cells and not the human being he was, trapped inside this body. Of course, how could he ever view this path positively? He was biased, with good reason. But Reeve was only trying to help. The man realized his words maybe a minute after he'd said them and sat back as if to distance himself in apology.
"Ahem. You know what I mean."
Vincent grumbled his acknowledgment. He supposed there was no way around this. He had to give it a shot, if nothing else was a viable option at the moment.
"Take your blood and your tests. Then I have someplace to go. Let me know when your people are done."
Reeve smiled warmly, pulling from his pocket a flip phone. "I'll call ahead, to expedite preparations. There's a clinic on the other side of town. It may be a little crowded, but I'm certain we can squeeze you in."
Vincent wasted no time on the way to his next destination.
If Yatsui was still following him around like a sentient umbra, then the best he could do was move as fast as possible, leaving him little chance to keep up or even get a head start—but the Planet forbid he pull his little teleportation trick again, just as he'd done to get ahead in Cosmo Canyon and Midgar. He'd booked a flight with Cid to North Corel, plotted a course through the mountains, one less traveled but just as manageable as the rest. From Corel, Vincent would then rent an ATV, double up on a few choice materia, supplies, and set out for the rocky back roads.
He maintained a wary vigil over his shoulder. That Yatsui was a tricky one. He wondered if, like all the other monsters, he was only attracted to Vincent because of his 'smell?' This would only solidify the fact that he, too, came from the same ilk as the bats, the Stingers, the Behemoths, the Eaters, all of them. Yatsui had only been dealt the lot of a human face. A fortunate lot, to coerce those into a false sense of sympathy, security and the like. And strike. It would have also meant that that was how he tracked Vincent everywhere.
It all became so clear.
The mountain evening here was laden with shadows, and within those shadows stalked those even darker, more animated. Hunters. But they never came down from their perches, tried as they might. Whatever manufactured materia lacked in strength it made up for in number. Vincent might as well have been an absolute shadow himself.
Morning rose, the shadows receded, things no longer crept by, hungry and waiting. Only a few hours remained until the gunman reached the end of his journey through the Nibel Mountains.
That fresh air always took his breath away. As did the view. But he never understood why she chose this place to squirrel away eternity if she wasn't going to spend it watching the horizon, the sparkling, misty waters, and all the phases of the sun and moon swinging overhead?
Right. Self-punishment.
When he thought about it, they'd all been in the same boat together. Him, Lucrecia. Yatsui. They built and lay in it, prepared to tread an endless, lonely river.
Though Vincent had been lucky enough to receive a helping hand.
He exhaled longingly, turned from the ledge which granted a grand vista over the little valley where Lucrecia made her resting place. He knew that if he let himself, he'd stand there forever without a care in the world. Let the demons be forgotten, the monsters thirsting for his blood, all the world's crises waiting around a hidden corner. They could have all gone to hell. But he had some semblance of a life to get back to, once everything was straightened out—his head included.
He glimpsed the mouth of the cave on a niche below. Her solitary cradle so easy to miss, he had to wonder how Lucrecia ever found this grave herself to keep.
The lonesome shimmery lake, muted beneath a clear, blue sky. The telltale waterfall that veiled the little cavern from sight; thus did Vincent descend to the lush green ground that thrived on the never-ending flux and hovering spray. As he approached the flank of the towering cascade, Vincent blinked away the dew collecting on his lashes.
He entered, his steps measured and slow. The cave echoed back the roar of rushing water, but the further he went in, the quieter the air, with only the frequent dripping to accompany him. The air here was crisp and thick with moisture, but never stagnant in merit to the waterfall's merciless unrest. The walls and floor deeper within were crystalline like ice, but only half as cool. Phosphorescent clusters of fungi mottled tiny alcoves set deep into the rock, their filaments dancing on an errant breeze. And before Vincent was the very altar where he had last seen his beloved Lucrecia, crying tears into heartless oblivion, lamenting her son and sins to no one but the ever so privileged Jenova fused to her every fiber, sinew and cell.
Vincent approached the crystal altar and knelt down on one knee as though he gazed upon the tombstone of one long gone. Technically, he was doing just that, he admitted with guilty ease. This was Lucrecia's grave, where she gave up living after all she'd done.
"Lucrecia," Vincent uttered into his chest, a solemn oath.
He pressed his palm flat to the stone floor, his fingertips drinking up its coolness with an unwilling hunger. "Lucrecia, I've read some interesting things before coming here. These things are why I come to you now. I learned that… you had a hand in why I am today. The way my body is. And you knew my father; you worked with him, right? But why didn't you tell me?"
Vincent paused, listening.
She was done talking, wasn't she? Naturally.
"I wonder, between you and Hojo… Whose 'experiment' was whose? Was it you who forged the body? Or the demons? Which of yours is going sour? And how can I fix it?"
"Your 'fix' has arrived."
Vincent jumped up and spun around, drawing his gun in record time to find, to his expected dismay, Yatsui. He stood there against the wall, with his arms crossed as if he held a newborn child.
His gold discs for eyes shone far more obviously here than out in the day, or anywhere else for that matter. Yatsui's sad stare in the semi-darkness reflected a demon's who'd come to take its dues. Vincent sighed defeatedly in spite of himself. Even as he took the best precautions to make certain he wasn't followed… Then again, the gunman supposed he was right, after all. The man was just another monster drawn to his blood, and of capabilities that ultimately made him inescapable. Nothing else made better sense in this situation.
"This cave," murmured Yatsui, his soft voice struggling over the waterfall's hiss. "Such sadness and pain and anger amalgamated into a single pulsing heart, bleeding out but never dying, eternal until time should end and collapse in on itself in a blaze of truest finality. It would dare consume all that wander unsuspectingly into its lair. It would infect and devour those so sensitive to its thrall. It baits you by forcing you to sympathize and clamps its jaws about your soul, your heart, and turns it gray with woe until… no more blood, no more life, to nurture the pain. And-"
"Dammit," Vincent swore under his breath. "Is no place sacred to you? Is no place safe?"
"So. This cave is sacred. Tell me why that is so."
"I don't have to tell you anything. But, confirm something for me. You're just as drawn to me as all the other things, aren't you? You're no different. You're one of them."
"A great shadow of pain and misery rests here," Yatsui said, as if he hadn't heard Vincent speak for all the venom his words held. "It should be of no surprise that I would have arrived here eventually. I can feel it…"
"Leave," the gunman commanded.
"Not until you see. Not until it is done, what I have come to do," Yatsui replied, bowing his head.
"Not a chance."
"Are you sure? Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?"
"Nothing short of force. And even then? I'd like to see you try."
"Force? You mean fight?" Yatsui queried with a curious, childlike tilt of his head.
Vincent snorted.
"What if I fight you? For your pain? Although I think force is hardly necessary to acquire something so unwanted. But, if I must…"
"You're a real character."
The tall man raised his hand to stay anymore of Vincent's protest before he himself went to speak.
"Should you win, I will accept your wishes and leave you to wallow in your woes. And forever hereafter will the things with teeth and claws nip at your heels and those around you. I hope you are prepared to run for your life, should all your human conventions fail you. Ah but at least let me a chance to prove myself worthy. I can fight. I will fight. What say you, Vincent Valentine?"
"What did I do to deserve this? Gaia… Is it just that time of the year?"