Part II: The Darkness Conquers
Chapter VIII: Yesterday's Reprise, Part I
The Hollow Bastion, Ten Years Earlier
Flashback I: Sympathy for the Devil
"Hello Darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again."
-Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle
"What is it, Professor Hojo?" Remus asked, annoyed. The door to Remus' lab opened, and Hojo ambled in, arms crossed behind his back. He was around twenty years-old, and had long, greasy, black hair, tied back in a ponytail. He had oily, sallow skin, and beady, untrustworthy eyes hidden behind thick spectacles. All of that, and he had a hump on his back, that obstructed his walk to an odd waddle.
"Professor Gast... There is something you should see, in the waterways. I believe it to be an unidentified organism." Remus' eyes flashed in interest.
"Where did you say?" he asked lustfully.
"The waterways," Hojo replied, his voice as oily as his hair.
"Take me there," Remus insisted.
"Follow me." Hojo lead Remus Gast down to the sewers of the castle, where a small black creature was trapped in the prison-like gates that blocked off loose pets and would-be runaways.
Remus inspected the creature that kept trying to attack the two scientists. It had glowing yellow eyes, wriggling antenna, and smooth black skin. It was very small, the size of a child's stuffed toy, and Remus would expect it would be, for not the ferocity of the creature's "attacks".
"What is it?" Remus asked, fascinated at the hostile animal.
"I have no clue. I came to get you before I talked to Queen Sorceress Dalaar about it," Hojo replied, sounding almost bored.
"Well, I appreciate that, Professor Hojo."
"Mm-hm..." was Hojo's response. Deep down inside Hojo was fairly flattered. Remus hardly ever put the title 'professor' before his name. But Hojo didn't expect it to last.
"Here, let's capture it. Did you bring anything?" Remus asked, never taking his eyes off of the odd creature. Hojo grunted and pulled off his labcoat, tying the sleeves together, and handing it to Remus, who took it greedily. "All right, now, go flip the switch over there, and I'll contain it in here."
Hojo obediently walked across the waterway floor (which was ankle-deep with water), and stroked a gem, that was imbedded into the wall. The gem glowed, and a gate slowly swung open. Remus seized this opportunity, and pounced upon the creature, quickly making the labcoat into a makeshift sack, and trapping the poor creature inside. Remus sealed all orifices of the labcoat- sack, and struggled for a moment with the squirming creature.
"All right, let's take it back to the lab," Remus ordered. Hojo grunted, not pleased that he was Remus' subordinate. The two slowly took the creature to the lab, getting odd stares from the inhabitants of the Hollow Bastion.
Hojo let the creature out of the labcoat, but quickly placed it inside of a small cage. The hostile monster ran around its confined prison, not making any noise. Now the two had a chance to inspect the creature a bit closer.
It was somewhat humanoid, bipedal if nothing else. It had glowing yellow ovals for eyes, jagged antennae that never seemed to stop wriggling; and it had no nose, nor did it have a mouth. Hojo spoke these observations out:
"How does it eat? Or breathe even?" Hojo asked in curiosity and confusion. Remus shrugged.
"I have no clue... But we really should show this to the queen before we go cutting it open," Remus advised. Hojo nodded in agreement, and went to fetch the queen. Once Hojo was gone, Remus breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank whatever deity is out there that he is gone... Gosh that man gives me the wiggins...." Having said that, Remus turned his attention back to the black creature. "Little monster... what are you...? Where did you come from? Let's only hope the queen can provide some insight..."
"Perhaps my brother, Prince Ansem, will have more ideas about this odd little animal," the queen suggested. The two scientists exchanged excited glances.
"Excellent idea, Your Majesty," Hojo exclaimed.
"Yes! Where is Prince Ansem at the moment?" Remus asked, shaking out of his labcoat.
"In the chapel, I believe... Hm... Even if I have no idea what it is, I appreciate it being shown to me," the queen said wistfully. The two professors bowed to Dalaar, and she left the lab, to hunt for her brother."Hello? Is anyone here?" a voice called from the doorway. It was a woman, in her early thirties, wearing a blue sweater, khaki pants, and wore her brown hair in a bun. A girl, perhaps four or five, possibly the woman's daughter, was clinging to the woman's leg. The woman let out a loud sneeze, and the girl jumped in surprise.
"Come on in, Sis!" A voice replied. "Welcome to the new humble abode of the Loires! Well, my name is Leonhart-Loire... I like the hyphen," said the woman. Her sister lightly applauded.
"It's very pretty in here... Where's the baby?" Her voice was very nasally.
"Oh, Squall? He's asleep right now, I didn't want to wake him," the woman said quietly. Upon hearing this, the woman contained her next sneeze and sighed quietly afterward.
"Ugh, this cold... I've only had it today, but it's getting worse very quickly. I'm afraid Ellone might catch it!" Upon hearing her name, the little girl scampered to stand in front of her mother.
"Hi, Auntie Raine! How's Squally?" she asked. Raine giggled to herself.
"He's fine, dear, he's asleep right-"
"I'm home!" called another voice from the doorway, this one male. Raine grunted, and hissed a sharp "shh!". The man came into the living room. He was fairly tall, had shoulder-length black hair, a small nose, and had a pistol holstered at his side.
"Uncle Lagoona!" Ellone cheered running over to hug her uncle's knees. Laguna laughed to himself, and squirmed out of the little girl's grasp.
"How're ya doin' darlin'?" Laguna asked, putting on a strange accent.
"Laguna!" snapped Raine. "Use proper English when speaking to Ellone!"
"Say what?" Laguna asked scratching his head.
"You heard me!"
"Aw, it's okay Raine. As long as he doesn't get too mouthy, she'll be alright," Raine's sister, Sarah, replied nonchalantly.
"How're you doing, Sarah?" Laguna asked Sarah, giving her a peck on the cheek.
"Oh, just fine, how about yourself?"
"Wonderfully perfect! I have a wife, a son, a new house..."
"My Gosh, he's been saying that to everyone he meets... Would you like anything to drink, Sarah, I may have quit bartending, but I can still whip up something good!"
"Oh, no thanks, we have to get going, I only stopped in to see the-"she sneezed- "excuse me, house."
"Well stop by again!" Raine called as Sarah was walking out the door.
"Good to see you guys!" she called back. From out the door they could hear a childish, "Bye Uncle Lagoona!"
Laguna smiled and turned to his wife, and kissed her on the cheek. "And how are you?"
"I finally got a break, Squall fell asleep a few hours ago."
"Wow. So this is his, what, second nap in five months?" Laguna asked. Raine smiled.
"Something like that. Would you like anything to drink?"
"Sure. Sarah have a cold, did she?"
"Yeah... I hope Ellone doesn't get it..."
"She's a great kid..."
"You going back out?"
"Yeah, I guess I should... After just one drink..."One would think with Vincent Valentine being eighteen, almost nineteen, that he would be the one who would be leading Ansem around into troublesome pranks, but this was not the case. Sixteen year-old Ansem was actually the leader.
And this was the case right now. Ansem was constructing a "trap", of sorts, for some poor, unsuspecting citizen of the Bastion, in the chapel, while Vincent cautioned him.
"Sire," Vincent started, a concerned tone in his voice, "your sister will not be too happy with you, if you go about trying to injure her subjects."
"Bah, nonsense, Dalaar is a teddy bear, she wouldn't dare be angry with me," Ansem replied nonchalantly. His trap was one that required a person who wasn't paying attention to where they were walking, to step on a small slip on a small patch of cooking oil. If the trapee's impact to the floor was hard enough, than several pails of marbles would fall off of their respective ledges, covering the entire chapel floor with marbles, making it impossible for the person to walk further into, or out of the chapel without slipping several times.
Vincent merely grunted in response, as Ansem was busy carefully setting pails full of marbles onto ledges. A figure cast a shadow into the chapel, and in a split second, Vincent had a pistol drawn and aimed at the figure in the chapel doorway.
It was Lucrecia Valentine, Vincent's wife, pregnant with his son. Upon realizing who it was, Vincent immediately holstered his pistol, and turned a beet red in embarrassment.
"Sorry, darling..." Vincent mumbled sheepishly.
"Ah, the ever-faithful guardian. What are you two doing?" Lucrecia asked, watching Ansem scurry across the chapel, being careful to avoid the spreading cooking oil.
"It'd be best to just not come in, dear, Prince Ansem is... well, you know," Vincent warned, holding out a gloved hand, for her to stay back.
"Alright, I wanted to tell you two that the dinner bell will ring soon..." Lucrecia reminded the two of them. Ansem slapped his forehead.
"Dinner, I was supposed to ask Dalaar something earlier today, urgh! Gosh, I'm a complete moron!" Ansem jumped down from a ledge, with enough force that every pail of marbles spilled their contents onto the floor.
"Well, sire, I was going to tell you that you weren't a moron, but... um..." Vincent trailed off, looking as Ansem was surrounded in a sea of multi- colored spheres that were still rolling across the floor.
"You two go on ahead, I'll try and maneuver myself out of here," Ansem said, looking around at the current situation he was in.
"You are sure?" Lucrecia asked, concerned for the prince.
"Yeah, yeah, go on to dinner, I'll be fine... Hmmm..." Ansem stood there, thinking, whilst Vincent and Lucrecia made their way to the Dining Hall to beat the crowd.
'Excellent work, idiot, your own prank backfired on you...' Ansem thought bitterly. He kneeled to the floor, laying on his stomach, and crawled across the chapel floor, until he reached the doorway.
Ansem grinned, satisfied with his victory, and began to walk to the Dining Hall, until he slipped on a single marble, one that had rolled astray into the hallway, and he fell, hitting the ground forcefully.
He painfully stood, with a scraped chin, and bruised limbs. Ansem growled in annoyance and made his way to the Dining Hall, silently cursing irony.Dinner that night, and the next few nights that followed were uneventful. The bell rang, the people came, the people ate, the people left. But the night that Hojo was missing from his spot near Raine Leonhart.
As everyone was eating, Hojo burst into the Dining Hall, his oily hair even more oily, and his greasy skin even more greasy, if either were possible. Even through his thick spectacles, one could see widened bloodshot eyes, and his lips were contorted into an insane grin.
"I have it! We are the fathers!" Hojo screamed 'we are the fathers' several more times before Sorceress Adel grunted, stood, and cast a spell that, unbeknownst to him, muted Hojo.
Hojo continued ranting in silence as a still badly bruised Prince Ansem spoke up, "Does anybody in this room know what in Hyne's name this man is talking about?" A long, quizzical silence... "Alright... Sorceress Adel, could you restore his voice so we know why to put him in the asylum?"
Adel grunted once more, not wanting to hear Hojo's crazy phrase any longer, but was forced to oblige.
"-the fathers! You and I Lord Ansem! We are the father's of the Valentines' child!" After that was spoken, both Lucrecia, Vincent, and Ansem all stood, and shouted an incredulous "What?!"
"The genes of Prince Ansem and I formed into Lucrecia Valentine's embryo, which I implanted in her! It worked! And the child will be mine!" Hojo rubbed his hands together, trying to look sinister, but in the end it only made it seem he was warming them.
"That's insane! When did you ever implant anything inside of me?!" Lucrecia asked, moving to stand closer to Vincent.
"Your 'flu shot'! And your child will be born, very shortly. Exciting times, Lucrecia, exciting times," Hojo rambled, grinning sickly.
"Isn't this happening too quick?" An anonymous voice asked.
"No! I've waited over nine months bearing this secret, and I choose to reveal it now!" Hojo yelled. "In fact, I must return to my lab for more studies."
It took a good several minutes for everyone to start clamoring over Hojo's insane craziness. Lucrecia and Vincent both turned a beet red while the entire castle talked about them, but not to them.Flash forward three weeks of unimportant events, yet tense rumors flitting back and forth at super-sonic speed, and Lucrecia is barricaded in her home.
Only Vincent had seen her in the three weeks she isolated herself. Lucrecia was overridden with stress of Hojo's outrageous claim. Vincent was worried also, but he didn't display as much of it.
But, then again, the only people he spoke to were Prince Ansem and Lucrecia. In fact, Vincent was doing his job as Ansem's guardian, while Lucrecia was inside their house, in bed. Her water broke two hours ago.
Remus Gast was home with his wife, Ifalna Gast, because Hojo had literally locked himself in the lab, and locked everyone else out. According to his observations, Project Angel Lustre was reaching immanency.
Project Angel Lustre... A project started over ten months ago by Hojo, in secret, it was to genetically create a human being, by fusing the likenesses of two already existent human beings. The Valentine baby, was the end result. And that baby should be born any day now...
Was this project really existent? Or was it a crazy idea implanted inside Hojo's mind? After all... The "new creature" was in a nearby cage, covering emitting a thin, wispy, mist... Mist that Hojo breathed regularly, and with each breath, brought him further into darkness... mist that was slowly devouring his heart.
He cried, and screamed, and yelled, and cried some more, whenever Raine left the room. She didn't have a moment to herself, and Laguna didn't help matters with running off with Cid Highwind to "play cards". Their sessions of Tetra Master went well beyond the simple, friendly card playing, and more into excessive drinking, swearing, and gambling.
And Raine was at home right now. It was a cold, stormy day, just like the day Squall was born, and Raine was holding the boy close to her. He was sleeping right now, but Raine was sure that the moment she put him down, he'd start screaming, so she just rocked and held. Hyne, this was boring.
Laguna came home about the time when the storm had been reduced to a calm drizzle. He was out later this time... When he walked inside he had a solemn expression engraved on his face, like an epitaph.
"Honey, what's wrong?" Raine asked. Raine saw Ellone D'Argent, Raine's neice, creeping around Laguna's knees. She was crying, which was rare, and this worried Raine. "Laguna, what is it?"
"Raine... Your sister, she..." Laguna stifled a sob at this point, another rare thing. "...She's gone, Raine... Apparently her cold wasn't a cold... She died of pneumonia this morning..."
Raine gasped, and her breath was caught in her throat. She coughed heartily, and Laguna's eyes widened in terror. She held out a hand, and said, "I'm not sick."
Then Ellone started bawling, that woke Squall who also started screaming, and that got Raine started, followed by Laguna. The new family united by marriage, birth, and death, mourned together for Sarah D'Argent.Hojo crept into the Valentine home, positive that Vincent Valentine was not at home. A newborn baby boy was lying on the bed, screaming his lungs out. He was covered in birthing fluids, but his hair was a jet black, no mistake about that.
Lucrecia Valentine was asleep and exhausted. Her breathing wasn't very steady, so Hojo wrapped the baby in a towel he had brought, and wisked him away to the lab.
"Project Angel Lustre phase three- injecting the baby with genes from the new-found creature...." Hojo cut the umbilical cord of the baby, cleaned him, gave it a shot in the arm of a dark liquid, and wrapped him up in a towel.
When the child started to calm down some, it started screaming again, and Hojo noticed something- the baby's jet black hair was fading. Hojo smiled, and unwrapped the baby, holding him a good distance away from him. Hojo saw it.
A wing, gray at first, but slowly absorbing the black from the baby's hair, was growing from the right shoulder of the baby. The wing had few feathers, mostly black fuzz, but Hojo was satisfied.
If he didn't truthfully create the baby, he sure did take away its humanity. Now that he knew this was a success, he could do one last experiment. As he was leaving the lab to go deliver the baby back to the Valentine home, Remus entered the lab, holding a pistol.
"Hello Hojo," he drawled. Hojo smirked, and Remus cocked the pistol. "I think you've gone far enough."
Hojo used the baby to shield him, and when faced with the threat of a pistol being aimed at him, the Valentine baby was engulfed in calm, green flames. Although unburned, the baby screamed, and more of the "new creatures" enigmatically appeared from nowhere. Remus gasped, and fired at them, giving time for Hojo to escape.
Hojo was careful running with the boy, and carefully deposited him back with his mother, who was still asleep.Remus was unconscious in the lab, even with the creatures gone, as Hojo reentered. He didn't know how the baby had summoned those creatures, but he didn't care at the moment. More pressing matters were at hand. Such as, his ascension.
He extracted more DNA from the mysterious creature, who willingly gave it, and then Hojo immediately injected the substance into his own arm. Within the second of the needle piercing his skin, he already felt power screaming through his veins. He was changing. He was Becoming, nothing short of a devil.Ansem immediately paused in his studying. Something was wrong...
"Vincent?" Ansem asked quietly. Vincent snapped out of whatever trance he was in, and looked out the window of the library.
"Dear Hyne..." he whispered. The two dashed out of the library, and into the outside, where a group of people had gathered, trying to destroy a large, rampaging monster.Laguna was asleep. Squall was asleep. Ellone was asleep. Raine was not asleep. A thundering roar had woken her up... she was never a sound sleeper. And although it went against everything she knew, she went to investigate the goings-on outside...Lucrecia had woken up a while ago, and was pondering why her baby had a wing. Did he have a wing when he was born? Did it just now appear? Was she just going insane? She scooped up the baby, and awkwardly walked outside, as she was incredibly sore from giving birth, but still, she walked through the pain.
After a good while of walking, she came to Ma Dincht's house.
"Hello, honey, what brings you here?" Ma asked happily.
"Ma, could you watch my son?" Lucrecia asked blankly.
"Well, I guess, honey, what's his name?"
"Hm?" Lucrecia asked, confused.
"What's his name?"
"...... Sephiroth......."
"Hm... an odd name... oh well..." She turned and placed the baby in Zell's old crib, and when she turned, Lucrecia was gone. "Hm... What's wrong with her?"
Sephiroth was crying.Lucrecia, Raine, and half of the castle's people were gathered around the beast, most in a panic, but Lucrecia and Raine both were very calm.
Vincent and Ansem were hiding on a ledge, Vincent shooting the creature occasionally with his pistol, but the creatures hide was too thick.
Remus Gast approached the beast, limping with a broken leg.
"HOJO!!!" he yelled. "HOJO YOU BASTARD! STOP! I ORDER YOU TO STOP!" He pushed everyone aside to stand in front of the rampaging Behemoth, Hojo. "HOJO! STOP THIS!"
Hojo roared, and with the horn that was embedded on his head, he impaled, Remus, Raine, and Lucrecia, all in a line, all dying instantly.
Vincent, who had just noticed Lucrecia, sat on the ledge, in a monotone. He didn't fly into a blind rage, or scream and shout. He just sat.... and was engulfed in bright green flames.
He jumped from the ledge, and started to transform himself. His canines elongated into fangs, his black hair, becoming spines, talons taking the place of hands. The vampire-esque thing that Vincent became was soon tearing at Hojo's flesh, cleaving it from his bones, using his fangs and talons.
After much of Hojo lay here or there, Dalaar arrived, breathless. She swept Vincent aside with her magic, and then, her pupils dilated, and she started casting a long spell.
Hojo, in pain, rage, and fear, stomped around, shook the trio of people off of his horn, and his stomping killed even more. Dalaar wasn't doing it fast enough!!!!
'Don't fail your people now, Dalaar... Not when they need you most... Concentrate!!!!!' Dalaar screamed in pain, as Hojo slowly floated in air, and was perfectly still, unable to move. Tears tore their way out of Dalaar's eyes, and Hojo was thrown by the invisible force that Dalaar was invoking. He was thrown into the mists below the castle.
Afterwards, Dalaar turned on Vincent, and used her own magic to morph him back into human, caging his inner beast. After performing all these feats, Dalaar fainted, exhausted.A stone stood in the farthest corner of the world, in a solitary meadow. The stone read:
RAINE LEONHART-LOIRE
Devoted Mother
Beloved Wife
"May she ascend to Heaven with the courage and pride of a lion."
Laguna, holding a crying Squall in one arm, and a bawling Ellone in the other, were gathered around the stone.
Further back in the same meadow, Vincent, holding his son, Sephiroth, stood before another stone.
LUCRECIA VALENTINE
Wife of Vincent Valentine
Mother of Sephiroth Valentine
"Death also steals Angels."
And Ifalna Gast, wife of Remus, knelt before the last stone in the meadow. She wasn't crying but smiling warmly. She held her bulging stomach, and whispered, "Thank you Remus, for our baby..."Dalaar had been resting for awhile now, with Ansem attending to her. Now that she had started to show signs of life, Ansem was in the lab of Hojo and Remus, cleaning up. He was intelligent, very intelligent, yes, but nowhere near the greatness of Gast, or the madness of Hojo.
Staring at the creature in the cage, he wrote:
"Much of my life has been dedicated to pursuit of knowledge. That knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that. I am blessed with people's smiles and respect.
But though I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand. I believe darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart. I have witnessed it many times.
Darkness...
Darkness of the heart.
How is it born? How does it come to affect us so? As ruler of this world, I must find the answers.
I must find them before the world is lost to those taken by the darkness."
Ansem filed the page, as "Report, Page One". Sighing grimly, Ansem looked to the creature in the cage.
'I will find out what you things are... And I'll do it, to stop whatever scheme you monsters may have in mind... I'll learn and learn and learn, to save these people... Count on it...'