Chapter Five: The Monster Vincent Valentine
The first instant he woke up, all Vincent Valentine could feel was pain. His stomach felt as though there were daggers dug deep within, cutting up his insides, his chest felt tight like it was hard to breath, and there felt like there were claws digging into his skin on his left arm just above his elbow. His eyes shot open and he howled in agony, rolling over and falling to a hard cold ground, causing even more pain to his stomach and chest.
He quickly shut his eyes, as they stung as though bees had gone to town on each of them. Without the use of his eyes, Vincent used his hands to feel around to try to figure out where he was. The first thing that the Turk realized was that he had no feeling in his left hand and, as he felt around, his left elbow felt even worse.
Deciding to see what had happened, he opened his eyes to small slits and glanced at his left arm. Seeing what was there, his eyes burst open once more, despite the intense stinging sensation. Starting just above his elbow was a grotesque bronze claw that stretched down and where his fingers once were now stood five monstrous claws.
Vincent felt like screaming once more, yelling at the top of his lungs, destroying everything in his sight, but he withheld it this time. He is a Turk, or was one, after all and, although he had an earlier moment of weakness, he would allow no more. After his earlier scream, he was surprised that his enemy wasn't here yet, when Vincent realized that he wasn't even sure who his enemy was yet.
Vincent closed his eyes to put aside the stinging sensation for a moment, then slowly opened them once more to see where he was. He instantly recognized the room as the laboratory for the Jenova Project, with its long test tubes which were currently empty, the library down a short hallway, and the experimentation table which he had just fallen from. Glancing around, he suddenly remembered all that had happened. His dear Lucrecia… Lucrecia giving birth to Sephiroth… then… then Hojo… shooting him… Vincent felt his blood beginning to boil with rage for the villainous scientist, undoubtedly the same scientist who had given him his new arm.
Vincent glared down at his arm again, then down at himself, to see for any more deformities. The first thing he realized was that he was wearing nothing but the black boxers he was wearing when Hojo had shot him, next he saw that there were incision cuts all across his stomach and chest, each being neatly stitched up. Vincent felt like screaming again and, again, he held it in. Since no one had yet showed up, he determined that he was lucky that no one had heard him screaming the first time, and he wouldn't dare risk it again.
Vincent then glanced up to the door when he saw something that, at first, he wasn't sure what it was. Long, black strands fell and covered his eyes. Vincent was completely confused until he realized that his hair had grown over and now reached well beyond his eyes, which was strange to him, since he had always kept his hair short and neat.
This knowledge made Vincent realize that he didn't know how long it had been since he had been shot. It could have been years, for all he knew, and the Shinra mansion could be long since abandoned, Hojo leaving him here to rot, never intending the Turk to wake up. Vincent ignored the thought instantly, realizing that he doesn't know and, no matter how long he thought about it, he wouldn't know nor would the information help him. What Vincent did know, however, was that he had to get out of here and get his revenge on Hojo.
This thought brought a sadistic grin to Vincent's face. Hojo had given him a fancy new claw and Vincent thought that it would only be right to show Hojo first hand how well he could use it. Vincent glanced down at the claw, no longer caring that his arm wasn't there, that he was now and forever deformed, his thoughts only on slaughtering Hojo.
Vincent wasn't sure how to work his claw and, when he thought about it, he wasn't even sure how fingers worked, it just seemed that they bid to your minds will. So, Vincent decided that he would try that, moving his claw around as though it were just a regular arm. Another sadistic grin formed when Vincent saw that the claw had moved just fine.
Vincent slowly stood, trying to feel for anything else that he should be concerned with, but was glad to find that there were none. His stomach was still in pain, his chest still felt tight, and his eyes still stung, but none of that mattered, the only thing that mattered was destroying Hojo. Feeling that his body still seemed to function perfectly fine, he gave one last quick glance around the room, making sure that there was no one else in the room, and walked towards the door.
Vincent swung the door open and was surprised to see three second class Shinra SOLDIERs awaiting him each with a machinegun facing him. "Freeze, Valentine," one barked. "Don't move a muscle."
Vincent slightly grinned, deciding that this would be the perfect opportunity to test out his new claw. Vincent kept his eyes on the SOLDIERs, curious as to what they would do next, waiting for a better opportunity to strike. Impatient, Vincent asked, "Exactly what do you plan to do now?"
"Force you back into that room," the SOLDIER said sternly. "Now move."
The SOLDIER took a step closer to smack Vincent with his gun, which was the opportunity that the gunslinger was waiting for. Vincent quickly grabbed the gun with his human hand and grasped his neck with the new claws. Vincent easily managed to take the gun out of the SOLDIER's hands and instantly there was blood dripping from the young man's neck where his monstrous fingers had quickly and effortlessly dug through skin. Vincent was pleasantly surprised at the power of his claw.
Judging by the looks on their faces, the other two SOLDIERs were understandably horrified by the sight before them. Vincent skillfully spun the machine gun around in his human arm and, while the other two SOLDIERs continued to stare dumbfounded at their now dead comrade, Vincent riddled each of their bodies with a number of bullets, but he was sure to still leave some bullets.
Vincent spun, facing the machinegun further down the hallway to see any threats. Vincent was surprised to discover that he could see all the way down the hall, as before he had trouble seeing a few feet in front of him in the dark rocky hallway. He shrugged it off, not caring why he could see so strangely well, just glad he could. He then tossed the dead SOLDIER off of his claws with some trouble; his claws apparently dug in deep enough to make it a slight challenge, so he had to pry the body off with his other hand.
Next, Vincent tossed down his machinegun and replaced it with one of the other two, since they still had a full clip, then picked up a handgun that the SOLDIERs had around their waist. Vincent decided to hold the machinegun in his claw arm, but was dismayed to see that it simply wouldn't work. The claws seemed refusing to bend around well enough to properly hold the gun, but he did manage to hold onto it and could fire the machinegun but decided he would only do so if he absolutely had to, since he was improperly holding it, if fired it may fall or spin around in his fingers.
Vincent then walked down the hallway and began to ascend the long circular stairwell, all the way thinking how glad he would be once he managed to dig his claws through Hojo's neck. As he reached the top, he stood before the doorway and, just as he was about to open it, he froze. He heard someone beyond the door quietly speaking, undoubtedly prepared for him bursting through the door.
Vincent didn't understand why he could hear through the door, as it was a thick brick door, but, like with his eyesight, he didn't care. Prepared for a number of men, Vincent put his machinegun in his human hand and his handgun into his claw hand, which held it slightly better, but still improperly. Vincent quickly kicked the door open and instantly opened fire with the machinegun, destroying everything in sight.
He continued firing until all he heard were dry clicks, then glanced around the room, seeing three more fallen SOLDIERs. His machinegun now useless, Vincent tossed it to the ground and put his pistol back in his good hand. Vincent was about to leave the room and go into the next hallway, when he suddenly stopped and heard extremely light footsteps in the hallway.
Vincent paused for a moment and considered grabbing one of the machineguns from the downed SOLDIERs then, focusing on his listening, determined that there was only one SOLDIER in the hallway, and he wouldn't need to use a machinegun. Vincent quickly spun out into the hallway and aimed his handgun towards a SOLDIER and fired a single shot. Vincent was dismayed to discover that this was no ordinary SOLDIER, but an elite first class SOLDIER, one whom held a blade instead of a gun. Vincent's foe managed to dodge the bullet, raised his sword high and swung down at Vincent.
Instead of dodging and giving the SOLDIER another opportunity to strike, Vincent caught the blade with his claw arm. The SOLDIER looked wide-eyed at the claw which had easily caught the blade which, since he was first class, had undoubtedly slaughtered countless others. Vincent grinned sadistically at his frightened foe, raised his handgun, and shot him point blank in the face before he could even twitch.
Another SOLDIER down and Vincent grinned. Not only was he glad at his immense power, but he was also glad that, since there were SOLDIERs all over the mansion, someone of importance must be here. Vincent was hoping that someone was Hojo.
Vincent walked down the hall and went to the main stairwell, which overlooked the entrance room, and was amazed by what he saw. Standing near the entrance of the large entrance door stood three people, all of whom Vincent instantly recognized.
Standing to the left was the youngest of the Turks, a short, thin man with sandy blond hair tightly combed back and wearing sunglasses, as always, by the name of John Garland. In the center of the three was a gorgeous woman in her mid-twenties with auburn hair and dazzling green eyes, which stared directly at her almost nude former leader, with an extremely cocky grin on her face; a woman named Danielle Roberts. The third was a scientist, but not the one Vincent was hoping for. This scientist was Wutain, which was rare given the tension between Wutai and Shinra, with deeply tanned skin, dark hair combed neatly to one side, and intelligent brown eyes, a man known as Yuri Kamagatchi. Yuri was an associate with Hojo for the Jenova Project, not unlike Lucrecia, except he was much more taken by Hojo's warlike ideals over Gast's more pacifist ideals, like Lucrecia was. Then again, in the end, Lucrecia also turned herself over to Hojo's ideals.
All three had weapons aimed at the former Turk leader; John with a machinegun not unlike the SOLDIERs', Danielle with an uzi, and Yuri with a pistol identical to the one Vincent now held.
"Vincent Valentine," Danielle said in her deep, seductive voice. "Nice to see you again."
"Danielle… John…" Vincent muttered. "What are you doing?"
"We're here to take you to Hojo," Yuri answered for the Turks.
"Where is he?" Vincent demanded, his blood boiling after simply hearing the scientist's name.
"Ya know, Valentine," John said, taking off his sunglasses to reveal his deep blue eyes. "I looked up to you. You were loyal and deadly, a great combination. Then you threw it all away, threw away your damn life all for some fuckin' broad. What the hell happened to you?"
John's words only made Vincent more angry, to call Lucrecia, his Lucrecia for whom he did, as John said, threw his life away, a fuckin' broad. "Don't call her that," Vincent told the youngest Turk with a deadly voice no sane person would mess with.
"Oh come on, Vince," Danielle told him. "She took away our good leader. I think we have the right to call the bitch what she is. A fuckin' broad."
"It wasn't Lucrecia," Vincent replied in the same deadly tone. "It was Hojo. Hojo is evil, he-"
"Who gives a fuck what you think?!" Yuri suddenly shouted, outraged that someone would badmouth his mentor. "You're just a traitor in the eyes of Shinra. So, we decided to put you to some use."
"It was you who did this to me?"
"Hojo, actually," Yuri answered, he's eyes seeming to shine at the mere mention of the insane scientist. "If it were up to me, you'd be dead. But Hojo decided he wanted a body guard. That's where you come in."
"I will never guard Hojo," Vincent growled.
"That's what I said," Yuri replied with a chuckle. "But he seemed to think that, through the experiments we did on you, he could change that. But, it looks like he was wrong."
"Damn right he was," Vincent snarled back.
"Oh well…" Yuri shrugged, then brutally grinned. "Guess we'll have to take out the trash."
As soon as those words were spoken, the trio opened fire on Vincent. Knowing that he stood little chance, the gunman rolled back into the hallway, where their gunfire couldn't hit him. "You can't hide from us, Vincent," Danielle called as she and John ran up the stairs after him.
Unfortunately for them, Vincent was able to hear exactly where they were and patiently waited for them to emerge into the hallway, but they never did. They were waiting for him to leave the hall. However, after a few short moments as both parties waited, Vincent saw something fly into the hallway and upon seeing that, he retreated into the room with the secret stairwell.
The grenade went off in the hallway, and the two Turks dashed in, hoping to finish off their former leader, if there was anything left, but discovered that he had retreated. Then, the two leapt into the room Vincent was in, Danielle rolled in and took cover behind a chair while John stayed in the doorway and fired his machinegun. With all the bullets flying, Vincent knew he had little chance, but also knew that he couldn't give up now.
Vincent quickly returned fire and dodged the shots as best he could, however, he still received three shots: one in his lower stomach, another just to the right of his chest, and the final shot in his left shoulder. However, Vincent also managed to get some good shots, getting John in his stomach and Danielle in her left thigh and stomach. The two Turks quickly retreated from the room and Vincent immediately followed.
Although it would appear that he was losing, him with three wounds and the two of them with a total of three, he actually felt pretty well. He had been shot a number of times before, well more than his fair share, but never had the bullets felt so… little. He was slightly worried about what exactly Hojo had done but, like with his vision and hearing, he didn't care and was just glad that it was helping. Hojo's experimentations was actually a much better help than he could have imagined.
The two Turks retreated into the hallway to heal their wounds and never would have expected Vincent to follow them, much less to be able to follow them. The whole reason they actually left was because they were told to be extremely cautious; Hojo had warned them that Vincent was no longer human and they had listened. However, even hearing that, they wouldn't have expected Vincent to go charging into the hallway with three fresh gunshot wounds, but he did.
John and Danielle had both retreated to the hallway and each immediately pulled out a potion and healed themselves. Just as they had healed themselves, Vincent leapt into the hallway blasting away. Surprise is a very useful element of battle, and in this case, Vincent was using it to its full advantage. Neither had expected it to come nor were they prepared to start attacking, forcing them to retreat once more to the stairwell.
Once there, they both leapt down to the main floor and dashed over by Yuri, both with their weapons out and aiming towards the hallway, waiting for Vincent to jump out. However, they did take solace in knowing that their former leader had no way of healing himself, since they had specifically ordered that none of the SOLDIERs come with potions or any sort of materia.
Vincent dashed out of the hallway as quickly as he could, but the youngest Turk quickly pulled the trigger of his machinegun and managed to hit Vincent, causing him to stumble, and be the target of more gunshots from all three assailants. Vincent tried to continue forward but failed, and stumbled down the stairs to their level and his gun, his only means of offense from that distance at the time, flying out of his hands and landing near the door.
"Cease fire!" Vincent had heard Yuri shout, to which the other two instantly obeyed.
Vincent was somewhat thankful and somewhat hateful of the command. He was thankful that he now has another, no matter how slim, chance at a comeback. He was hateful because now, despite whatever it was Hojo had done to his body, he was in serious pain, gunshot wounds literally all around his body. He felt his anger welling deep within his chest but knew that he could do absolutely nothing.
Yuri walked up to Vincent, who at this point was coughing up blood, and gave him a swift kick to his stomach, which caused Vincent to groan and roll on his back, then he slowly opened his eyes towards the young scientist. "You're pathetic," Yuri told him with a very serious and cold look on his face. It reminded Vincent so much of Hojo that he wanted to tear it off with his claw, but knew he couldn't… not yet anyway. "Professor Hojo had designed you to be able to take on countless enemies, but you failed him."
Vincent was about to reply, but could only cough up more blood.
"Why isn't he dead, Yuri?" John suddenly asked. "Nothing can live through all this. Nothing."
"Not true, Johnny," Danielle said with a smirk, stepping closer to Vincent to get a good look at him. "Looks like Valentine can."
"SILENCE!" Yuri shouted to the two Turks. "You will be silent this instant!" The two Turks instantly obeyed once more and Danielle stepped back next to John, the two exchanged a glance, then turned back to Vincent. "Now, Valentine," Yuri said with immense pleasure, hunching down on his knees and shoving the barrel of his gun into the former Turk's neck. "I'll finally do what I should have done so long ago…"
Vincent never can nor will be able to explain what had happened at that instant. He felt so much rage at that time, so many things left undone, so many things that should have happened but never did. He thought of Lucrecia and how they could have ran away together, raise their child together, grow old together, love each other for all their lives. A whole life was completely destroyed all because of the insane dreams of a madman.
The rage that Vincent felt then was unimaginable. He nearly felt like he would literally burst with rage, his chest felt tighter than ever and something just… let out.
Vincent screamed in agony and Yuri, instead of putting a bullet through Vincent's neck, stumbled back in fear. Vincent, meanwhile, screamed and writhed on the floor until his skin started to change to a purplish color.
Yuri, realizing what was happening, then turned to the two Turks. "Kill him!" he screamed, although he himself didn't do anything. "Kill him NOW!"
The other two stared at Vincent for a moment longer as his skin completely changed purple and his muscles started to grow enormous, and his mouth began to change into a short snout. Then they obliged. They instantly opened fire on their former leader, but nothing seemed to stop the transformation. He continued shouting his cries of pain and agony and hatred as he continued to change.
Yuri realized it was too late and wanted to turn to run, but his body betrayed him. He couldn't move at all, he was completely immobilized, only staring at his teacher's creation. Staring at Professor Hojo's latest monster.
The transformation was complete, this new purple monster let lose a gruesome roar, which meant death for its foes. John refused to sit and watch this. He quickly raised his machinegun and opened fire, however, he had very few shots before he could only hear the dry clicks of an empty clip. Once his gun was empty, he looked up and saw the beast staring down at him, then charged into him. It was the last thing he had ever seen.
This new monster, dubbed by Hojo as Galian Beast, charged into John, and slammed him up against the wall, instantly crushing his body, but the monster wasn't done with him yet. He tore the body in two at the waist and bellowed its awful roar, then tossed both parts to separate corners of the room. Leaving Danielle and Yuri to face this horrible monster alone.
Danielle was a woman who nearly always got her way. She was a rich snob growing up, forcing daddy to buy her everything she ever wanted and when he refused, she would cry about it until she got her way. He was the reason she got into Shinra Academy in the first place, by paying for a brand new wing of the school. Now, she was fairly certain that she wouldn't get her way. Danielle's grand plan in life was to become a Turk for the great benefits and retire early with the very generous pay. Now, all that was at risk, a greater risk than it had ever been in her service as a Turk, and she would be damned if she was going to sit down and take it.
As she raised her gun and opened fire, Yuri used this time to quickly run out of the mansion.
Galian Beast turned at her and let out another roar, although it almost sounded like a laugh at her pathetic attempt to stop him. Once her gun also ran out of bullets, she was at a complete loss and turned towards the door to follow Yuri as far away from here as she could, but suddenly, a huge fire erupted in front of her.
She had seen several fire spells, a fire materia had been the first materia that she ever mastered, but none of them was like this. It was more of an explosion than a simple spell. She turned back to Galian, and saw fire erupting from its mouth like a dragon, then she turned to run, but instead was blasted with fire. She shouted and cried and screamed for the short remainder of her life while she burned alive.
Galian was far from finished, for it had known that the scientist had escaped, however, the monster retreated, knowing that it must. Its muscles and snout descended and its skin slowly turned back to normal, once again revealing Vincent Valentine in nothing but his black boxers.
The former Turk leader couldn't describe how tired he felt. He felt tired and for the first instant had trouble keeping his eyelids open. For that first instant, all he wanted to do was fall down to the ground and succumb to his weariness. He felt as though he had just run a hundred miles nonstop, but then that instant passed, and he knew what he must do.
Vincent wasn't exactly sure what had happened but he did know one thing, Yuri had escaped. The former Turk dashed out the door, completely ignoring the strong need to rest, picking up his handgun on his way out, without really acknowledging at all as to what had happened in this horrendous mansion in the past minute. He saw Yuri opening the gate to leave and, to stop him, quickly raised up his gun and shot him in the dead center of his back, causing the scientist to fall to the ground.
With speed that he didn't even know he had, Vincent charged up to the scientist, who screamed when he saw his foe. Vincent grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt, lifted him up, and tossed him back to the door of the mansion as though he were no heavier than a feather, so that any citizens that wondered nearby would be less likely to see what was happening. Vincent slowly walked up to him as Yuri tried to think of a way to escape. Behind him were flames and he didn't dare go there, in front of him was Vincent Valentine with a gun, and he had a bullet in his back and didn't even know yet if he was paralyzed or not.
Vincent walked up to the scientist and jammed his gun into Yuri's neck, as he had done to him. "Now talk, where is Hojo?" Vincent demanded, pushing the gun further into the man's neck.
"M-Midgar," Yuri quickly mumbled, really fearing for his life for the first time.
Vincent allowed a small smile to form on his face. "You know, you called me a traitor for confronting Hojo," Vincent told the scientist who was too frightened to even open his eyes. "And you just signed his death warrant. Now what does that make you?"
The scientist shook his head, begging for his life. "Please… Vincent… lets be civilized about this…" Yuri begged, tears emerging from his tightly closed eyes.
"I lost my arm for confronting Hojo," Vincent told him, ignoring his pleas. "What should you lose for basically killing him?"
"Please no!" Yuri sobbed. "Don't kill me! Don't hurt me! Please!"
"You're pathetic," Vincent told him in a cold, serious tone. Yuri then slowly opened his eyes and looked back at Vincent. Vincent wasn't sure what the scientist saw, but for some reason Yuri seemed to think he could use whatever it was to his advantage, deciding to completely reverse his position. He wouldn't be a sniveling sobbing poor excuse for a human being. No. No, he refused. Hojo had taught him to be strong and do whatever it takes for what he believed in and he believed in Hojo and he knew that, to protect his mentor, he would have to fight Vincent as much as he could. And seeing as how he wouldn't last two seconds in a physical fight against the gunslinger, he would have to use his most powerful muscle. "Where's Lucrecia?" Vincent then asked.
"She's dead," Yuri told him, hoping that this wouldn't push the gunslinger over the edge just yet. He needed more time to manipulate Valentine.
Vincent closed his eyes for a moment. He had failed her, but now he couldn't think of that, he had to focus on his newest task. "Thank you…" Vincent finally managed to say and then snapped his eyes open, which made the scientist flinch. "Now your purpose for me is through."
Just as Vincent was about to pull the trigger, Yuri spoke. "And what do you intend to do now? Go after him? In the state you're in, you'll never make it there."
This was good information and Vincent felt that he should press on. Through all these battles, he could sense new powers within himself. Now he could get his answers and he felt that he had to know them. "Why?" Vincent asked. "I managed to get through all your guards, why will I never make it to Hojo?"
Inwardly, Yuri smiled. He knew that this was his opportunity to put Vincent in his place and, perhaps best of all, the truth will do. "Because, you're a monster," Yuri told the gunslinger with a grin. "Your old comrade, John, said that no one could survive everything that you did, and he's partially right. No human could survive. You did, Vincent, but only because you aren't human. You are a monster. All these fights you've been through should be proof, if you need it. You are nothing more than a bloodthirsty demon, Valentine. If you live, you'll be nothing more than another ache on an already pained society."
Vincent blinked and thought that the scientist may be speaking the truth. No human could possibly survive all the trials that he had been up against throughout this day. He then thought back to his battle against his two former underlings, at the time he didn't give it a moments thought, but now he realized what he had done. He transformed into a monster and hadn't simply killed them but brutally slaughtered them.
"You would do the exact opposite that you want," Yuri warned the former Turk leader. "Before you could ever get near Hojo you'll end up butchering everyone, destroying whole towns. Ruining more lives than Hojo ever could have dreamed of."
Vincent didn't move or say anything, merely let these words go through his head. He considered the possibility that Yuri was lying, which was very high since he undoubtedly would be trying to protect Hojo, but he didn't think the scientist was. Looking at all the things he had done, he felt that what his foe was saying was extremely likely to be the truth.
"So what will you do, demon?" asked the scientist with a cocky grin.
Vincent looked at Yuri and saw the grin on his face. The scientist thinks he won, Vincent thought. He thinks, telling me this, that he will live.
"Perhaps you're right," Vincent calmly and slowly spoke, putting his gun into the elastic band of his boxers, standing and turning, facing the town. Yuri smiled, certain he had defeated Vincent by using merely words. Manipulation was a very powerful tool, and Yuri was hoping that it had truly worked here with Vincent. Now, if he could just hurry down to Nibelheim and heal his gunshot wound, he would be able to make it to Midgar to rejoin his mentor.
Suddenly, Vincent spun around and aimed his handgun directly between the Wutain's eyes. Instantly, his grin vanished, as well as any thoughts of surviving the day. "But that doesn't mean you'll live, Kamagatchi," Vincent growled.
So many things flew through the scientist's mind then. His whole life seemed to flash before his eyes, his betrayal to his people, all those he had personally killed, all the people he had captured for Hojo, all the dirty work he had done for Hojo, all the things he had done… for Hojo. Just before Vincent pulled the trigger, the scientist realized that he had been nothing but a puppet for Hojo.
The deed done, Vincent stood and stepped into the mansion. There was still a fire blazing and, with all the dry wood in this mansion, it would probably burn the whole place down. Possibly for the better, Vincent mused. With all the horrible things that had happened here, perhaps it would be better burnt to the ground.
Vincent ignored the fire for now and glanced around, seeing the two halves of John, his former comrade and friend, in the separate areas of the room. He glanced into a fire and saw the burning corpse of Danielle, a woman he had once had a short relationship with a few of years back. Both these people had gotten what they deserved, Vincent thought then. A Turk was a horrible human being, nearly a monster themselves. Killing people they didn't even know for pay was not a good way to make a living. But did I? Was I right… to give these people what they deserved? Vincent continued to ponder, then wondered up the steps and saw the mostly destroyed hallway and the fallen body of the first class SOLDIER. Am I worthy to give Hojo what he deserves?
Vincent stepped back into the main hall at the top of the stairs, looking down at the sight he had caused. What do I deserve? Vincent thought then. I was no different than John or Danielle… No, I was different. I was worse. I killed more people than either of them as a Turk and I… I let Lucrecia die. I watched every second of it and did… nothing. I am much worse than them… I truly am a monster… Just as Kamagatchi had said… I was a monster before… the only difference is that now my exterior fits my interior…
Vincent continued to think about these things as he stepped into the room opposite of the hallway with the fallen SOLDIER. This was their weaponry room, where the Turks and few SOLDIERs had kept whatever destructive devices they needed. He wasn't surprised to see that it was completely void of any weapons, figuring that Hojo wouldn't want him to have any advantage over his men in the same way that the SOLDIERs had no potions.
Vincent, however, had a personal stash of materia which he had only told of to Lucrecia. He stepped up to the far wall to a chair, he lifted up a cushion and saw all his mastered materia there. He had a fire, ice, lightning, earth, and destruct materia there, however, he only needed one. He picked up the ice materia and stepped back to the top of the staircase, then cast the Ice 3 spell on the fires, which quickly melted and extinguished the flames. That done, he dropped the materia and let it fall down the steps to the landing at the bottom.
Vincent watched the materia descend down the steps as he thought about what he could do. Even if he was worthy of delivering punishment, would going after Hojo really make him a good person? He thought not. Hojo undoubtedly deserved death, one much more gruesome and horrible than the one that John, Danielle, and Yuri had received, but that wouldn't make Vincent a good person. Killing doesn't make you good.
Also, Vincent mused, if he were to go after Hojo, what if what Yuri said would come true? Attempting to redeem himself by killing Hojo only to kill innocent people… he would be no better than Hojo. Vincent knew what he had to do. He had to atone. For his life as a Turk, for obeying any order, despite what he personally felt, for killing countless people, but, far above all, for betraying Lucrecia… he needed to atone.
Vincent knew what he would do. Killing himself wouldn't resolve anything… but putting himself away would. Vincent turned away from the steps and went down to the secret basement of the mansion. He walked halfway down the dim hallway then turned and stepped into the small room there. In this room, there were dozens of books scattered across the room, skeletons littered around, three coffins, and a small package on the ground in front of him. This room was a trash room for Hojo.
The skeletons were all test subjects for Hojo, although Vincent didn't know what for, he did know that the scientist needed to dispose of bodies and used this room to do it, even though it was once a nice library. One thing Vincent did know was that the box hadn't been there before, it was fresh and, unlike everything else in the room, was dustless. There was a small card on the box, which Vincent lifted up and opened.
Valentine's New Attire, it read.
Vincent tossed the card to the ground and opened the box, and saw his future attire. He knew, of course, where the clothing had come from. Hojo had always studied the past and, several years ago, there was an extremely powerful assassin. The assassin was heartless and merciless, slaughtering countless people for a number of reasons: pay, vengeance, or for the pure sick joy of it. The assassin was known worldwide and several were convinced that he wasn't human, but a monster, since he had particularly sick ways of disposing of people. Eventually, he was discovered and went down in a hail of gunfire.
The clothes were a joke, Vincent knew, that Hojo had played on him. Dispite that, Vincent felt that the clothes had fit him well. His thoughts this day was proof that Vincent was heartless and merciless. These clothes would be just one more thing that reminded Vincent that he wasn't human, but a monster. A part of Vincent was enraged by this, but he let it subside and put on the clothes. I need to always remember that I'm not human, Vincent thought as he dressed himself. I'm… a monster.
After dressing, Vincent walked up to the center coffin and lifted the lid, unsurprised to find it empty. Hojo had placed this here for him as well. Whether it was for Vincent in case he died during the experiments or if Hojo had predicted all of this, he wasn't sure, but he knew it was as good a place as any to atone.
Before his atonement, however, Vincent decided that he wouldn't be bothered. He turned and locked the door. There was a key for it somewhere but he wasn't sure where, since Hojo had kept it on him at all times. Then Vincent turned and stepped into the coffin, put on the lid, and closed his eyes, accepting his dues to atone.
In his final moments before finally succumbing to the weariness of his short day, Vincent thought, Rest in peace, Vincent Valentine… here lies the Monster Vincent Valentine.
Anyway, I wrote this story a while ago and I've wanted to put it somewhere. I was thinking about putting it in as a one shot, but when I started to write this story, I thought it would fit better hereSome things in this story come later in the story too.
So, tell me what you think!