Wow I've just been having a burst of creativity lately. I had so many ideas for this fic, and you guys don't know how much I just want to skip forward and reveal everything I'm planning! But I must be patient... this chapter's a BIGGY. It is vital to the whole story, and is going to lead to some much needed action in the next chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Final Fintasy 7 characters or plotlines
Read on!...
P.S. I edited this...lol. I know before I said I was just too tired, but there were some glaring mistakes I had to fix. The story wasn't changed though so no worries.
P.P.S If you guys ever see any mistakes, don't hesitate to tell me cause I never seem to see them myself
The picture is far too big to look at kid. Your eyes won't open wide enough
and you are constantly surrounded by that swirling stream of what is and what was.
Well, we've all made our predictions but the truth still isn't out.
So if you want to see the future, go stare into a cloud.
And keep trying to find your way out of that maze of memories.
It all sort of looks familiar, but then you get up close and it's different. clearly.
Each time you turn a corner, you are right back to where you were
and your only hope is that forgetting might make a door appear.
Bright Eyes; The Big Picture
---666---
Vincent was delirious.
Engulfed in darkness, he groaned and rolled his head back and forth.
The broken man could see monsters in every corner of the dismal room.
Shadows grinning maliciously, groping for something with long bloodied claws.
Tears filled his eyes and he babbled no sequentially between sobs.
"So sorry...dead...didn't mean to... beautiful...so bright...an angel"
He began to twitch spastically and his wild hair fell from his face as he cried in distress.
"Shinra... me, a Turk?...evil...I'm evil... Hojo...war...Sephiroth...my beloved Lucrecia...coward...Mitch... glowing...dead...should have been me..."
His movement limited by the restraints, he clenched his fists so tight blood oozed from his palms.
"Fire...everyone's gone...father...Valentine...MOTHER!"
He screamed in agony.
"MOTHER! MOTHER! I'd never leave you! I'm so sorry, mother! I will stay with you forever! Don't cry mother... Don't cry..."
He wept bitterly, and lost consciousness.
---666---
Lucrecia could just see the circles beneath her big blue eyes before she sneezed into the mirror.
She gigged at the slightly warped vision now reflected and lifted her pink handkerchief, carefully wiping off the silvery surface.
"Being sick sucks," she pouted "And I haven't seen Vincent in weeks! Agh stupid tutor and his stupid suits and stupid, stupid, um face."
The spacey blond didn't have the largest vocabulary, so usually reverted to the ever useful word "stupid" as a way to express herself when she was angry.
Lucrecia bit her lip leaned over to drop the soiled hanky into her garbage pail, only to catch her tiny ankle on the leg of her armoire and tumble onto satin sheets.
Deciding it must have been destiny, Lucrecia rolled around in the blankets until she looked like a frilly, pink sausage covered with unicorns and daisies.
Completely immobile, the strange girl gazed across the room at her mirror without really looking into it and let her mind wander, as it often did.
She had just seen Vincent for the first time in three months, and was upset by the fact she had spent practically no time with him. After five visits to the beach with no appearance made by the raven haired boy, she had decided to take matters into her own hands.
Even though she was forbidden to go to the Ariface manor, Lucrecia could see no other option. So earlier that day, she concocted a plan.
After school was over, she sneakily told her brother that she was meeting her friend at the park for a school project, and would be home later that night. Jared had grunted in response, and taking it as an affirmative reply, Lucrecia skipped her merry way to Vincent's house.
Slightly in awe of how gigantic the mansion was, Lucrecia slammed the big golden knocker against the door. Delighted by the echoing sound it produced, she knocked them against the door again and again until a very annoyed maid answered the door.
"What do you want?"she snarled, glaring down at Lucrecia.
"Um well you see I wanted," A little frazzled, Lucrecia tried in vain to remember why she was at this place, having forgotten in her enthusiasm over the knockers. " I…my! You have such cute ears!"
The maid gave her a slightly shocked look and covered her lobes saying, " My ears?"
Lucrecia's eyes lit up as she leaned forward to get a closer look and said, " Oh yes! They're so perfectly round! They're just like mouse ears!… no not so big as mouse ears…. No bear ears! Just like bear ears, all round and furry!"
Brimming with interest Lucrecia examined the "bear ears" of the progressively angrier and angrier woman, until she was saved from receiving a slap in the face by the arrival of Eris Ariface.
The gorgeous woman pushed the maid out of the way and said, "Lucrecia Auschwitz, right? I hope you're not here on orders of you mother."
At Vincent's mother's appearance Lucrecia's memory was jolted and she quickly replied, " Oh no, no my mom has no idea I'm here! In fact I had to make up a story to get here!"
She stood nodding very seriously until Eris's deadpan reply, "Well then why are you here?"
"Oh to see Vincent of course! You see he hasn't been there lately when I go to the beach at night, and usually he is cause usually we meet there and talk a long time until really late at night, and I remember last time we found a crab and I named him Joseph cause he looks like the man Joseph who fixed the door in my room last month."
She was greeted with dumbfounded stares from both maid and mother, and wondered idly if she should try to talk less with people she had just met. Lucrecia had a problem of saying whatever was on her mind whether it be her darkest secrets or the color of the bug she saw three weeks ago. Most of the time it was harmless though it sort of freaked people out, but sometimes her tendency to babble got her in trouble.
Eris was looking at her with an indecipherable expression on her face. Her eyes had a sort of faraway look, and her hands were shaking spastically at her sides. Lucrecia thought she could almost see hatred in the beautiful woman's expression, but dismissed this thought when Eris smiled widely and wrapped her arm around Lucrecia's shoulder crying, "Welcome, welcome then! You are such a charming girl! Vincent is in the middle of a lesson with his tutor, but I'm sure they won't mind you joining them, yes?"
"No I'm sure Vincent won't! In fact I'm pretty sure he likes me, but don't tell anyone cause I'm not sure."
Eris's grip on Lucrecia's shoulder tightened and she said in a strained voice, "Is that so?… Tell me, what do you and Vincent talk about?"
Lucrecia grinned. She liked Vincent's mother! So friendly!
"Oh normal stuff I guess. We talk about our families, and what we want to do when we're old. I want to be scientist cause I really like bugs and plants and stuff like that. Vincent says he wants to move to Midgar and be a mercenary cause he feels trapped here cause everyone's mean to him. I told him that I think moving to Midgar's a good idea cause I wanna go there to and be a scientist for that Shinra company, and he said we could go together!"
Eris's breathing came out harsher and harsher during this speech and at the end Lucrecia glanced at her, fearing for the woman's life.
Eris was using her free hand to grasp tightly at the scalp of her head, and her lips were trembling. Raven hair concealed the woman's face and Lucrecia was just about to ask if something was wrong, when they came upon large double doors and Eris croaked, "In there" and fled.
Watching the woman as she rushed off, the girl thought she almost looked like some wildanimal leaping after it's prey. Lucrecia pressed her palm against her forehead and groaned, "I bet I said too much."
Trying to recount what she had said that might upset Vincent's mother, Lucrecia distractedly pushed the doors open.
"Vincent! Don't be stupid! Never look at your opponent's arms or legs waiting for the attack! You need to concentrate on the center of the body, where all movements are betrayed!"
Lucrecia was very scared when she saw the scene spread before her. A very tall man in an orange plaid suit that clashed horribly with his red hair, was holding Vincent by the ear and steadily shaking him with it.
"Nooo don't hurt him!" Lucrecia cried, throwing herself at the aggressor, "Get away you mean old man!"
The man and Lucrecia tumbled to the floor in a flurry of limbs.
On the hardwood floor Lucrecia was meet by an earnest gaze from the redhead, who said,"Do I really look old?"
Lucrecia blushed at his scrutinizing gaze and said, "No I lied, you're pretty cute actually."
" Jax get off her right now!"
Came Vincent's angry voice, but there was no need for this interjection since Jax leapt gleefully from the floor and whooped.
"I knew it all along! No woman can resist the sexiness that is... Jax!"
Lucrecia grinned, deciding she liked this guy, then remember he had been attacking Vincent.
She turned to Vincent who was glaring hotly at her and said, "Who's this guy?"
Vincent rolled his eyes and grumbled."My tutor."
" Why was your tutor hurting you?"
"Cause he's training me in fighting and he's a fucking psycho, that's why."
Jax slapped him across the face, which was quite a feat since he was still dancing merrily and sang, "No swearing, Vin Vin!"
" Shut up! I hate you!"
"Please, you're just jealous cause your girlfriend thinks I'm cuter than you!"
" No I'm not! I just…"
"Is that why you haven't been visiting?" Lucrecia interrupted, "Cause you're training?"
"Yeah." Vincent replied apologetically, looking down at his shoes, " I'm really sorry I didn't tell you."
Lucrecia's face lit up. She had been afraid that Vincent wasn't coming because he didn't like her.
Vincent smiled at her happy look, and Lucrecia realized that he almost never smiled. All the time she had known Vincent she had only seen him truly smile about a dozen times, not counting smirks, and he had laughed even less. It made her sad that he always went around with that look of apathy on his face. His slanted eyes sometimes had a lazy look to them… cold somehow.
When they looked that way they reminded Lucrecia of Vincent's mother, and for some reason she didn't feel that was a good thing.
Vincent began to frown at the serious look gracing Lucrecia's countenance, so she raised her outstretched hands to Vincent's face and pulled his cheeks into a smile.
Pulling him close she said earnestly,
"Vincent I want you to be happy. Always smiling like this, understand?"
They stood eye to eye, their gaze interlocked until they both broke out in laughter.
Lucrecia felt sort of special that she was one of the few people who could make Vincent laugh.
A long, scarred hand reached between them and Jax grasped Lucrecia by the shoulder and began to lead her away as he said, "Yes, darling, as much as we enjoyed this little visit, me and your boyfriend still have many things to discuss and seeing as you are very distracting I'm afraid I must ask you to leave. Don't take it personally, I'm sure you will have many other occasions to talk to Vincent when he is not in the middle of training."
"Oh I'm sorry!" Lucrecia replied holding her hand in front of her mouth, "I forgot you guys were training! I need to go home anyways, or mom'll be worried. You don't need to show me the way out or anything, I can figure it out!"
She swiftly ducked under Jax's arm, turned and gave Vincent a kiss on the cheek, then hightailed her way out the door.
She had sprinted all the way home and was now in her room musing over the happenings of the day.
Lucrecia unrolled herself from the blanket and said to her mirror, "I can't wait to go to Vincent's house again! It's way more interesting there!"
Then she left to go and bug her big brother.
---666---
Eris stood in her room gasping for air.
Wreckage surrounded her, but she couldn't since her vision was clouded with unfounded rage.
After leaving Lucrecia, Eris had calmly entered her bedroom and ripped apart anything she could get her hands on.
Her curtains hung in shreds, and bits of her expensive clothing and blankets were strewn all about the room. The varnished cupboards had long scratches across them, inflicted by Eris's own fingernails, and the mirror over her armoire had been shattered. In the shards of glass could be seen the dark haired woman reflected a hundredfold.
Blood streaked down her cheeks, from where her ripped fingernails had touched her face, making it look as if she was crying crison tears. But Eris wasn't crying, she wasn't even thinking rationally enough to cry. Her mind was like the shards of the mirror.
Splintered into pieces.
"That little bitch," she whispered in a foreign, croaking voice, "fucking whore."
Eris curled up on the ground, heedless of the sharp glass and rocked her self back and forth.
"Vincent's leaving. He's leaving. To be a soldier."
She rocked faster.
"Leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving his mommy to go to the city. Leaving to be a killer. Leaving to be in danger and get hurt, I just know he'll get hurt."
Her eyes darted back and forth like a stalked animal.
"What will I do without him?" she whined, "What will I do? This has all been for him! I only live for him! Why? Why would he ever want to leave me?"
Brimming in sorrow, she screamed and moaned throwing herself around the room as if she were in the throes of death, beating her knuckles bloody against the wall. Then she slumped into the corner, her hair shadowing her face and whispered pathetically,
"Why would he leave me?"
Suddenly, she snapped her head up and her lips twisted into an animalistic grin as she gazed at some chimera, plaguing her consciousness.
She had come to a realization. It was like a dawn in her mind, and promised hope once again if only she followed it.
She had to kill Lucrecia
Lucrecia was the one who wanted to go to Midgar. Eris was sure that Vincent would never have wanted to leave her if that whore had not seduced himinto it. Hislogic was simply clouded by that girl's façade of innocence and was blinded from the truth.
Eris's whole body twitched as she nodded to herself and shakily stood up.
"While I'm at it, " she croaked, "Why not kill her whole family too? Why not the whole town? They're all the reason for Vincent's unhappiness. I'll hurt them for hurting him. I'll kill them, murder them, slice them all into little pieces!"
The woman laughed. It sounded alien, unnatural as it bounced eirily off the walls of her room.
Eris left the room with one thought echoing over and over in her depraved mind.
Kill Lucrecia.
---666---
As soon as Lucrecia exited the room, Jax ushered Vincent over to a table and they both sat down.
Jax was uncharacteristically somber as he said to Vincent, "You have been doing an amazing in the development of both your educational and physical skills. I'm very impressed."
Vincent didn't know what to say to this. Jax had never complimented him before.
He nervously replied, "Um, thank you."
"Yes, now I have something rather shocking to tell you."
"Shocking?"
"Yes, you see I didn't just come here for the tutoring job. I came here because I wanted to meet you, because I made a promise to someone a long time ago to find you."
Vincent was dumbfounded. He stared at the enigmatic man and said incredulously, "A promise to someone that you'd find me? That doesn't make any sense. The only people I know in the world live in this town. You're pulling my leg Jax, stop it."
Jax rubbed his scar and said, "I wish I was, Vincent... I wish I was... I've been concealing who I truly am from you this whole time. I thought I should wait until I'd given you some training and gotten to know you before I gave you such disturbing information."
Angrily Vincent said, "Well why don't you tell me? Stop dancing around what you're gonna say and just say it? Who are you anyways Jax? I don't think you're just another average tutor."
"I'm not."
"Well?"
"Vincent, you have to promise to remain calm when I tell you this. The situation here hangs in a very precarious balance, and I don't want you to upset a volatile individual involved. Essentially, your mother."
"My mother?"
"Yes… you see Vincent, I'm really the leader of an organization called the Turks. They are a group of choice individuals recruited by Shinra."
"Shinra… that big company in Midgar? The one that's started all the Mako production?"
"Precisely, on the surface they say we are hired to scout out new members for SOLDIER, but in fact we're more like assassins. We stop Shinra's enemies, and carry out other underhanded dealings to keep Shinra's reputation clean."
"I don't get it… what's this have to do with me?"
"I'm coming to that, see when I was first recruited there was a very powerful man leading the Turks. He was in fact the very first member, practically the founder of our group. He was amazing with his pistol and an incredible marksman, while at the same time he was a great strategist and we couldn't have asked for a better leader. He wasthe most brilliant man I have ever met."
There was admiration in Jax's eyes like Vincent had never seen before, intrigued he queried, "What happened to him?"
"Well for many years I fought alongside this man. We became the best of friends, and were practically unbeatable. Then the man met a woman, and abruptly left the Turks without a single look back. We were all incredibly surprised. I mean, he was the definition of a devoted worker, but he was completely entranced by this woman. Now, I don't know what happened between them, but many years later I was awoken in the middle of the night to find him on my porch, terribly wounded. I took him inside and bandaged him up best I could. He was feverish and all he would say was, 'She took him, she took my only son.'
Vincent's stomach dropped, and suddenly he would have given anything to not be listening to that story.
"I went back to sleep and in the morning he was gone, only leaving a note behind. This is the note."
Jax pulled a weathered piece of paper, and handed it over to Vincent who held it up with trembling fingers.
"Jax, I don't think I'll be living that much longer. Something happened to her... she became a monster. I couldn't stop her, and now I fear that I am finally going to die. I don't have many regrets, just one. That my only son should be left all alone in the clutches of a mad woman. I want you to find him for me. Find him and take him back with you, tell him who his real father is. The woman's name is Eris Ariface. Please find her and bring my son back. Your friend, Skyler Valentine."
Vincent numbly read aloud. He couldn't think straight.
A madwoman? Valentine? He didn't understand. He didn't want to understand.
"Jax?" he whispered pleadingly, "Tell me what does this mean? It can't be true… can it?"
"It is," Jax replied his yellow eyes sympathetic, "Your real father was a Turk by the name Skyler Valentine, from whom your mother stole you when you were merely an infant. The man whom you have always thought to be your father is a fake."
Vincent slumped against his chair and tried to process what was being told to him.
"My name is… Vincent Valentine."
Shocked? Awed? Probably not cause everyone knows he's not Vincent Ariface. The next chapters of EPIC proportions so keep your eye out for it. It will ultimately change the whole setting of this fic.
Review pretty please!