Yuffie skipped along in the darkness, then suddenly she was back where she started, back in the Shinra office. Looking around Chaos was back at the desk in the head chair with his feet up on the table. He said nothing, he just stared up at the ceiling. Yuffie took a few steps forward and casually asked, "sup?"
Chaos looked down for a moment at Yuffie, the resumed staring at the ceiling. "Vincent says that when you finish the next portal we can all visit take a visit to what is now beyond even legend."
"So… We're going to see your cool extraction contraption that kill you or something like that?"
"Yes, so hop along and go watch Vincent lose some more loved ones."
Yuffie frowned, then threw her head back in laughter as she and proceeded to the next door. 'Least I can get on with this without him bothering me,' she thought to herself.
After entering a few yards into the doorway, Yuffie froze. She had heard something, what she was not sure, but it definitely was not her imagination. As she listened intently the sound came again. Wind. Suddenly from off to her side a gust of wind swept up. Mixed into the strong gale was snow and dirt, and for a moment her view was obscured. Then she suddenly found herself at the Gaea Highlands past the snow plains north of Icicle Inn. Where they first were when Cloud gave Barret the black material to hold. Vincent stood at the edge of a cliff where he was so few weeks before, except they were alone now. Yuffie opened her mouth to say something, but the great winds and drowned her voice out. But, as Vincent turned to face her, the winds seemed to die down, and so did their volume. He began to speak.
"This place was so turbulent. The bare rock-faces, the gusting winds, the deep drops… Most people would not be able to stand it here. There are a thousand and one things to concentrate on, each demanding attention. Through caution or annoyance, interference or wonder, this place distracts the mind. It was the only place I could stand and not feel the demons pressing my mind. This place equally distracted them. When we were waiting here with Barret, while Cid, Tifa and Cloud went further down the path… for awhile… I felt… normal… The constant flush my mind was under was gone. This place is naturally too distracting for me to return to my laments, and even more so I embraced it. I just watched the gusts of wind, tracked them through their snow and soil content. I completely forgot about my arm. For the first time since my operation I felt slightly normal. Of course, after Sephiroth, tricked Barret into following him further into the heights, I forced myself to concentrate, and we followed after him."
"I remember that cause Cait Sith and I were following the light of Red XIII's tail, and he was biting onto your cape so he could follow. How were you able to find your way through that Vincent?"
"The elements do not bother me as they do most, surely you must have noticed that as we traveled through the snow fields."
"Yea, you carried me when I fell." There was a brief moment of silence. "Why are we here anyways?" Yuffie asked.
"Simply put, I liked it here. It is a shame this place was destroyed when the weapons emerged." With that Vincent turned around and stared out beyond the cliffs, there was too much debris floating about to see the floor but that did not matter. Yuffie could understand why he was fond of this place. It kept you on your toes.
"Vincent," Yuffie began, "Show me what happened after you decided to join the Turks."
Vincent slowly opened his eyes, and extended his arms to his side, then jumped off the ledge. "VINCENT!" Yuffie yelled as she dashed forward to peer over the ledge. As she looked over two strong arms pushed up and grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her over. For a moment she went wide-eyed then quickly closed her eyes out of fear. Seconds passed and she felt the wind die down, she could not feel anything with the exception of her thumping heart, she was so scared. She could feel herself curled up in a ball and a cold feeling began to spread all across her left side. Finally she willed herself to open her eyes, and they were in the lobby to someplace… She had never been there, but there was construction all over the place. They were putting in kiosks and shops, and information centers. A few feet ahead of her was Vincent. His back was to her and he was leaning against a pillar. Slowly she began breathing again and stood up.
"Vincent, what was-"
"We're in the first Shinra HQ, just as they began furnishing. The offices and science areas were already finished, this area is just for show." Sure enough Yuffie watched as some people passed through the lobby and went straight to the elevators in the back. Just then, she heard the automatic doors slide open with a 'swish' and the younger form of Vincent she had just seen walked through the doors with a tired look on his face and an envelope trapped in a death-grip in his hand. He released the envelope and gave it to the lady at the kiosk, she immediately directed him to the elevators in the back. Vincent shifted his weight off the pillar and likewise began walking towards the elevator. Yuffie ran to catch up.
Vincent was beyond excited for what was happening to him. She watched him pace back and forth in front of the elevators for half a minute as he reread his letter, before he realized he had not pushed the up button. A few seconds later an elevator opened and Vincent stepped inside. Right before the doors connected a binder found its way in between them. Vincent moaned as the doors slowly opened again, he was getting very impatient with this.
But that was soon forgotten as a drop dead gorgeous brunette wearing a lab-coat, glasses and carrying a handful of binders stepped into the elevator.
As she was fiddleing with them she nearly dropped her full bundle but Vincent was to catch all that had fallen.
"Thank you so much." She said.
"My pleasure." Vincent replied as he tried to get a firm grip on the number of binders. 'How many did she have here? 15? 20?' "Let me carry these for you." Vincent said as he further tried to stable the stack of binders in his hands.
"Lets see… 20th floor." She quickly punched the button and turned to Vincent. "Here let me help you with that"
[longest elevator ride ever!!!!!]
"Wait get the top its slipping."
The next thing you know they were both on the ground laughing attempting to stack the scattered binders. Yuffie and Vincent were watching the entire thing.
"Thank you so much for helping me"
"Ahh, don't thank me, I dropped the binders in the first place."
"I wasn't doing so well by myself if you remember."
"Granted… Say, what do you need all these for anyways?"
"Hmm? Well its somewhat classified… but I'll tell you anyways. It's what me and my partner are hoping will open up a whole new field energy research and development. We're not sure what to call it, but we discovered while inspecting some deep earth drilling stations that were searching for oil fields, a new substance. It's this light blue liquid. Riddled with energy, it even glows in the dark. Anyways, at first the drillers were not sure what to think of it. So we were called in to determine what it was. We began with initial samplings to determine its makeup, but every result our tests turned out were completely inconclusive. In recent history we've seen nothing like this in science, except in one case." She left off.
"One case?"
"Materia…"
"Materia like the stones that allow the user to performs feats of magic?"
"The same. Anyways, the energy waves given off by this new substance match that emitted when material is used in the real world."
"So they are somehow linked?"
"Yes. Furthermore, there used to be mining projects for Materia crystals, the and the ground around it usually was saturated in a some biological waste. So we separated some of this liquid into a jar of Earth and after a month a similar waste was produced."
"So… whats the link?"
At this comment she frowned for a moment. "Think about it… Materia gives off the same energy as the liquid and the areas Materia is found in is saturated with the dead form of the liquid."
"So Materia is the compounded form of the liquid?"
"Exactly!"
"That means you could be able to tap the liquid of power like humans do with Materia, but how?"
She just smiled at him. "Very, very carefully…" From the breast pocket of her lab-coat she pulled out a small viol of glowing sky blue liquid. "It took us two weeks to extract that much, but it will power a city block for under an hour. I believe it can be applied on a larger scale in a much faster process, that's what our presentation today is about."
"But aren't you worried about the effects of this? I mean you really don't know what this substance is." Vincent began.
"I told you, in recent history we've seen nothing like this… However… In ancient history instances like this have been documented… Have you ever heard the myth of the life-stream?"
"Who hasn't? the legendary river of the dead. The essence of each living creature is reduced to nothing and returns to the…. Highly potent and powerful life-stream… You believe it's the same thing?"
"Not exactly… But that's what we want to find out about."
"One myth about the life-stream I've heard, If you dive into it, It will take your life, or grant you the power to converse with the deceased. Also that it is a conscious things and devours all dead, and that it created monsters to plague man…."
"Enough! Let me finish!" She cried out exited and laughing. "Everything we know about it is myth, but there are ruins, and temples that may help us understand its origin. That's what this meeting is about. We're going to seek funding for some research projects, we're going to these temples to try to find out what the ancient civilization thought this was, and if the life-stream is in fact the substance we've found. After we've decided what this is, then we'll decide whether drilling for it is a good idea or not." She just smiled and glared at him.
Vincent gave her a cross look and glanced back to the viol. "But that substance, the derivative of the life-stream, what are you calling it? And is it safe?"
"Its connected to Materia and in the ancient language Materia means power of the earth, so we thought we'd call it Mako-"
"The power of man… clever…"
"You understand the ancient language? Very impressive!"
"My parents made sure I had a long and thoroughly boring education."
"Haha, I'm sorry to hear that. But I'm sure it has served you well. Anyways, this substance is far from safe. The original form is relatively safe, it remained intact after being burned, compressed, and fired upon. However if its exposed to heat, and when I mean heat, I mean we're walking on the sun heat, or if it comes in contact with a large high voltage source… well lets just say you'll see the results for a ways. We blew up a bathtub of that stuff, and it left burnt dirt for nearly one and one half miles around. In any case, the Mako is much more unstable. Its vulnerable to explosions, medium voltage, extremely high heats, very high compression and who knows what else. But the resulting explosion is not nearly as large as with the raw material."
"That's slightly reassuring, but it is still dangerous then."
"But not nearly as much in smaller doses."
"What about exposure to it?"
"We did some testing on the local wild-life. Short-term contact had no effect, however long term contact seemed to kill the feeling in the exposed area. In fusing the animals with small doses seemed to strengthen them, but large amounts killed them… well not really killed them, but put them in a coma…"
"That's better?"
"No, but for one worker's husband its all we could say… During the initial phases when he was gathering some samples for us, he slipped in, we had to pull him after lassoing him. His brain was severed from its nervous system, where or how we don't know, but we're calling it Mako poisoning." She looked away for a moment, a sad look on her face.
"Hey, are you OK?"
"I'll be fine, I just need to get ready for this presentation. What about you? What brings you to Shinra Inc?"
"Me? Huh… I'm not too sure yet. All I know is I got this letter and I'm supposed to go to floor 34." He intentionally left out the part about being a sniper and being assaulted by Shinra's private badasses a few hours earlier.
"Level 34 huh, that's…. Special Tactics and Assets. That's… Kinda scary." She said with a laugh.
"Well I'm just a no one from the slums, I'm not too sure what they want me for…"
"umm hmm… a no one from the slums then… And you have no prior affiliation with Shinra?"
"None."
"Well then, I'm sure you're going somewhere fast, they don't pull just anyone into special weapons and tactics, Mr…"
"Valentine, Vincent Valentine."
"Well then Mr. Valentine, It's a pleasure to meet you, and this..." the elevator doors swished open "Is my floor." She quickly picked up the now neatly stacked binders and began to walk, a black haired man with glasses likewise wearing a labcoat seemed to be waiting for her at the end of the hall. He began walking towards them.
"Wait!" he called out, and she turned around for looking at him, only the parts of her face above her nose could be seen. "You never told me your name."
"Its Lucrecia, Lucrecia Mayer."
"It's a pleasure meeting you ms. Mayer."
"Likewise Mr. Valentine."
Vincent stepped back through the doors and the elevators and as they closed he heard the man who was approaching speak with her. "Hey Lucrecia, who was that guy?"
"Hm? Him? Just met him, don't worry about it Hojo…"
Then the doors closed and the elevator began its ascent to the 34 th floor. "Lucrecia, her name is Lucrecia."
"And that's where you two first met!" Yuffie chimed in.
"Yes Yuffie, that's where it began, and for a period of time ended."
A few moments later the elevator opened again on the 34 th level, and they all stepped out. It was dark in the hallway the elevator opened up into, the lights were dimmed. Immediately in front of the elevators was a glass screen with two line indentions in its center, implying that a part that would have been the doorway. As soon as he stepped forward a booming female voice came over the PA system. "State your identity and purpose."
"Um… Vincent Valentine, I'm not really sure about the second part."
There were a couple seconds of static, then the elevator behind him suddenly slammed shut and the same voice spat out in its monotone voice, "Unregistered Identity. Defensive parameters initiated. Have a nice day." Shutters on the wall to his right and left opened up and a white fume began pumping out, slowly covering the floor and gently growing higher.
"What the?!?!? No! No! they told me to come! Open up! Open up Now!" He screamed out. And started pounding on the doorway. The fumes began to rise to his ankles, and he began kicking the doorway, Still it rose higher. Quickly Vincent changed tactics and ran to the side, with his bare hands he tried to push the shutters closed. They closed a little but he did'nt have enough leverage. So he started kicking in a downward angle, the fumes rising past his thighs. On his first attempt he stumbled and almost fell, to steady himself he put his hands on the glass wall and wall on the side of the elevator, when he pressed to the sides before his next kick he felt something shift. Turning back to glass wall he firmly pressed it again, and could feel it shift. Then he backed up a step and kicked the wall, the entire section fell to the ground and shattered. Then the shutters closed and the fumes quickly dissipated as then it spread into the new uncontaminated region. Slowly he proceeded through the space where the glass wall used to be, and looked back. Originally he assumed that the center section with the indentions was the doorway. It was a simple trick easily escaped from, the other two sections to it's sides were just loose sheets of glass.
After examining and pushing over the other sheet on the opposite side, he began walking down the hall. The older Vincent and Yuffie just watched. At the end of the hall was a dais, and on it was a knight stick and a pistol. When he picked them both up a doorway to his right slid open. A bright orange light streamed into the room, and Vincent had to temporarily shield his eyes. Then with a weapon in either hand entered the doorway. It slid closed behind them.
"What is this?" asked a concerned Yuffie.
"My second test. Throughout this entire ordeal I will be monitored, and my skills probed. There are five more trials after this. That particular trial was a joke designed to weed out the dimmest of their potential Turks. In the next area I had to dodge and slip my way through a passageway of retracting blades, spikes, and flame spouts. Besides the trial you just witnessed, it was probably the easiest of the six. Its presence is to test my mobility, and my ability to think on my feet. In the third trial I'll fight 6 knights in full plate armor, my bullets were nearly useless against them… nearly. In the fourth stage I stalked, and was stalked through a labrinth with six trained ninjas. Afterwards for the fifth trial they released six tigers into the labriynth. In the sixth and final stage I was given a shotgun and locked in a room with a smaller dragon."
"A smaller dragon?" Yuffie inquired with a grimace.
"A regular dragon… but smaller… nearly as strong as their larger selves, but much faster." Vincent elaborated. "I discovered the dragon's weak hide on accident. He had just knocked me over, and was atop me about to chew my head off when the shotgun went off in it's stomach killing it." He ended.
"Intense…"
"To say the least."
"They told me afterwards, that there were very few who made it past the ninjas, and fewer still who actually fought the dragon. And they mentioned that they had remote control poison capsules on each animal, and that while each trial had the potential to become a complete bloodbath, they were still able to maintain a certain level of control."
"That's reassuring."
"Very. Anyways, after my trial, they explained the concept of the Turks to me. We were a highly skilled group for industrial and international espionage. We would serve as the eyes and ears of the Shinra on an international and local basis as it moved from conglomerate to world power. We would be trained as spies, shinobis, soldiers, scientists, electricians, translators, demolitionists, insurrectionists, diplomats, businessmen, tradesmen, and any other job form that would have helped serve our purpose."
"That must have been intense."
"Its usually a highly compressed three year program. But I already had many of the requisite physical skills. I was a master of physical self defense, and was familiar with most weapon types. When I worked in a gang in Midgar I learned about machines, when I united them I learned diplomacy. I already knew how to read people, I could tell when you were lying, and knew what to look for in people to determine their objectives, and purpose. In one year they were able to compress the remaining knowledge and teach it to me. Back then the operations of the Turks were much larger than they are now. There must have been about 12 agents on International assignments at one time, eight working local at one time, 15 working as industrial and corporate spies, and 15 working in information gathering and storage. The last fifteen also included our bosses and the Turks who trained the newer generation. Now it seems like their operations and working number of Turks have shrunk. I suppose that's because there are not too many markets left to conquer." Vincent broke off and went back to the elevator that immediately opened as he approached. Yuffie was quick to follow.
When they stepped into the elevator it quickly began to rise again. Yuffie started, "So… Vinnie… Where are we off to now?"
"You'll see…" As soon as he said that the elevator doors stopped and they exited into what seemed to be a sparing room. Yuffie looked behind them when she heard the doors click closed, but the elevator was now gone. There were four people in the room, three males and one female. Two of the males were sitting Indian-style across from each other in the center of the room. One of them was obviously Vincent, the second man had short brown hair and blue eyes. The other two were watching from the side of the room, with a large weapons rack behind them. The woman was much shorter than all three men; she had brown eyes and dark red hair. The third man had graying hair with dark patches all over. After a moment, he passed two katanas to the woman. She promptly walked in between Vincent and the brown haired man and dropped the swords in front of them. After quickly giving a glance to the brown haired man she returned to the old man's side.
The old man looked at both the others, and quietly said "Go."
Immediately both men were on their feet, the brown haired man's sword was unsheathed. Vincent's was not. Quickly he moved in to strike. Vincent quickly blocked, but when he bare blade and the sheathed blade met the bare one cut through the wooden sheath until it met the blade. In a quick fluid motion Vincent pulled his own sword free of his sheath and moved to attack his enemy's back. The brown haired man tried to react, but the still attached sheath impaired his blade movement. And he was quickly knocked to the ground when Vincent used the hilt of his blade on the brown haired man's shoulder. The older man began to clap, and the young woman rushed to the other man's side.
"Very good Vincent, but I don't expect that will work a second time on Carter, will it Carter?"
"No sir." Carter responded.
"Good man." He said with a smile. "All three of you are nearing the end of your training. And as all you know part of your training is to participate in a real life operation, independent of your instructors." He eyed all three of them before he began speaking again. "Yesterday, a most unfortunate event took place. Seems a motorcyclist managed to moon the president while he was on his way to the head building in his limousine. A noteworthy stunt, but the young man was tracked. Seems he works as a waiter at a bar frequented by… a bar owned in fact by the Grey Death. As you all know the Grey Death is one of the many mob groups that have been popping up as of late. One of the more dangerous ones as a matter of fact. Do we have any question so far?"
Vincent stepped forward. "Are any of the known members of Grey Suns connected to the old gangs that used to roam Midgar?"
"They have been more-or-less wiped out. If there are any members of the old gang left, they are probably still underground. The city of Midgar is still paying the bounties that it put on their heads three years ago. But these people are not gang-bangers, they are stone cold killers. Most of them used to hunt the gangs, and until recently were paid to do nothing by the city as politicians. You're jobs will be simple. Take a group of 15 soldiers and eliminate any and all opposition and resistance you come across when you enter the bar. Questions?"
The red haired woman stepped forward. "Permission to speak sir."
The old man smiled for a moment. "You can drop the formality Carla, you are no longer a part of the guard contingent."
"Yes si-… Yes… I was wondering, what if we come across no resistance?"
"Well then you'll just have to enter in such a way that you do. I do not want very many survivors. Understood?"
All three just nodded their heads. The old man smiled once more and exited the room. Then the three Turks in training began speaking to one another.
Carter started, "Finally a real mission, soon we'll be full Turks and we won't have to deal with all this training crap anymore."
"Shut up Carter, we may never see each other again after we are given our assignments." Said Carla
"Would you two shut up, we need to focus. Forget where we will be in the future, if we don't planning this out, we may not have one." Said Vincent with an annoyed tone.
"You're right. We will have 24 hours until the assault is to take place. So we should start planning. We can probably get the plans for the building from city hall…"
"And the Domestic Threat Assessment department will probably have records on who has entered and exited that bar for awhile. So we'll have a general idea on how many people are there…"
Yuffie and Vincent were observing the entire thing.
"And there begins my first mission under the Turks." Vincent said.
"And how did you do?" Yuffie asked.
Suddenly there was a flash and instead of a sparring room they were now standing in the center of a large bar. On two sides there was a bar, on another side there was a small stage with doors leading into the back, and on the remaining side was another entryway leading into the lobby with had stairs going up and an entrance to the street. Inside must have been twenty men sitting at the tables, another 4 behind the bar and close to seven men running back and forth waiting on tables. One waiter in particular was carrying several dirty dishes back to the kitchen, as he walked through the doorway to the side of the stage, he suddenly dropped all his plates and began backing away from the door. All eyes were on him. From the doorway, Vincent quickly stepped forward and batted the young man on the side of the head with his pistol, in his other hand was a large plastic bag. Emerging from the doorway on the opposite side of the stage was Carter, and Carla quickly stepped into view from onstage. In a booming voice Vincent announced themselves.
"The three of us…" In a provoking voice, "ALONE… Are here as servants to great city of Midgar and are hereby placing all customers, employees and anyone else unlucky enough be here at this time under arrest. The room burst into laughter, until Carter shot once in the air to get their attention again. All eyes turned to Vincent. He dumped the plastic bag he was holding on the ground, about 30 pairs of hand-cuffs fell out. "If you will all come forward in an orderly manner, we will proceed to place you under arrest." Vincent nodded to his companions, Carla lowered her rifle, and Carter holstered his pistol. Vincent put his own pistol away. 'What do I have to do to provoke this group into attacking,' he thought to himself.
And as if on cue on man's hand dived into his jacket and pulled out a pistol. But before he could fire a shot all three Turks had backed out of view. And from the two doorways, the stage, and the entryway from the lobby half a dozen small dark green cylinders with blue stripes were thrown out into the bar. After the series of flash-bangs had gone off the three Turks accompanied by 5 guards emerged from the stage side, and 10 guards entered from the lobby guns blazing. Most of the men inhabiting the bar had gone straight for their weapons, but were still somewhat blinded from the flash-bangs. They were easily picked off. There were a few survivors on the main floor, and most of the bartenders had ducked for cover. The guards began placing all of them under arrest. The three Turks ran into the lobby, and began making their way upstairs. Stairway led to a balcony that overlooked the lobby. There there were two doors. They knew that one doorway led to a small series of hotel rooms. They were not interested in that area. The guards would examine that area later. The second doorway led to who knows what. In the original plans there were three rooms in a row. The first two were equal in size, and the third was a little less than the first two combined in size.
All three Turks were settled around this door. Carla was on one side, Vincent on the other and Carter behind him. They silently nodded to each other and Carla moved slightly from her position with her back to the wall and slammed the but of her rifle into a spot next to the door-knob, then returned to her position. Vincent quickly leaned into the doorway with his pistols in hand and made two quick shots before he returned to his position. He had just killed two men that were across the room guarding the doorway into the next room. Then Carter quickly dashed around Vincent and performed a headfirst dive and roll into the room. There was a man with a submachine gun at the end of the room, but before he could take aim, carter had shot him 3 times. The other two then entered the room, and they quickly checked it over. The room was bare, a table, a mini fridge in the corner, some chairs TV. Vincent had made two head shots, and Carter had missed once then hit the man in chest twice. After they finished checking the room Carter began moving towards the next doorway.
"Wait!" Yelled Carla. "You saw how those two were guarding the doorway, they'll be expecting us to enter through there."
"What do you recommend then?" Vincent asked.
From behind her back she pulled out two cylindrical objects, they looked somewhat like the flash-bangs they had used earlier, except instead of blue stripes these had red ones.
In the next room there were five men waiting, each behind some piece of furniture or appliance. There were two behind the couch adjacent to the doorway, another two behind the table in the middle of the room they had flipped over, and one had moved the water cooler and mini-fridge in front of the doorway, all of them had their weapons pointed at the doorway. They knew their compatriots in the other room were dead, they would have signaled or something if they were still alive. Whoever was coming after them must have been very good. They had only heard two shots followed up a very short series of sub machine gun fire. They were all tensed up, just waiting for the door to open. The walls were pretty thin, they could hear the invaders walking around on the other side, and they could hear some speaking, but they could not make it out.
Then everything went silent for awhile. The men at the couch could hear two small tinks from the other room. The man closer to the wall put his head to the wall to try to listen in on what they were doing. Then the wall just exploded. The man closer to the wall was thrown across the room dead, the other man a few feet, screaming in pain. Two men emerged from the smoke and rubble of the grenades firing their pistols at the two men vulnerable from the other side of the table. The two men quickly jumped to the other side and began returning fire.
Suddenly the door burst open and a red haired woman wearing a black suit, and carrying a huge ass rifle quickly entered and took the two men by surprise. There was only one man left, but they did not know that. The single man still hiding behind the water cooler and mini-fridge was petrified. His friends were dead, that woman had a huge rifle, and there were two other men on the other side of the room with guns. There was only one thing he could do. His aim at the other two men was partially cut off by the flipped table in the middle of the room. So as quietly as he could he opened the fridge door, he could use that for some cover, then he quickly flung it open and from behind it opened fire on the woman. From five shots he only hit her once. When Vincent and Carter heard the shots they began running towards her, but it was too late. She was hit in the top of her left shoulder, the force of the bullet twister her around, and in pain her hands clenched tighter on her rifle. The rifle began firing, and it left a trail of bullet holes on the wall on half the room low to the ground. The man had stopped firing. He just looked at the bullet holes in the wall, then he looked at the bullet holes in the fridge door, then he pushed the door forward a bit and examined the holes in himself. He fell forward slumped on the fridge door and died.
Vincent moved towards the body and made sure he was dead. Carter was examining Carla's wound. "The bullet is still in there." He announced. "We should get her out of here, like now."
"Damnit Carter I'm fine, now help me up and give me my rifle." She tried to support herself but let out a pained scream as she fell backwards.
"No, he is right. Carter go downstairs and get some of the guards, call the medics then we will move her downstairs."
"Right." And with that he ran out the room to gather some guards. Vincent reloaded his pistols and put them both back on the dual holsters in his jacket. The he bent down and picked up one of the dead men's sub machine guns, and after quickly searching his body found a couple of clips.
"Vincent, what are you doing?" inquired Carla.
"Finishing this." He replied after reloading the submachine gun. Then he proceeded to the doorway, and walked into the final chamber. She called out to him to stop and wait for the others, but he simply ignored her dropping his radio behind him.
This final chamber looked more like a throne than a mobster's hideout. Along the sides of the room were 5 pairs of pillars. At the end of the room was a raised platform and in center of the platform center was a golden seat with red cushions. The room was badly lit, the only area fully illuminated was the throne at the end. Behind the throne was a stairway leading to the roof of the building.
"I would like to congratulate you… Few people have your… Skill…" a voice said from somewhere off to the side. And from the shadows a figure wearing a gray suit emerged and slowly sat down in his throne.
"I did not make it here on my own…" was Vincent's reply, as he slowly walked forward glancing to his peripherals. 'Somethings are out there' he thought to himself.
"It hardly matters… You entered alone, but you'll leave with your companions. They will carry your corpse to whatever funeral they give your kind, and you will be forgotten. Me on the other hand, in three minutes I'll be outside on the roof, hitching a ride on my personal helicopter. And in for minutes, this entire building will collapse. A final fuck you to the city, and your friends downstairs."
"You'll come with me now, you I'll be forced to open fire on you."
"I'll keep that in mind." The man stood up and began to walk towards the stairway. "Kill him." Was his final comment before exiting.
Vincent immediately turned to his left and began firing into the shadows, he was rewarded with the screams of a person, mortally wounded. Then he heard movement from his right hand side, and from nowhere another man in a suit emerged wielding a katana. The man came out slashing and Vincent was forced to shield himself with the submachine gun. But the force of the slash knocked him off his feet, and Vincent was on his back desperately shielding himself from the mobster's onslaught. Then suddenly a series of cracks had filled the air and man seemed start convulsing for a minute before he fell over on his side. Vincent looked over towards the doorway and there was Carla. She was barely able to steady her rifle with one arms, but had managed to drag herself into the next room and save his life.
"Hurry up and finish him." Was all she could say. She looked exhausted, sweat and blood marked her trail from the other room. Just then Carter and 4 other soldiers entered the throne room.
"What's happening?"
"Get Carla, and everyone out of this building immediately, its set to collapse in about 1 ½ minutes." Vincent yelled as he took off in a run towards the stairway.
"Where are you going?" Carter called back.
"To finish this." He replied as he disappeared up the stairs.
Carter gathered Carla up and they all evacuated the building.
Vincent emerged on the roof, there was nothing special about it, a flat roof going all the way across with the exception of the doorway from which Vincent emerged. At the far end of the roof was a helicopter and the gray suited man was about to open the hatch when he noticed Vincent slowly approaching.
He turned to face Vincent. "That was much faster than I thought it would be."
"I aim to please."
"I could use a man like you in my organization…"
"I already have a job thanks."
"I thought you would say that, shame too…"
The hatch on the helicopter slid open and two men with rifles were sitting there, they both began firing on Vincent. All Vincent could do was dive behind the doorway that led to the downstairs. The gray suited man ran around the helicopter and entered from the opposite side. When one of the two men ran out of ammunition the other would start firing, and they would take turns spraying the doorway with bullets. When the helicopter began to take off they closed the hatch, and that's when Vincent made his move, he stepped out from behind the doorway towards the center of the roof with a pistol in each hand. The gray suited man tapped the pilot on the shoulder and pointed to Vincent. The pilot twisted the controls, and the Helicopter was now facing Vincent, the Helicopter was at such an angle with the ground that the twisting blades came inches from hitting the roof. And slowly the helicopter was approaching him. Vincent just closed his eyes for a moment and raised one of his pistols. If he was going to make this shot it had to be perfect. He holstered his second pistol and dropped to one knee, using both hands to steady his gun. 'Timing, if you want to make this shot, forget everything else and concentrate on the timing.' He thought to himself. Then there was a bang, and windshield of the helicopter shattered. The dead body of the pilot slumped over the controls and the helicopter performed a front flip as the gray suited man desparetly tried to pull the pilot's body off the controls. The helicopter landed upside down on the roof with a large explosion. As this was happening, Vincent was making a mad dash for the edge in an attempt to outrun the shrapnel. It had already been about four minutes and this entire building would be going down shortly.
When Vincent jumped off the building, he was more concerned with getting off the building as soon as possible rather than where he landed, but was lucky enough to land on a convertible top car.
The guards witnessing his impressive leap extricated him from the mess of the car and an EMS arrived just as the building began to crumble to carry Carla and him self to the hospital.
"I spent three days recovering in the hospital, a piece of a chopper blade was imbedded in my left hand. If I still had a hand I could show you the scar." Vincent stated.
"That was impressive to say the least…" Yuffie smiled before her next comment. "Very impressive. You sure you're not mixing your exploits with action flicks?"
Vincent just looked at her for a moment and then continued. "A week later our official initiation into the Turks would take place. All three of us were afterwards placed in Wutai to help with reconnaissance. The Shinra Corporation felt that in the long-run Wutai would be giving them troubles with their anti hi-technology lifestyle. So they decided to start learning as much about the nation of Wutai as soon as possible. At our initiation, all the remaining… protocol concerning the Turks was explained." There was another bright flash of light. And they were in a white space, just Yuffie and Vincent.
"They told that we were joining a secret organization that had been alive for close to 200 years, and that close to 15 years earlier they had nearly died financially, but certain opportunities had presented themselves that kept the company alive." Vincent's gaze dropped. "They… They were explaining to me, that I was about to be initiated into the group that had assassinated my father, mother, uncle and all the other high-ranking officials in the old Valentine Weapons Company. Then the old man who recruited me gave me back my DeathPenalty and Outsider, and asked me if I still wanted my assignment."
"For years I had sworn vengence upon the party that stole my family from me… They stole my parents and my life from me, but when they told me… I had no idea what to feel. It came as a complete shock. I did not want to hate them. After one and one half years they were the closest thing to a family I had, my surrogate family. Carla, and Carter were my surrogate siblings, my teachers and superiors were my surrogate aunts and uncles, and my recruiter, the old man who made me take a shot at his grand-daughter was my surrogate father, he was my best friend for a time. From what I had learned, I could probably have taken that entire organization down in a mater of days. A bit longs to locate all their away spies. But they were giving me that option, as if to redeem themselves to me. So I forgave them. And three days later we left for Wutai, as 'official attaches' of the Shinra Power, Weapons, and Services Corporation."
Vincent's gaze had now centered on the floor. Yuffie was nearly in tears. She knew that she would never be able to make him admit it, but the death of his father was still paining him. After so much time it still hurt him so. But why should time make it better? Her own mother had died 11 years earlier, if anything the pain had gotten worse each time she thought about it. She could remember her shimmering long dark brown hair, and how they used to play together. Just thinking about it she began to tear up. And Vincent he had 30 years to reflect on his mistakes, and past, and there were a lot more people for him to mourn. She was afraid to think it… Her lips began to quiver and tears began to form in her eyes. 'Thinking of Vincent's life… actually made her feel better about her own misfortunes.' When that thought crossed her mind, she could restrain it no longer.
To Vincent's great surprise, she ran forward to him and had wrapped her arms around his waist. She pushed her head into his chest and started freely sobbing into him. Throughout his travels with Avalanche Vincent had shown signs of emotion on his face only three times. First when he was reunited with Lucrecia one last time, second when he fired the shot that killed Hojo, and third… when this small 16 year old girl began crying tears for him. Vincent's face was that of confusion, he had no idea what to do. Vincent let his memories fade, she had seen too much sadness for now. They would return to office room and resume this series of memories later. Before the memory completely faded, he put one his left metal arm on the small of her back and his flesh hand on the back of her head, and held her close. The sobbing had stopped now, and was replaced with a few quiet sniffles.
Before the scene completely faded Vincent whispered to her, "I'm sorry you had to see all this…"
She replied in a hoarse voice, "Don't be, I'm glad you decided to show me." Then she looked up at his face and smilingly said, "But I'm still not giving up on you."
Darkness….
NA: Dear god… that took forever… The longest chapter yet, and that section of memories are not even finished yet. I originally planned to go through the entire series of memories before I went ahead to chaos's sequence, but it just seems too long for one chapter. So as a result, Chaos gets to talk early.