.9.
Aeris arrived back in Nibelheim three days later. Inside the car Tseng had left for her was a plane ticket, first class, to the Golden Saucer in the Middle Western continent. Along with the ticket were credit cards with an impressive limit all bearing the name Ris Borough, an additional change of clothing—almost identical to the garments she currently wore that were in a sad state from her fall—and credentials for Ris Borough, all of them giving her considerable influential standing. What amused her the most about these was the identification card with a fake but startlingly accurate photo of herself. Beside her unsmiling visage was the ShinRa corporate logo, and the words beneath stated that she was a "Level 1 Appropriations and Policy Enactor". In plain terms, she was now a temporary member of the Turks.
Being one, she discovered over the course of her short journey, had its definite benefits. One look at her new ID made people, it seemed, nervous. She'd forgone Tseng's advice about getting out of the city and had instead headed directly to Midgar's international airport, where after flashing her credentials to the right people she'd been almost instantly ushered into the first class coach of what turned out to be one of ShinRa's private jets. The flight passed with not a single living soul—other than the flight attendant—setting foot inside. Her reasons for not leaving the city as Tseng had suggested were simple: ShinRa would be flexing every muscle it could in order to locate her. They would not be expecting her to have the same level of clearance as the Turks and therefore using their methods of transportation in order to flee. Or so she hoped. But upon disembarking and entering the Golden Saucer proper, she passed through the security checkpoints without hassle and was told to "have a nice stay" by several guards and employees that caught sight of her new ID.
She headed immediately for Nibelheim, renting a buggy as well as buying some provisions with the credit provided to her by the Turks. She'd changed before leaving Midgar into the new clothing, finding the ensemble—worked, pliable dark leather with blacked out buckles lining the arms, legs and waist to which all manners of holsters and sheaths could be affixed—to be satisfactory. Before she'd left the safe house she'd done as Tseng suggested and set about arming herself. He'd been right—the wall closet housed many things she liked. She took from the small armory a military issue sniper rifle as a replacement for the one she'd left in Nibelheim as well as a 12 gauge tactical shotgun with a quick load mechanism. The semiautomatic handguns she'd brought into ShinRa Inc. headquarters hadn't survived the fall very well, and so she took a new set from the closet—both were 9 millimetre and black in color. Like the handguns, the blade she wore in a sheath along her spine hadn't fared well after her dive from thirty-plus floors. She took a replacement 12 inch blade, which was longer than what she preferred but was still better than nothing; her other weapons were still intact. Once she'd finalized her selection, she chose appropriate holsters and carrying cases and made sure she'd secured a sufficient amount of ammunition before leaving the safe house. She'd been mildly concerned that boarding a plane with that much firepower would be an issue, but she'd also banked on the fact that her new identity—Ris Borough the Turk—would give her greater allowances, and she had been correct. The airport officials and security hadn't even batted an eye at the arsenal she brought with her through the checkpoints, instead acting as though her luggage consisted of common toiletries and nothing more.
It wasn't a long drive to Nibelheim, but she went out of her way to avoid main roadways, instead taking side roads and paths made for things other than vehicles. It was early evening when she arrived once more in the small town; she parked the buggy a kilometre from the town proper, concealing it as best she could within a large copse of trees, and walked the rest of the way. The mansion was the most prominent part of the town, looming above the rest of the buildings, casting an ominous shadow in the coming dusk and reminding her unpleasantly of how badly she had failed in her attempt to defeat Sephiroth. She entered the town just as the sun set and the streetlights flickered to life. The streets weren't deserted, but she still made her way through side paths and alleys, knowing that after the earlier disaster there was more than likely an increased ShinRa presence somewhere in town. She knew that her battle with Sephiroth on the thirty-seventh floor had been caught on tape—she'd seen the security cameras. Her face was now known and anonymity was no longer in her favour, which was unfortunate; it was easier, far easier, to do what she had to do as an unknown.
There was, as she'd expected, security posted at the entrance to the mansion; a pair of blue uniformed guards stood on either side of the door, their rifles shouldered and their voices carrying softly in the still of dusk as they conversed with each other. As she'd passed through town she'd caught sight of other members of ShinRa's military as well, walking two abreast in the streets. Her time here, it seemed, was going to have to be spent in the quickest and most cautious manner possible. She ghosted around the mansion perimeter, sticking within the shadows of the forest and weaving throughout the scattered trees and over fallen logs with a stealth made intrinsic by her connection with the Ancient ones. The backside of the mansion was devoid of any ShinRa presence, but it was still with great wariness that slipped forth from the forest and approached the building. The main floor had an abundance of windows, and a great deal of them looked out upon the forests that surrounded both the village and the mountains that loomed so imposing in the distance; Aeris approached one of the windows in a crouching crawl, keeping low to the ground. The window itself was no more than the shattered remnants of a pane, jagged fingers of glass still attached to the sill. Carefully Aeris brushed these shards aside, muffling the gentle tinkling they made with her gloved hands, before she gripped the top of the frame and hoisted herself through. She became absolutely still once inside, poised in a ready crouch on the sill as she listened with all intentness for any sign that her entrance had been noticed. Only heavy stillness met her ears, and after another moment she slipped down from the sill and landed softly on her feet.
She was in the far corner of the mansion's expansive foyer, beneath the square spiral of the staircase that led first to a large landing and then to the second floor. Before beginning to move she checked her arsenal—she was armed with the shotgun in a holster strapped tight against her right thigh and the semiautomatics at her hips, having forgone any other weapons and leaving them locked securely in the buggy. Luck prevailing, she would have no use for firepower, but she knew better than to trust something as fickle as luck. It was then that Aeris began to move in a quick, purposeful tread that led her out into the open before taking her up the stairs. She paused at intervals, listening but able only to hear quiet traces of the guards outside the main door. When she reached the second floor she began her search in earnest, moving from room to room in an attempt to find the entrance to the basement. It was in the north-easternmost room where she found it; after staring at for long moments at a wall that curved outwards slightly she saw the faint outline of the door. It took her only minutes after that to locate the hidden catch, and the door slid open with a rumble that told of many years of since its last use. Aeris moved out of the room and to the landing to see if the opening of the door had attracted attention, but like before all was silent within the mansion, and so she returned to the entrance she had just found.
The wall had been curved, she discovered, because it housed within it a spiral staircase that descended down into darkened depths of which the bottom she could not see. From an inner pocket she withdrew a light stick; after shaking it and cracking the inner tube she stepped through the door and held it aloft in order to better illuminate the hidden passage. The yellow light showed that the staircase was in a bad state of disrepair—the wooden steps were broken in places and missing entirely in others. Even with the light she could see nothing of the bottom, and after a moment of deliberation she began to move carefully downwards. The going was almost painfully slow as she found her way one step at a time, unwilling to forego caution and wind up plunging however far it was to the bottom; one big fall was, she mused with grim humor, enough to last her a lifetime. By the time she stepped off the last stair onto a thick stone floor that glistened with moist moss she had lost all track of time and could only guess how long the journey from the top floor of the mansion to its basement had taken her.
She stood now within a corridor made entirely of stone blocks. Thick wooden beams ran the width of the ceiling, and wide, elaborate spider webs made heavy with dust draped from them in almost every corner. Aeris began forward slowly, holding the light stick out before her so that her path was revealed somewhat. The air was heavy, dank and cold, and there were other scents within that she couldn't place. After a few minutes, her path had brought her to a fork. To the left there was a plain wooden door set into the corridor wall and to the right an open archway that led to a room entirely cloaked in shadow. She opted to take the left path, hand closing around the badly rusted knob of the door and turning it. The door itself refused to open without assistance, and so after several moments of pushing she stepped back and delivered a quick, fierce kick. The door flew inwards with the screech of hinges rendered useless by time, and holding the light stick aloft she stepped into the room beyond. It was very small and barren, but for one single thing: a coffin lay atop a waist-high stone slab, the polished mahogany of the wood gleaming in the unnatural yellow light. And Aeris knew immediately what lay within—the Ancient ones, who had been for the most part silent since she'd entered the mansion, were now swirling softly, telling her that something alive was housed in this room. She took hold of the lid, fingers sliding a bit over the smooth surface, and lifted only to find it was much heavier than she'd anticipated. She wedged the light stick in a crack between two stones in the wall and then gripped the lid with two hands and heaved upwards. It came open suddenly and silently, and she caught a glimpse of red and black within before, in a blur of movement, something caught her by the throat.
Eyes were staring directly into her own, devoid of anything recognizable, and even in the artificial light she could tell they were an unusual crimson color. The fingers wrapped around her neck were not made of flesh and bone and were in fact metal that glinted bronze; she could feel in them a strength not human, and so she said slowly in a voice made thin by the grip on her throat, "I'm not a threat."
No expression altered the face before hers with skin so pale it almost glowed, but something flickered in the depths of the strange eyes. Slowly the hold on her loosened, the metallic hand falling away, and she took the two steps she needed to be safely out of reach before studying the man she was certain to be Vincent Valentine. Upon the opening of the coffin he had shifted with a speed that rivalled her own so that he was upright on one knee, affording him better leverage when he'd caught hold of her. He wore clothing similar to her own, dark leather with straps and buckles to attach weapon sheaths and holsters to. A red cloak with a high, wide collar covered both shoulders, fell down his back and pooled over the side of the coffin, tattered and torn at the end. A band of red cloth decorated his brow, and black hair of different lengths, the longest reaching the middle of his back, fell around his face and shoulders. The dossier she had appropriated from ShinRa had contained pictures of him, but he had looked much different in them, clad in dark blue business suits with his hair much shorter. The face—as implacable as the stone surrounding them—was exactly the same, which was somewhat strange considering the dossier had been compiled some twenty years earlier.
She realized a moment later that nothing had changed about Vincent Valentine during the twenty years since last he'd been in ShinRa's employee. His physical form was identical to what it had been back then, and Aeris recalled all she'd read in the folder while on the plane from Midgar. Though the information within had been largely incomplete, she had been able to glean that Valentine had undergone a process where he was exposed to cells from what the files referred to as "the entity" and which Aeris knew to be Jenova. Valentine's exposure was reported to be the first experimental trial, and according to what she had read, had been deemed a failure. In the years that followed, the process must have been perfected and honed, for Sephiroth was a testament to that fact …
She shook her head slightly, bringing herself back from the stored information in her mind. The man before her had remained silent during her inspection, unblinking eyes regarding her in much the same manner. She said then, "Vincent Valentine?"
When he spoke, his voice—deep and sonorous—was husky as though unused for a very long time. "I've been known as such, yes." He paused, a slight furrow appearing between his dark brows. "Who asks?"
"Call me Aeris."
"That name is not familiar."
"It wouldn't be. We've never met before." She watched as he frowned, and the expression itself was faint, as though it was an echo of something he had once been able to do completely.
"You came upon me by chance?"
"No," she said, and his face smoothed abruptly until it was completely unreadable again. She knew instinctively that her reply had made him suspicious. "Rufus ShinRa suggested I find you," she told him carefully.
One of his eyebrows lifted a miniscule difference and he tilted his head, a lock of his dark hair obscuring one eye. "Rufus would not do such a thing lightly." He fell silent, gaze turning inward as though considering something. Aeris waited patiently for him to reach whatever decision it was he was currently debating. Finally he continued, "Why have you come?"
She said without preamble, "I need to know the specifics of what was done to you."
"Done to me?" He echoed. The fingers of his metal hand, draped across his knee, flexed slightly. "It was my damnation. My punishment, if you will, for trying to stop something that could not be stopped." His eyes had centered on the floor, but she knew he was seeing something in memory, some ghost from the past. He asked without looking at her, "Why would you need to know such things?"
She contemplated only for a moment lying to him, but decided truth would serve her best; she had the distinct feeling that he would know a lie, regardless. "Because I've been sent to kill Sephiroth, and in order to do so I need to know exactly what he is."
His eyes flicked to her then, and she read in them genuine surprise. "That is a task not easily done."
Her smile was unhappy. "So I've noticed."
"You have already tried." He said, reading her expression.
"A bullet through the heart."
"And he survived." It was more statement than question, and when she nodded it was he that smiled, a faint curving of the lips that was mirthless. When he spoke next his voice was soft, and she had the sense he spoke mostly to himself. "So Hojo's ultimate experiment was a success, after all …"
"What was done to him—was it similar to what was done to you?"
He made a sound that could have been a laugh and shook his head but didn't answer her question. Instead he stared hard at her for a moment, as though attempting to discern whether or not to take her claim seriously. He rose to his feet then and stepped down out of the coffin easily, saying only, "Come," as he brushed past her. After hastily grabbing the light stick, she turned and followed him out of the small room back out into the corridor and into the other room through the archway. The yellow light she held revealed that they stood now in what appeared to be a makeshift laboratory; equipment similar to that she had seen in the ShinRa lab stood in two opposite corners, covered in thick layers of dust and grime. A large wooden desk was situated between them, and its surface was almost entirely covered by a litter of books and papers made brittle and faded from the passage of time. There was a passage in the wall opposite the desk that led to another small room; the passage was lined completely with shelves upon shelves of books, and the shelves lined the walls of the other room, as well. There was an archaic lantern lying on its side on the floor near the archway they had entered through, and as Aeris looked about their surroundings Vincent righted it and lit the wick with a spark of flame that issued forth from one gloved fingertip. Lifting the lantern, he came to stand beside Aeris, and pointed with his metal hand to a man-sized, cylindrical glass tank behind the desk.
"That," he said, his quiet voice almost too loud in the heavy stillness that occupied the area in which they stood, "is how I became something other than a man."
Aeris said nothing but approached the tank, noting how there were various cables, hoses and lines running from it to other pieces of equipment she couldn't identify. There were monitors set into a control panel, and some of them she recognized as heart rate and breathing gauges. As she inspected the device, Vincent began to speak again.
"After my … misconduct, I was subdued and brought here. Hojo needed a subject to which he could conduct his experiments on, and there were not many in the way of volunteers. My disgrace made me an unwilling candidate, and there was an enmity between us that made him most eager to proceed with me as a subject."
Hearing and recognizing the distant anger in his voice, Aeris moved to the desk and perched on an uncluttered corner, listening with rapt attention as the man before her continued to speak. He took her place at the tank, running a metal finger down one side, tracing a path through the accumulation of dust. "It was realized that Professor Gast's discovery from the geological stratum, that which they called Jenova, carried within its being astounding physical and mental attributes. While Gast was content merely to observe and study, Hojo wanted to dissect and identify, to discern the entire workings of the creature. When Gast disappeared, Hojo became head of ShinRa's research facilities, and the President sanctioned further and more explorative research of Jenova. He was fascinated with the possibilities presented when considering a merger of mortal and immortal material—more specifically, what would occur should a human be exposed to the essence of Jenova."
Aeris watched as Vincent paced a path to another tank, this one smaller in size. "Hojo's wife was also a scientist under ShinRa employ, and like him she too worked on the Jenova Project. She became pregnant not long after Gast's disappearance, and Hojo took this occurrence as an opportunity to do what he had theorized about for so long. His wife was routinely injected with material from Jenova; it was thought the developing child would be directly affected by this. And when the child was born, Hojo's experiments were revealed to have succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams …"
"Sephiroth," Aeris whispered, aghast despite herself. She had known Sephiroth was tainted by Jenova, but the Ancients had been unable—or perhaps unwilling—to reveal exactly how he had become so.
Vincent nodded. "Yes."
"And you?"
The ghost of a sardonic smile momentarily flickered about his lips. "As I said earlier, my transformation was done as punishment. My life as a Turk had me dealing frequently with Hojo and the rest of his scientists, and so it was I met and came to care for his wife, Lucrezia. Whether my affection was returned I … do not know. But when Hojo began to inject her with Jenova cells, against her will, I stepped in to protest. My objections were ignored, of course, and Lucrezia herself loved her husband too much to protest. And so for my disobedience I was brought here and put under the unkind ministrations of the doctor … I was put in that tank and submerged in a fluidic mixture composed of the essence of mako and Jenova cells for a very long time. I cannot even tell you how long. The end product," He said, glancing at her and lifting his metal hand, "you see before you now."
"Are you—?" Aeris began to ask; anticipating her question, he interrupted her with the answer.
"Invulnerable, like Sephiroth? No. My abilities and senses are heightened far beyond those I had as a mortal man, but I can still be injured and, I suspect, even killed. I believe Sephiroth's resilience stems from the fact that he was exposed and tainted with Jenova when he was nothing more than a fetus. He is, in essence, comprised almost completely of Jenova."
Aeris was silent a short while, milling through these new bits of information. Even the Ancients had been unable to destroy the original form of Jenova—in the end they dismembered the creature and confined the pieces. How then was she to kill what was essentially the child of Jenova?
As though aware of what she was thinking, Vincent said, "If you meant what you said earlier—that you meant to kill Sephiroth—then I offer this: it was surmised by Hojo before he began his experiments that anything greatly exposed to Jenova would only maintain its strength if Jenova itself were stable and alive. The relationship itself would be something like that of host and parasite—if Jenova were to falter then the cells housed within the test subject would falter as well, weakening it."
"How," Aeris asked, speaking in part to herself, "would one kill Jenova?"
"That is something, I'm afraid, I do not know the answer to. But perhaps a hint lies within your heritage?"
Her eyes, which had been fixed unseeing on the ground before her, shot to his face. There was a something speculative in his regard, and he went on. "You are not human, no more so than I. It is an easy thing for me to see. There were rumors after Gast's disappearance that he had found one of the Ancients of legend, a sole surviving woman of that race …"
"My mother."
"I thought such. Though I can sense many things, I have never before come across anything like what you possess. If the stories were at all true, then was it not the Ancients that first defeated Jenova?"
"Defeated, yes, but were unable to eradicate."
"A dilemma," he said, and opened his mouth to say something further but abruptly stopped, eyes rolling skyward. A moment later he looked at her and she saw the almost unnoticeable change in his expression.
"We will not be alone much longer. Men are coming, many of them, and they are armed."
"ShinRa," Aeris said, and swore.
"I expect so." Even as he said this she heard from beyond the open archway the sound of many booted feet pounding down the stairs, heard the shouted commands and the crackle of radio static. Vincent walked to the arch and stood before it, glancing back at her with a raised eyebrow. "It has been a long time since I've tested my mettle against men with guns. I suppose I should thank you for the opportunity to do so again."
"I'm sorry," she said with feeling, sliding off the desk and removing the semiautomatics from their holsters.
"Do not be." He said, and withdrew from within the folds of his cloak a shotgun that looked almost antique in its appearance. "If ever there were a cause I would deem worthy of such an encounter, it would be this."
When he stepped out to meet the oncoming rush, she was right behind him.