Chapter Five : Gemini - Vincent

The man in the coffin blinked and that was all the time Alexander needed. He stepped back into the shadows of the room and with the help of a manipulation materia he'd equipped into the top hair-clasp he hid his presence from everyone in the room except his brother.

Zack, Cloud and Reno knew this tactic, having seen the twins employ it before and so they didn't react to Alexander's disappearance, behaved as if he had never been there.

***

Vincent rubbed his eyes, looked at the group again, hadn't there been fife of them? And the one that was missing now a carbon copy of himself? He shook his head. Obviously his mind was playing tricks with him.

The silverhaired man, obviously the leader of the group, stepped forward.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

For the tenth of a second Vincent played with the thought of attacking the group and fleeing from the room, but one look at the people in front of him made him drop the idea. They all carried the symbol of ShinRa and from the Mako glow of their eyes he knew that the tall silverhaired one and the one with the spiky black hair were trained SOLDIERs. From the way his danger sense was reacting, he would say that they were rather high ranking SOLDIERs. So the best option was to play along, for now.

"My name is Vincent. Vincent Valentine. I was sealed into this coffin by Hojo after he'd finished his experiments on me. Since I couldn't open it myself I drifted into a hibernating sleep. Which year do we have now?"

The blonde boy told him the date and he shook his head in astonishment.

"Twenty-five years. I've been asleep for twenty-five years!"

Something seemed to click in the redheads head.

"Wait a minute! You say your name is Vincent Valentine. And you have been here for 25 years?"

He nodded.

"You are 'Silent Death' Valentine!"

The boy looked at him with admiration.

He frowned at the old nickname. Even after such a long time he couldn't get away from it.

"You know of him?"

The silverhaired one looked at him, speculating.

"Know of him? Damnit Seph, he's a Legend! He was the best leader the Turks ever had, the best Turk ever! Like every SOLDIER hopes to be as good as you or your bro', every Turk tries to become as good as him! 'Silent Death' has become a title of honor, but no Turk has been able to gain it, so far. Tseng is closest to gaining it, but even he will need two or three years till he's good enough to try for it."

The boy frowned for a moment before he continued.

"Silent Death Valentine himself vanished 25 years ago and was assumed dead along with several SOLDIERs and several civilian members of ShinRa. He was guarding a top secret experiment at the time, I think."

Vincent sighed and stood up, walked to the coffin in the upper left corner.

"Bennett O'Shear, SOLDIER second class, 27 years old. He was the first to go. He lasted one and a half weeks in Hojo's little experiment, before his cells turned against himself."

The upper right corner.

Skylas Cheng, SOLDIER second class, 30 years old. He lasted two weeks."

The lower right corner.

"Marius Irare, SOLDIER second class, 25 years old. He lived for twenty-one days."

The lower left corner.

"Lux T'denum, SOLDIER third class, 21 years old. He was the bravest of them all. Hojo had done everything right and all he needed was the last injection to finish his project. Lux decided to end it his way. I don't know how, but he managed to get free and to a weapon. He decapitated himself."

His hand slid over the dusty surface of Lux's last resting place. For a moment he soaked in the silence before continuing.

"I was the last one left. He made sure nothing could interfere, that time. It worked like he had predicted, but then he'd a problem. He knew as soon as he let me go I would kill him and take my children out of this hell. Hojo couldn't allow this to happen, so he sealed me into this coffin. I think he hoped I would die or go insane."

He had wandered over to his place of rest for the last 25 years. It seemed so unreal now. He bend down and reclaimed his gun that had laid at his side for so long. It was time to finish what he'd tried to do such long time ago. Twenty-five years. That meant that he was 52 years now and his boys... his boys were 25 now. He had missed so much of their life already. As soon as he'd killed the beast in human guise that was Hojo he would search for them. He owed it to them.

A hand was placed on his shoulder. He looked up to find the silverhaired man next to him.

"Tell us more about the project you were guarding."

Vincent closet his eyes and sighed. He owed it to them, they had released him.

And so he told him how an archaeological team had found a two thousand year old creature, preserved in the eternal ice of the Northern Crater. How they assumed that it was an ancient, a Cetra and how it was decided to infuse an unborn child with the cells of that being.

How one of the scientists, one Lucrecia DeVries volunteered to carry the child. And about the problems they had finding the perfect male donor.

"To his dismay Hojo was unsuitable, his spermcount to low and his body and DNA contaminated with dangerous substances. Gast refused, claiming that his DNA was not good enough for the project, but we all knew that he wanted to remain faithful to his wife. The scientist decided that taking the sperm of a SOLDIER was to risky, with all the Mako they were exposed. And finally they choose me."

He smiled as he lost himself in the memories.

"I still know how I met her the first time. She was to young and shy and beautiful."

Vincent sighed.

"The scientist had planned everything out, had said that they had thought of everything. They thought of everything, but one thing: they never expected Lucrecia and me to fall in love. But how could I not? She was perfect, a mind sharp as steel in a body that only looked fragile, but wasn't.

"When we found out that she was pregnant, we wanted to leave the project, but by the time we were able to speak with Gast, his assistant, Hojo, had already infused her with the Jenova-Cells. The egg had split in result, had started to work the Jenova-DNA into their own gnome and now the children needed the infusions or they would die. So we continued."

He hung his head as he remembered the final day.

"She went in labour too early, more than a month too soon. Everything was happening so fast. Scientists running around and her screams audible in the entire complex. Lucrecia had been weakened by the infusions, her body couldn't handle the Jenova-Cells. She died after having given birth to the twins.

"Then everything happened so fast. Gast's wife had a miscarriage and he left to be with her. Hojo remained, in charge of everything. I had returned from Lu's favourite place, having buried her there and demanded to see my children. He refused. We had a fight and several others got involved. That night Hojo gassed our rooms. I don't know what he did with the civilians, but the SOLDIERs that had taken my side are lying here, hidden away by the man that murdered them."

"You are going to search for your sons, are you?"

The shy blonde asked, bringing him back to reality.

He nodded.

"How will you do that? I mean, its been 25 years for Holys sake!"

"I will find them! Daniel Gast is a good scientist, but he's lousy at protecting his data. All I need to do is hack his computer to find out what happened with my children."

"Professor Gast died 17 years ago, his records were sealed and his data given to the new head of the science department."

The voice of the silvermaned man was cool and almost monotone.

"And even if you find the location of your sons, how do you plan to make them believe you? DNA-tests are out of question, they were obviously manipulated on the cellular and DNA level before being born and your own DNA has been affected by the experiments done to you."

Vincent stilled for a moment.

"That might be true, but there is something both of my children have, a small oddity of my bloodline."

He used both his human hand and the golden claw Hojo had gifted him with to sweep the hair from behind his left ear. Then he turned his head.

Right behind the shell of his left ear there was a birthmark, normally covered by the flowing hair. A birthmark in shape of a five-pointed star, not bigger than half an inch in diameter.

"I am from the Etowa-ru[1] clan, of the Hokushin[2] line to be exact. Every male of my families bloodline has this birthmark, my father, brother, uncles and cousins. My sons have it, too. When I became a Turk, I had to give up my family-name and identity, but as long I carry the Hokushin star of the Etowa-ru clan I will always be welcome at home."

***

He'd seen enough, heard enough.

Alexander had watched the man interacting with the small group like a tactician a chess game, had played with the pieces of information he gained like they were stones on a Go board.

The man, this Vincent Valentine was speaking the truth, everything was fitting together. And now he was having the evidence he needed to confirm his conclusion.

Silently he dropped the illusion and stepped out of the shadows.

*He speaks the truth, Seph.*

*But can we trust him, Xand?*

*I monitored his heart-rate and breathing when he spoke of ShinRa and Hojo. His hatred for Hojo is equal to ours. And he really loves his children. I think that it is worth the risk.*

*Then let's do it.*

"You will not need to search any further, Mr Valentine."

Alexander stepped forwards and twisted his braid aside, to uncover the small birthmark behind his ear. His brother was using a single sweeping gesture, to free the patch of skin from its silver hideout.

"As you can see, my brother and I both carry the star."

***

When HE stepped seemingly out of nowhere, Vincent's heart started racing. It was HIM. The one he'd believed to be an illusion. But he obviously wasn't.

He stopped next to the man with the silver hair and the similarities between the two answered all his questions, before he could ask them.

'Mine... My children... my sons... '

His mind was singing.

~My cubs~

Came from the corner of his mind where the demons lived, but he was to happy to silence them.

For they were here. Tall and strong and warriors in their own right, but still... they were his sons.

And when they presented him with the star, the evidence, he did something he hadn't done in a long time.

He sat down on his closed coffin and then...

Then Damarikomu Hokushin a.k.a. Vincent Valentine wept.

***

She was close. So close, that she could almost taste it. One more day, maybe two, and she was there. And then humans would learn the true meaning of fear.

tbc

[1] Etowa-ru: Japanese for Star

[2] Hokushin: Japanese for North-Star

[3] Damarikomu: Japanese for 'to sink into silence'