Reno: What the hell is going on with this story?
Reeve: What do you mean?
Reno: First the author shoots Vincent...
Reeve: Lucrecia shot Vincent.
Reno: Whatever. Then he kills off Cid.
Reeve: Cid is immortal. He's the Phoenix of the FF series. With every new game there's a new Cid, born of the ashes of the last. You cannot really kill Cid, for he is Cid. Even if villainy triumphs, there will be a new Cid to take up the cause.
Reno: I dunno what frogs you've been licking, but I sure as hell want one.
Reeve: It's called scotch. When you work for Rufus and face ethical problems every day, scotch becomes your best friend in the whole world.
Reno: So, you gonna say it?
Reeve: Sure, why not? Tyramir doesn't own Final Fantasy. Mmmm... scotch...
The Nightmare Continues
Vincent's dreams were haunted.
There was nothing new about this. For nearly thirty years his dreams had been filled with nightmarish visions of the past, memories of Hojo shooting him, the experiments, and lastly, thoughts filled with his failure to save Lucrecia and prevent Sephiroth's birth.
He had never been sure of what he'd been more ashamed of. His failure to save Lucrecia from a mad man's experiments, or to save the world from the birth of a monster.
This dream was different.
No more were the visions and sensations of pain, gone was the yearning for atonement, the idea that the suffering through the dream brought on redemption.
Now he sought the waking world, the place where he could change things, find true salvation for himself. He railed against a dreamscape of blackness and shapelessness, only to find that he could not escape, that he was trapped. Trapped in an eternity of nothingness.
Why was he here? Where was here? What was here? The questions echoed throughout his mind, becoming shouted words that he didn't remember saying, now echoing in the darkness.
You are where you need to be.
The voice sounded familiar. It didn't have a male or female quality to it, no real sense of volume, but the way the words were said, the pronounciation and inclination on the syllables...
"Who are you?"
He waited a few minutes before deciding that an answer was not forthcoming.
"Why do I need to be here?"
To find the answer.
Vincent's eyes narrowed, and he nearly swore. He hated riddles. More, he hated unexplained riddles, riddles without reason. If the voice would just tell him...
"What answer? What are you talking about?"
Silence.
Vincent swore.
He sat down, and was surprised to find that he actually could. He hadn't even been aware of his body until he made an actual motion with it. He looked down at his hands and blinked in surprise. The clawed hand was gone. In its place was a normal hand, its skin pale, but unscarred, so different from the rest of his body.
He closed his eyes, if they really were his eyes, and looked inward, into his mind. And found emptiness. Not real emptiness, more like a sense of oneness, a sense of ... loneliness, and solitude. The solitude he had dream of for so long.
They were gone.
No more Galian Beast, Death Gigas, Hellmasker, or Chaos.
Just... Vincent Valentine.
Laughter filled the void, laughter that had not been sounded in many years. He laughed until tears streamed down his eyes, laughed until it hurt too much to go on. He fell over, clutching at his belly. Finally. Free. He had escaped. But to where?
An amused grin still on his face, he slowly sat up, and looked about the endless abyss around him. A dream, perhaps, but a good one.
And then, out of the abyss, laughter sounded. Not an echo of his own, but the laughter of something truly mad. He drew his gun and looked about, but couldn't find the source. A howling laughter, as if from some great hyena followed it, then a hoarse chuckle, as if from a large brute.
Then lastly, a demonic laugh, a laugh filled with flames and hatred and evil.
Hellmasker. The Galian Beast. Death Gigas. And Chaos.
So, they had followed him here, wherever here was. But how could that be? They didn't really exist anywhere except in his own...
He almost slapped himself. Of course. He was in his own mind. That was why there was no claw, why the demons were loose, why there was no real sense of the physical except what he thought of.
So if this was his own mind...
The four beings appeared, flicking into existance around him, appearing out of the blackness. They looked about, bewildered.
"Don't be so confused," he said. "This is my mind. I'm in control of things here. It's about time I realized that. You're here because Hojo put you here, and I won't tolerate that anymore. I want you out."
Three of the figures shrank back, cringing away from him. One did not. Chaos.
"Do you really think it's that easy? Do you know who we are? Do you know what we represent? Your ignorance gives you no power, not here, or anywhere."
"I know who you are," Vincent countered. "You're me. Or parts of me. So I control you."
Again Chaos laughed. "Parts of you? My, aren't we egomaniacal. Did it ever occur to you that maybe you're just a part of us? That the real Vincent Valentine died thirty years ago, and that you're just a memory? You're just something we live in while the four of us fight each other for dominance? No, you didn't, did you? But now you are."
He was right. The idea struck Vincent to the core. Could it be true? Could he be nothing but a memory of the real Vincent Valentine, someone who may have died years before?
No.
He raised Death Penalty up and pointed it directly at Death Gigas and pulled the trigger. The thunderous sound of gunfire echoed throughout the void. The half-man half-machine monstrosity fell over, dead.
Chaos laughed. But the Galian Beast cringed away, but Hellmasker still seemed just as confident as before. Something wasn't right.
"So you killed Death Gigas. It doesn't matter. All it represented was your rage against Lucrecia, your anger with her for allowing Sephiroth to be born, but also the conflicting thoughts and feelings of having to protect her. It was already dead with your rejection of Lucrecia."
Vincent smiled. "I thought you said that I was a part of you, not the other way around."
He pointed the gun at the Galian Beast and pulled the trigger. It clutched at its belly, blood pouring out. Vincent fired again, ending its suffering.
Chaos had an amused look in his eyes, but something about him seemed afraid. "You only give me more power, Vincent. The Galian Beast was--"
"I know what the Galian Beast was. It was my past, the horrible things I did as a Turk. But I'm not a Turk anymore, Chaos. I haven't been in a while. I'm making up for that past now, so it's time to put it away."
He deliberately shifted the gun to point at Chaos.
"You can't kill me, fool. You can try, but you cannot kill me. I am the Master here, the dominant beast. I am the eternal one! You are nothing. I am everything."
"Wrong," Vincent said. "But well played. You almost had me fooled."
He shifted the gun quickly and blasted Hellmasker in the belly. Not a fatal wound, but he wanted some answers.
"What?" Chaos said. "No. It was me. You were supposed to shoot me next. No, this isn't right. It was supposed to be me!"
The voice faded, and the demon disappeared, turning to mist. Vincent grunted and walked to where Hellmasker now lay, clutching his belly in agony.
"So, you're the man behind the curtain," he said, then bent over, grabbed hold of the mask, and tore it off.
He couldn't say that he was particularly surprised.
Hojo's face glared at him, but there was a hint of amusement in his eyes, and a bit of a grin. "Yes, Vincent. It's been me all along. My DNA, combined with Jenova's, inside of you, tearing at your psyche, fracturing you, and making the last part of Chaos, the demon in you that you wanted to redeem, to make into an angel."
"What would have happened if I had shot Chaos instead of you?"
"You would have destroyed the last part of yourself, the part you considered most important. The part you considered was worth saving. Instead, you shot me. Well played, indeed. How did you know?"
"I didn't. But Chaos was talking too much. I figured he was trying to distract me. You always liked hiding in the shadows, Hojo, and with the mask, you were too tempting to pass up. Why? Why this deception?"
"If you had killed Chaos, I would have been the only part surviving. I knew you would kill the real Hojo one day, so I set up a way to cause myself to be reborn in you. Ironic, no?"
"No," Vincent said. He pointed Death Penalty directly at Hojo's head and pulled the trigger. He looked about at the blackness around him. "Is this why I'm here? To find out about myself and kill Hojo once and for all? I can't say that I'm impressed."
No. You had to discover yourself, but most of all, you had to kill her.
"Her?"
Yes. Now, you must awaken, and proclaim the champion to destroy her once and for all. The enemy from the sky must be destroyed.
Understanding dawned on him. He nodded. "I'm ready to go back."
The void shifted, blurring, becoming less real. Pain filled his body, and he spasmed. Old wounds and memories of old horrors visited upon him filled his core. Vincent opened his eyes.
Author's Note:
Sorry this took so long to post. Between screwy internet and general laziness I took my time on this one. Hope you enjoyed it.