The glass elevator doors swished shut, and began its ascent to the Science department. Inside, Vincent leaned against the railing and gazed out onto the city of Midgar. It was an overcast day, and the Upper Plate was shrouded in a murky grey cloud. He scowled. It reflected his mood perfectly.
She was avoiding him.
The Turks were not trained to be psychologists, but their daily work brought them into close contact with a lot of people, and after a while they learned to pick upon certain aspects of human behaviour. The first time, she had left a message with the receptionist, saying that he couldn't make lunch because of an experiment that had overrun. He'd accepted that easily. Fair enough, sometimes that kind of thing happens. The second time she was simply unavailable. This time, when she left no explanation at all, he knew she was going out of her way to avoid seeing him. He thought back to the last time they'd met up. The pair of them had enjoyed an exquisite lunch at the best eaterie in the city. They had chatted about a number of things, and as far as he could tell, had both enjoyed the experience. They had parted amicably back at the HQ, with the promise to repeat the excursion in a day or so.
It also slightly worried him that he was more than a little bit bothered about this. His last girlfriend, Lissa, had got the jitters after a few months, and he hadn't been particularly upset by it – Truth be told, his complete lack of emotional commitment was cited as one of her reasons for leaving. But now, when a woman he had only known for a matter of weeks (and even then only talked to), suddenly started avoiding him, he was… rattled. His mind was being particularly un-cooperative, throwing up an image of her face just when he least expected it. It was most distracting. He'd been in conference with General Freeman yesterday, discussing the very serious matter of an assault on Wutai. The General was pointing out various areas on a map that were suitable for an ambush, when he'd realised that he hadn't heard anything for the past five minutes because he'd been thinking about how nice Lucrecia looked when she smiled. Thankfully he'd managed to regain composure and bluff his way out of the situation, but nonetheless, this was a most disturbing development.
So now, he found himself on his way to the floor where she worked. He kept telling himself that it was only to converse with Professor Gast and pick up his latest materia analysis, but he wasn't even fooling himself with that line. He could have sent anyone up to do this chore. Linden would have jumped at the chance to get out of the Lounge, and there were a million and one more important things that the leader of the Turks should have been spending his time doing. But he'd done it himself anyway, because there was always the chance of running into her.
Damn.
Gast was, as it turned out, expecting Vincent when he arrived. The Professor was waiting in his lab, report in hand.
"Ah" he said when the Turk walked in, "just the man I was hoping to see." He pushed a large wad of paper over the desk. "Sorry this has taken longer than expected, we've had a few unexpected surprises come up."
Vincent raised an eyebrow as he took the folder. "Surprises? With the Materia?"
The scientists made a 'so-so' gesture. "Yes and no" he answered. "Certainly the Materia you gave us are far in excess of what we expected. The purity is almost off the scale." He indicated the report with his hand. "If that doesn't please the President then nothing will."
"Let's hope" muttered Vincent dryly. "I haven't been able to give him much in the way of good news recently." He tucked the file under his arm. "So I'm assuming that wasn't the only surprise?"
Gast grinned. Obviously he was extremely pleased about something. "Indeed, although this is of no real relevance to your Materia." He pulled out a photograph from his labcoat. "Look at this."
Vincent took the proffered image and stared at it. Then he rotated it 90 degrees. Then turned it upside down. His expression was one of indulgent confusion. "Professor" he said at length. "This is white. A lot of white. What am I looking at here?"
"I should think you ought to know" replied Gast, "after all, you were born near there." Pieces began to click into place inside Vincents' head.
"Icicle Village? This is the great glacier?"
"Close enough. It's not the Gaia Cliff, if that's what you mean." He passed over a second photograph. "It's an ice sheet about half a mile north from there. This is probably a better view of it."
Vincent studied the second picture and nodded slowly. "This one is clearer" he stated. "I can recognise it now. In fact, I used to climb up there when I was younger. My parents would have had a fit if they'd known."
Gast laughed lightly. "Always the troublemaker eh, Mr Valentine?" The Turk shot him a hurt look. "Heh, I won't pursue that any further. But the cliff, we were investigating it. We'd located what seemed to be a source of Mako energy, buried under the ice. No-one could tell for sure what was going on down there, so we got a team together to dig through and find out. What we found a few days ago surpassed even our wildest imaginings!"
Vincent looked quizzical. He couldn't remember ever having heard of anything interesting happening in his hometown, let alone something that would excite Gast so much. "What was it?" he enquired, curious.
The old Professors' eyes lit up as he leaned forward across the desk to whisper the answer. "A Cetra!"
Of all he possible things that Gast could have said, that was the least likely, as far as Vincent was concerned. Certainly he was amazed. His discussions with the Professor and indeed in recent weeks, with Lucrecia, had touched on the Cetra and he had found them to be an intriguing race. Lucrecia had a particular interest in them, and part of his brain couldn't help but wonder what she would think of this news. Even so, he was completely taken aback by the statement.
"An Ancient? But I thought they died out thousands of years ago?"
"That they did, Mr Valentine" Gast assured him. "The Cetra were all but wiped out by some kind of disease. Not much is known now, but we have salvaged a few records. All we can be sure of is that a virus swept through the population, killing the majority. Quite why they were affected and not humans, who can say?" A distinct look of longing filled his face. "What I wouldn't give to know what happened! Beyond this is pure conjecture – we think that the remaining Ancients gathered together in what was to become Icicle Village to try and stop the rot. Sadly whatever they tried failed, and they died out. But we've found one, buried in the ice!"
"You're sure it's an Ancient?" Vincent couldn't help but be a bit sceptical. To find something so large after such a long period of time was almost impossible. "I don't mean to cast doubt on you Professor, but how can you know…" He broke off as a third and final picture was handed over to him.
One look at the contents gave him all the answer he needed. It took him a few seconds to figure out what he was looking at, since the object of the photo was encased in a coffin of ice. But underneath the frozen surface, was the body of a woman. Yet this was like no woman he had ever seen before. Her skin was mottled blue green, a range of hues that merged across her body. This in itself was warped and deformed, bent in places, seemingly missing in others. But it was her face that caught the attention of the Turk more than anything else. It was definitely female, perhaps even beautiful in some ways. It too was coloured in that delicate shade of blue. But the expression… The woman was obviously dead, her eyes were closed and she was thousands of years old. But Vincent couldn't shake the impression that she looked more asleep, just waiting to wake up. An involuntary shiver ran down his spine.
"Merciful Odin…" he breathed. Gast could only nod in assent.
"A perfectly preserved Cetra. Flash frozen it would appear, such is the state the body was found in." He looked Vincent in the eye, suddenly serious. "Of course, this is not common knowledge" he advised. "Only a few are aware of the discovery. The President of course, and a few members of Shinra. You would have been informed anyway, so I don't mind telling you now. But beyond these four walls…"
Vincent held up a hand. "I understand completely Professor. It shall go no further, I assure you."
The two concluded their meeting, exchanging thoughts and a few more pleasantries before Vincent left. He wandered back towards the lift deep in thought. A Cetra… He was sure that the President would find a way to turn that remarkable discovery into some kind of advantage. He was so engrossed in his musings, that he failed to notice when he bumped into someone. A flurry of paper went flying into the air, and the scientist he'd knocked hurriedly bent down to pick them up.
"Shit! Sorry, I didn't see you. Let me help you with that…" He crouched down to help retrieve the errant notes, and came face to face with none other than Lucrecia. All semblance of thought went flying out of his head, and she went white as a sheet. The world seemed to stop for a few brief moments while they just stared at each other.
Lucrecia was the first to break off eye contact, quickly scrabbling around to pick up her papers and the world resumed its normal motion. "No! Thank you, I'm fine" she blurted, getting to her feet quickly. Bemused, Vincent followed suit, just in time to see her start off down the hall.
"Wait!" he called after her. "You dropped these…" A sheaf of paper was clutched in his hand. She turned and saw them, and seemed to be fighting an inner battle over whether or not to go back for them. Eventually, practicality won out and she nervously retraced her steps to pluck them from his outstretched hand. She went to pull her arm back, but found that he had not let go of them.
"You're avoiding me."
It was a statement, not a question. She looked up, and saw him gazing down at her. Not angry like she would have expected, but… sad? She could have laughed. A Turk? Sad? Madness.
"Why?"
What could she say? 'Because you're a cold hearted killer who murders people for a living'? She couldn't find the words, just looked helplessly at him, taking in the blue suit that he was wearing. This was the first time she'd seen him in it, and there was a nagging voice in the back of her head that was telling her that he actually looked even nicer than usual with it on. She tried to ignore it.
Vincent saw her eyes fixed to the outfit, and everything fell into place. "You know" he said flatly. Lucrecia nodded. "You know who I am."
"I'm so sorry…" she murmured, then made one last attempt to prise the notes from his grasp. He offered no resistance this time, all the fight having left him, seeing the look on her face before she once more fled down the hallway.
