Chapter 25 From the ashes and the embers, like a rocket I'll asend. Like a cry gone up for a fallen freind. Like phoneix ignition!
Aeris came awake slowly, and instantly wished she hadn't as soon as she could fully understand what she could see and feel. She was lying flat on a table, with manacles holding her, like a dead butterfly. With her thoughts running in that vein it was all too easy to tell who she would see in the room, regardless of what she had been told. Dr. Simon Hojo was alive, well, and smiling down at her.
"So glad to see that your still alive Half-Cetra, I'm sure you'll prove quite useful to my studies." Aeris struggled helplessly against her restraints just to prove she could still move her body. "Don't exhaust yourself Half-Cetra, I would hate to have you die as a result of my tests, but don't worry, I've already got a cell sample this time! As Hojo spoke he reached into his lab coat and pulled out a small test tube filled with blood. At the sight of it Aeris suddenly felt a sore spot on her left wrist, and felt the enormity of
the situation crash down on her.
They had all been captured, all of them except Sephiroth, because he was probably dead. It wasn't just a bad dream, no this was a nightmare, worse than any before. "You're supposed to be dead, Melkore told me so." Hojo laughed, a sound that made Aeris shiver.
"Morningstar always overestimated his abilities! You see Cetra, enough Jenova cells grant one incredible regenerative powers, as I'm sure you will find out soon enough in our experiments. It was no less painful to have that pathetic fool shoot me, but it will take much more than he did to kill me. Morningstar was a bright lad, but he was never able to finish what he started, just lay down the ground work. He couldn't finish his beloved 'Mako Cannon' and as for his little pet project, I think I've improved it greatly. Why don't you glimpse the future, while you still have human eyes."
Aeris wasn't able to move much, but she managed to take a fuller survey of the room, there was a third person in it. James was laid down on a table like her, but he had no restraints pinning him down. Across his left eye was an odd device, it looked like a single lens to a pair of glasses, and it was connected to an equally strange contraption that was strapped across his ear.
His ears were fully visible because his hat had been left neglected on a shelf in the room. James was unconscious, and the lens that was held over his left eye had its kin in a small microphone position inside his left ear. Hojo smiled in a disgusting grin that almost split his face as he noticed what Aeris was looking at.
"That's one of the most useful inventions that I've made over the years, a sonic inhibitor. It uses short range but powerful hypersonic blasts to render areas of the brain inactive. On the books for Shinra its a safer, more effective, cheaper, and less time consuming way to perform a lobotomy on people showing unusually high amounts of aggression.
It remains in effect so long as it is not removed, which it won't be because I will tell him not to touch it. You see, the prototype that this subject is wearing does something other than disable the frontal lobe responsible for aggression. This one attacks the minds ability to transmit emotions, joy, fear, pain, happiness, empathy, love, or anything else."
As Hojo spoke, he slowly waved a hand back and forth above James' face. "Would you like to see it in action Half-Cetra?" Before Aeris could answer, Hojo snapped his fingers, and instantly James' eyes shot open, except they weren't his. They were still red, but they were no longer James' bright eyes, the spark had vanished.
The only thing that Aeris could see was a pair of red eyes which showed even less then Vincent's, they were almost completely devoid of life. "Sit up." James did as Hojo commanded, and then sat perfectly still, a feat Aeris had never seen him accomplish before. Hojo turned his attention from James to Aeris, beaming with pride.
"Wonderful isn't it? Behold, the Hand of Jenova, witness her actions! Morningstar's basic design was fine for someone like him, but I've upgraded this being to its full completion. He will take orders from me and only me, and he will do only what I tell him to do. The only passable thing about this creature was his weapon, so I have left it untouched, it will be a wonderful symbol. Stand up."
James got off the table he had been sitting on, and stood up straighter then Aeris had ever seen him stand. Hojo walked over to a small intercom and pushed the button, making his voice pathetically helpless. "This is Doctor Hojo! We have an escaped lab subject, send a squad of guards in here to deal with him at once!" The door opened almost as soon as Hojo's pathetic cry left his mouth. Five guards instantly rushed in with armed weapons and turned them on James. "FREEZE!"
"I'm afraid he won't listen to reason, you'll just have to kill them." Aeris understood Hojo's twisted use of language, but no one else did. The guards fearlessly opened up on James, believing him easy to take down in the confined spaces. The guards however were mistaken; it was they who had no chance.
James casually turned his attention from Dr. Hojo to the men who were trying to kill him. He stroked his gloves, and Aeris saw white wire flash around him like a fishing net. Bullets danced around him, but none touched him, those that came close were sliced into minuscule pieces of lead.
Then James attacked the guards with smooth perfection. With a single flick of his wrist, five different guns were sliced apart by an invisible force. Then James made a small reverse twist, and for a moment Aeris saw the strand of white flash through the air.
Five heads toppled from five sets of shoulders, and only then began to bleed. If even a speck of it managed to touch the strands of white however Aeris couldn't see it. Instead she saw five dead bodies slowly draining themselves of blood on the floor. James showed no emotion at all though Hojo seemed very happy with the results. "Wonderful, simply wonderful, truly now I think you could surpass Sephiroth."
James still showed no emotion in his eyes or any other part of his body. Aeris still struggled to free herself even though she achieved nothing. "James help me!" James didn't even look like he could hear her voice; he kept his eyes firmly on Hojo.
----
Mirri sat alone in the cell waiting. Her hands were connected together by heavy iron chains which where connected directly to the wall. Similarly her legs were chained to the floor, unless Mirri could tear chunks out of the prison itself, she had no chance of escape.
Mirri had borne the entire affair of her capture and transfer to this cell with silent determination. She had been docile as Elena had gone over her with a metal detector to make sure that every single one of her blades were removed. They had been alone in the room and there had been only one look exchanged between them. It came when Elena, having removed all of Mirri's blades was about to get to work on her second skeleton that fed the blades into her gloves.
Mirri had instantly jerked alive, as if sensing Elena's purpose, and looked her right in the eyes. Elena, had baulked for only an instant, before leading Mirri out of the room into the hands of the waiting guards. Mirri was still wearing her gloves, and underneath her clothing her second skeleton was still intact. But what could she do with it since she didn't have any blades?
Someone less familiar with Mirri would have said she was being gracious in defeat. Someone more familiar with Mirri would know that she didn't believe in such things, because she didn't believe in defeat. Death was the only thing that could defeat her. Anything else was just a minor inconvenience that could be over come. Even as they had been connecting her chains to the wall and to the floor, she had already been planning an escape. By the time the two men came for her, she was ready.
One man was a Shinra guard, the other was a first class SOLDIER, they should have been enough for one prisoner in chains. Too bad they hadn't taken Reno's advice and sent in a battalion with mech, artillery, and air support. The guard stood back with his gun trained on Mirri while the SOLDIER got to work.
He produced a shining key, and used it to release Mirri's chains from the wall. He never got a chance to unlock Mirri's legs. Her wrists still had heavy chains around them, but the chains were not quite heavy enough to keep a SOLDIER from being able to use them as something else.
The chains freed from the wall, Mirri suddenly thrashed about raising her hands in the air, and the chains followed. Mirri crossed her hands, and the chains followed, the SOLDIER never had a chance to go for his sword.
Heavy chains wrapped themselves around the SOLDIERS neck, and Mirri pulled. The guard was unable to help his superior, Mirri had perfectly positioned things so that even as she strangled the man he made an effective human shield. When it was over, Mirri relaxed her grip slightly, and let the lifeless body fall to the floor as she stood up.
The guard had his gun, but Mirri had her own weapon ready to use, and she wasn't afraid. The guard apparently didn't know that one of the many classes first class SOLDIERS took to attain their rank, was how to escape and make weapons out of restraining devices. Mirri had always been good at escaping, and she had been moderately proficient at fighting with chains. These were heavier than the ones she was used to, and she hadn't practiced in a long time, but it was enough.
She flung her hands sideways at the guard, and the chains between them smashed into the guard's face. They were very heavy chains, and reduced his head to a bloody mess as he dropped to the floor. Mirri bent down and picked up the golden key that had belonged to the SOLDIER. Much as she suspected, she found that it was capable of releasing the chains that bound her legs from where they had been firmly attached to the floor.
Then with rising hopes she tried them on the manacles that attached her hands to the chains. The key worked, it also did with her legs. Mirri looked at the small key and smiled, as she picked up the gun the dead guard had dropped. Shinra was getting sloppy, it was a skeleton key, something that you should never let a prisoner get within a mile of, let alone in the same cell as.
That saved her the problem of how to open the cell door, no need to use the SOLDIER's sword on it. She just put the key in, turned it, and the door opened. The two guards on either side of the door had no chance. The cell had been soundproof, so that it's keepers could have some "fun" with the prisoners if they wanted to and no one would hear. Mirri shuddered at the idea of being glad for such a horrific convenience, but it helped her this time.
The guards had expected to see her walk out first with the SOLDIER and guard who had gone in behind her. By the time they realized she was alone, she had shot the single video camera in the room followed by each of them. By the time they realized they had been shot, Mirri had already delivered a fatal to shot to the head of each guard, so they may never have realized it.
She calmly tossed the gun aside, and turned her attention to the stockpile of blades that was lying in a small mound of metal in a corner of the room. After locking the door, she began to strip down to load up.
---
"Reno something is wrong in cell block 29." Elena was monitoring the computer system that the Turks had been assigned to look after in Junon because neither of her male companions was fit for the task.
Reno and Rude were currently both sitting on the floor studying their task with boundless concentration. Both of them had a deck of cards, and were attempting to flip cards from the deck into a hat with a bottle of Junon's cheapest and thus worst tasting liquor sitting between them. Early on in the game they had been playing a more competitive version were whenever one of them made a shot their opponent drank.
When the two Turk's were sober (which was a rare condition) they had excellent hand to eye coordination. Thus it only took them a few tosses to deplete the first bottle and move onto the second. Reno wasn't quite sure of how many bottles they had gone through, but he we would guess a lot.
A lot to Reno was an acceptable scientific amount, it came right after 10 for bottles of beer, or 10 shots of harder stuff. It documented a number that you couldn't calculate with just your hands, or at least not while each hand only had 5 fingers, so a lot could become 20 only to become a lot again. Either way it had degenerated to the point that Reno and Rude had agreed to change the rules so that whenever someone missed they took a drink.
This amazingly enough managed to accelerate the already impressive speed they were imbibing alcohol at. Reno looked up at Elena from the floor, pitched a card in her general direction, (which happened to be in the opposite direction of the hat) then grabbed the bottle and took a swig. "What kind of problem?"
Out of necessity Reno had learned how to avoid major speech impediments just because he was drunk. "We've just lost video feed, and it happened so fast I'm not sure why. Two of our guys go in, doors close, door opens, we lose feed." Rude pitched a card, and somehow managed to make it in. Reno would account for this because the area where he thought nothing was, the hat actually existed.
Reno peeked at his next card (far more obviously then he realized) and smiled, it was the queen of spades, might as well show the lady some respect. With a perfect spinning throw he sent the card flying into the hat to land face up. That vastly more important task completed, he turned his attention to Elena.
"Well Mirri's in that cell right? Some idiot probably just did something stupid, so Mirri dropped the heavy end of the hammer on him, probably between his legs. Then she opened the door, shot the camera and the guards. Right now she's probably taking her clothes off so that she can put all those blades you took off her back on." As Reno said those last words, he stopped speaking and seemed to zone out, his eyes misting over, his face frozen in a lopsided grin.
Rude in silence made his next shot, missed it, and took a swig from the bottle emptying it. In the fine principle of he who empties has to refill, he grabbed a new bottle from the stack they had laid in front of an air conditioning vent in the wall. He twisted the cap off with his teeth, and spat it out before placing it down between him and Reno. Despite the horrible quality of the vintage and the advanced state of intoxication, not a single drop was spilled during this process.
His sacred duty done, Rude nudged Reno bringing him back to reality. Wiping a bit of saliva that was hanging from his lip off with the cuff of his sleeve, Reno returned his attention to his deck of cards. His shot might have taken Rude's right eye out if he hadn't been wearing glasses. Reno reached for the bottle as was his honor bound duty.
"Well shouldn't we do something to tell people that there is an escaped prisoner?" Reno finished his swig before he answered. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that Elena. We wouldn't achieve anything anyways, even if we left now by the time we got there, she'll be fully dressed again ready to kill us all. That's what we call a no win situation."
Elena raised an eyebrow while Rude took another shot and missed, though by a much more narrow margin then Reno was at this point in the game. "But, if we don't do anything she might escape!" Reno clicked his tongue sadly as Rude took his drink. Then in a voice that a parent generally used to explain something simple to a child he spoke.
"If we bring down this entire base on her, then we can be sure that she will escape, and we'll all die. Mirri gets some kind of freakishly weird delight out of beating the odds, or doing things that people tell her she can't do. It's like sex for her, except that I think most men are too attached to their souls, yours truly excluded, to approach that succubus. Bear in mind I use that as a term of respect for her. It takes a lot skill to suck a man's soul out through his eyeballs.
Now, if we just sit here, playing cards, drinking, we'll get off just fine. Nothing good can happen if we get involved, Mirri's already built up too much momentum, getting in her way now is like stepping in front of a train, it doesn't do slow the thing down, but you seriously regret it"
Reno attempted to make a very difficult shot by throwing the card in the general direction of the hat while he was still looking at Elena. Of course he missed yet he somehow managed to locate the bottle and bring it to his lips even while looking in the opposite direction. "Reno, it's our jobs to do this, whether or not we want to!"
Elena reached for an intercom button, but Reno was faster. He had just taken a sip (or maybe a swallow) from the bottle in his hand when he spat it out in irritation at Elena's words. With a mix of the impairing effect his blood's content of very bad alcohol had on judgment, his determination to self-preservation and desire to slack off, he knew what he had to do. He might have taken off his gun and nightstick and laid them at the other end of the room, but he had one weapon.
A mostly filled bottle of beer. Reno was remarkably skilled at killing people with beer bottles out of practice. He tossed the bottle end over end at the control panel Elena reached for. The bottle exploded like a fragmentation grenade causing pieces of glass to fly out in all directions. Elena managed to avoid any bodily harm by pulling back from the panel, however the damage was not just the glass.
An almost full bottle of liquor splashed itself over the control panel, and the results could be expected. Elena jumped for the other side of the room first, and Rude (managing to grab the hat) and Reno soon followed. They took refuge behind various objects as one after another the computers making up the Junon defense net, sparked and exploded.
Throughout the base for brief moments lights flickered before backup power came on. However, the damage could not be undone, when the lights finally came back on and the dust cleared, all of the video cameras were offline, not just the one that Mirri may have shot. Glares and blame where instantly exchanged.
"Now look what you did Elena!" "What I did, look what you did Reno!" "Nose it!" "What's that..." "Too late Elena you lost you have to make up the excuse." "Excuse?" "Don't worry if you're not good at it, it's only your first try. Believe me, anything will have to work better than the truth. Now then Rude, it looks like God is loving and the beer was protected by his/her/its/their/ divine hand(s)."
"Do you realize how little sense that makes?" "So what? There's both a 'U' and an 'R' in 'drunk', who are we to resist the desires of the universe?" "Reno?" "Yes Elena?" "Give me that bottle, Mirri was right, I think I'm going to need it." "Of course she's right, Mirri is always right. Anything else would be an offence to mother nature."
"You know Reno, this might just be the liquor talking but that's the most sense you've ever made." "Ohh trust me Elena, it's the liquor. Another bottle Rude?"
-----
Vincent and Alex were in the same cell. They where being restrained in completely different though equally effective means that had been designed by Hojo. Alex was currently hanging upside down from the ceiling held by not one but four silver chains, each one fastened around one of his legs. He had no leverage to pull against the chains and thus hung there like an animal brought back dead by ancient hunters.
Vincent was sitting, chains around each of his arms and attached to the walls, the series of chains much thicker around his left arm. It was unnecessary, Vincent hadn't "eaten" since Sephiroth left them. He had just sat alone looking at nothing, his black hair was now fully grey verging on white and all parts of his body showed his true age.
He was nothing but a very old man with no strength left in his limbs. Alex swung back and forth slightly as he tried to fight for the necessary grip that he wouldn't find to pull the silver chains apart. /Gaia curse weave worshipers, Gaia smite Wyrm Servants! Gaia break these chains that bind me as tightly as the ones that hold Fenris in the Fields of Slaughter!\
Alex's cries of course went unheard, as the four lengths of chains made from pure silver strapped to his body prevented him from touching even the smallest amount of his Gnosis. Vincent sat below, and he did not even attempt to free himself form his bonds. He had failed his master, he had failed a second time, life was empty. He had failed even with all this power he 'had', he didn't deserve to live, maybe if he waited long enough Shinra wouldn't even have to do anything.
He would just waste away until his body was reduced to shadows and never took human shape again. More likely Shinra would find some way of killing him, probably either tossing him into the water below, or letting the sun burn the flesh from his skin as it would when he was this desiccated. Alex continued to swing back and forth without achieving anything and turned his attention to the other occupant of the cell.
Alex had been in this cell for an hour now, and he was as desperate as a Bone Gnawer who had said the wrong thing to a Black Fury. The cell was dark, it had no lights in it, and no windows for light to come in through, though both of them could see well enough. So he swallowed deeply and turned his mental voice to address his one possible hope of salvation. /What are you waiting for vampire? Do something!\
Vincent sagged, his skin was loose on his body, his eyes a pinkish color, almost white, as if a sickness had removed the power of sight from them, or he no longer wanted to see. "He's dead." Alex's snarled saliva dripping down to the floor, his sadly useless rage at this situation focused keenly on the vampire.
/Fenris is trapped in the world of the dead to spend our entire lifetimes among those too unworthy to enter Valhalla and who seek to gain that honor by crawling over the bodies of their own fallen! What does it matter? FIGHT/ Vincent didn't move at all. "Why?"
Alex snapped at the air, claws slashing at a foe which he couldn't reach. \TO FIGHT! Do you think I have ever seen what Fenris looks like? Do you think I ever will even in the afterlife except a glance on my way to Valhalla? You knew what the god you believe in looked like, if anything that should inspire you to even greater feats!\ Alex tried vainly to claw at his chains but missed. "I failed him just like before."
/THEN FIGHT HARDER! Sacrifice everything you have if it helps you in any way! I could chew through my legs to free myself, but the wounds wouldn't heal when I shifted. They would close over, but it would be days before they re-grew, but I am almost wiling to do so. I would lie there crippled till they came to kill me, but at least I would die free even if I was mutilated by my own jaws!\
Vincent still sat unmoving on the makeshift bed that was little more then a slab of stone. "You don't understand." The fur all over Alex's body bristled with rage both at the situation and at the apathy of the vampire. /Of course I don't understand Vampire! My mind reels like a wounded chocobo trying to grasp how with pathetic 'monsters' like you the Wyrm was ever able to defeat my ancestors! You aren't even a vampire, nothing but a pathetic blood bloated leech, a lamprey, you have no legs and so must instead prostrate yourself on your belly!
You're so pathetic that even the Wyrm would not have your service! Where are the demons summoned from below, where are the victims lying bloodless, their lips frozen in unspoken terror, where are the wings of shadow? Where are the legion of undead servants, where're the elements themselves supposedly springing to your command, where's the strength of 20 men in one hand?\
At least this scathing series of question managed to gain an acknowledgment of reality. "Gone with the blood that will never again be in my body. I have no desire to live after a failure such as mine." It just might be worth it to chew through his legs because on human stumps of limbs he might be able to get close enough to the vampire and end his pathetic life for him as he desired.
/FIGHT! Do you think I outlived both of my brothers by years beyond count so that I could die here in this cage with my only company one as pathetic as you? Those who die must do so by the will of Gaia regardless of how little we care for it! Only gods are able to recreate themselves through the willing bodies of their most loyal servants!
If you have any loyalty at all to your alpha's spirit then you will stop lying there like a carcass to be picked apart by buzzards and use the spark of life that has been so unfairly reinserted in your body! Odds, conditions, beliefs, situation, wounds, are all unimportant, so long as an ounce of life is in your body FIGHT!
That is how you deal with your problems, FIGHT! Do not run and hide, but reduce all obstacles before you to dust! Even the Ragabash understands that, FIGHT! Even humans going about their pointless little lives understand that in their twisted corrupted desire to give their lives meaning, THEY FIGHT! ARE YOU SO REMOVED FROM GAIA? FIGHT!"/
"Even humans... even humans... even humans..." Vincent repeated it over and over again slowly. How long had he been something other then human, how long ago had he died? How had he died, he couldn't tell, in the grips of Hojo's sadistic experiments the line between living and dead was a very thin one. He was dead, and soon his body would mirror the condition of his spirit. So why did something inside Vincent insist that Alex was right? Slowly, very slowly a memory that he couldn't remember before played itself before his eyes.
----
The door slid off its hinges, and Mirri strode into the room, blades already loaded into her gloves. She took one look at the scene before her, and smiled. "Looks like I got here just in time." Doctor Hojo "muttered" a curse that Aeris heard and thus Mirri must have heard as well. "Pathetic wench! Firecat, deal with her!"
James who had up to this point been just standing still slowly turned to glare at Mirri, who rocked back on her heels for a only a moment. "Don't worry James, I'm sure you'll forgive me for whatever it is I'm about to do." Hojo drew away from James cackling as he did. "You won't have a chance to do anything girl! You are now faced with the hand of Jenova!"
It was as short as with the SOLDIERS. Mirri raised her gloves and fired blades at James. James in return stood perfectly still for a moment, wire fluctuating between his hands. The blades were sliced apart by strands of white, causing them to veer off course and miss James. Then James moved with that same cold unnatural speed to attack Mirri.
As new blades loaded into Mirri's right glove the wires shot out, carefully decapitating the blades before they could be used. At the same time wire shot from his left hand, and wrapped itself around Mirri's neck. James pulled tight, not tight enough to break the skin, yet, but tight enough to make it hard to breath. Mirri dropped to her knees but loaded blades into her left glove at the same time.
Somehow, her neck remaining perfectly still she managed to speak. "James, don't make me kill you." Mirri's blades raised, almost touching James' chest, if she fired them they would hit. If James pulled a little tighter, Mirri would die. If Mirri depressed the correct section of her left glove, those blades would rip James's body in half as they passed through him, and James would die.
The two stared at each other, no other words were needed. Hojo laughed at what he saw. "Yes, yes, kill each other! Don't bother trying to talk to him girl, the thing you once knew no longer exists!" Aeris watched transfixed in horror.
How could she let his happen? She had to do something, but she couldn't. If only she was able to grasp the silver light again she would be strong enough! If only she had paid more attention when Alex had been giving her those lessons, if only she hadn't been so afraid... if only, if only, if only... the silver light...
--------
James had a splitting headache, literally. It wasn't that he had a horrible pain in his head, it was just that somehow he got the sense that he wasn't all there. As if some critical part of him was busy somewhere else, or he had left it behind, like he had forgotten his hat. Then, as he scratched his left ear with his left hand, (an act he always though could help the brain get going) he realized that in fact he had to have left his hat behind, otherwise he wouldn't be able to scratch his ear.
"RELAX, YOU ARE SIMPLY HAVING A NEAR-ME EXPERINCE." James looked at the figure standing before him and said what instantly came to mind. "Of course I'm having a near you experience, you're standing right next to me." Then James's mouth snapped shut of it's own volition for the first time he could have ever remembered. The figure's face was concealed behind by a heavy black cloak, but James had a very strong imagination, and even Sephiroth's probably would have been good enough to guess what was happening.
He instantly scooted backwards away from the figure. "Listen if this is about the scythe thing, I'm not doing that any more, I haven't been for like a week or two now!" The figure approached him. "RELAX, I AM ACTUALLY FOND OF THOSE LIKE YOU." Even staring down at the Grim Reaper, curiosity got the best of James. "Those like me?"
Death (as that was the only thing James could think to call the figure) reached out a skeletal hand and stroked his ears. One paw it was creepy as all get out since it was cold and lacking skin, on the other, well Death like Mirri did know just the right place to scratch. Even his voice sounded friendly, once you realized he wasn't there to give you a reaping. "CATS."
James's right ear pricked up, as his left couldn't since it was being scratched by Death. "Really? Because I thought you'd be pissed at us since you have to reap us 9 times before we finally stay reaped, you know? Of course if this is only a practice reaping I guess you'll have to do me 10 times?" The skeletal hand withdrew to James's relief and displeasure. "HAVING TO REAP YOU MULTIPLE TIMES JUST GIVES ME MORE TIME TO GET TO KNOW YOU, YOU ARE A RATHER NICE LOT. YOU SHOULD COME BACK TO MY PLACE, AND I'LL SHOW YOU AROUND."
Before James could question how they got to Death's place they were already there. James was already sitting in a chair and looking at... ohh boy. It had the name "James Firecat" on it, but it didn't bare any particular resemblance to him. It looked like it would be something you found in a mad scientist's lab for straining chemicals, but this scientist would have had to be considerably more than a few neutrons short of an alpha emission.
It was impossible to truly tell where the thing started or stopped, but James could spend many a happy hour trying to figure it out. It had twists, turns, a couple of loop de loops, and one very interesting feature. Instead of any particular chemical, James could see sand was flowing through it, more or less.
The thing was not very large over all, but from the speed (or lack thereof) with which the sand moved it might take it several years just to move a portion of this thing. On second thought it wasn't so much a chemical strainer, as a renegade model of a theme park amusement ride made of glass. "What is this thing and why is my name on it?" James was so interested in the, whatever it was, that he hadn't realized Death was standing behind him till he spoke.
"IT IS YOUR LIFETIMER." James had grown accustomed to hearing words he
didn't know the meaning of, but it hadn't happened that recently up until now. "My what?" Death must really like cats because he could actually make it sound like he wanted James to understand. "YOUR LIFETIMER. IT MEASURES HOW LONG YOU HAVE LEFT TO LIVE."
James wasn't sure what kind of patient reaper confidentiality agreement Death had, so he would have to find out by asking. "So if this just a practice reaping, how long do I have left to live?" James to his delight discovered that the chair was a swivel, allowing him to spin it around and watch the very odd occurrence of Death shrugging.
"SEARCH ME. YOUR LIFETIMER IS SO COMPLICATED THAT EVEN I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT. I'VE ONLY SEEN ONE OTHER LIKE IT, ITS OWNER MIGHT BE A REALTIVE OF YOURS, LIKED TO DRESS IN RED AND HATED PARTING WITH HIS HAT ALSO."
Ohh yeah his hat, that was a good point. "Mum, what exactly did happen to my hat by the way?" "YOU LEFT IT BEHIND WITH YOUR BODY. YOU ARE BRAIN DEAD, SO YOU ARE SPENDING SOME TIME WITH ME TILL YOU GET SENT BACK TO YOUR BODY. NOTICE THAT FROM WHERE YOUR SAND IS, IT JUST TOOK A SHARP DROP, AND IS NOW GOING UPHILL AGAIN, MOST PEOPLE WOULD HAVE JUST ROLLED OVER AND DIED."
James traced back the sand from the direction it was going. Indeed it had just taken a drop that was almost an inch long, who knew how far that was in sand feet. As James looked closer he noticed that his sand was an unusual color, he had never seen red sand before, but that wasn't his most pressing issue.
"If I left my hat behind with my body, why am I still wearing my clothes?" Showing good grace James made sure to spin his chair back around to face Death after asking his question, and having spun away from Death previously. "JUST BECAUSE I DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING IN MY EYE SOCKETS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I WISH TO GO BLIND."
Another deep sense of curiosity was growing in James' body and taking over his mouth. "So do you have one of these for every person, and all you do is watch them and reap souls? I guess you must be very busy, though it sounds sort of boring." "I SUBCONTRACT SOME OF MY WORK TO OTHERS. LOOK DOWN."
James did but didn't hear anything, though he thought he distinctly heard a "SQUEAK" not an ordinary mouse "squeak" but a "SQUEAK". As he turned back around, Death was polishing a few other Lifetimers that looked considerably more normal than James.
"I ALSO LIKE TO WATCH UNIQUE TIMERS, LIKE YOURS, THOUGH YOUR ENTIRE GROUP IS PAINFULY HARD TO PREDICT. I'LL PROBABLY HAVE TO FIND SOMEONE JUST TO PLAY DEATH TO YOU SOLDIERS SINCE YOU DIE AT SUCH UNPREDICATBLE TIMES. TAKE A LOOK. AS YOU CAN SEE YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY THOSE WHO LIVE OUTSIDE OF TIME."
Death's voice was always dry, but now it was practically desiccated. But when James spun his chair around he discovered that his lifetimer had been replaced with 6 others. The first one was as opposed to his very finely crafted, it looked like it had been made by an expert as opposed to a man who was far sighted in one eye and near sighted in the other.
It was no less strange even if it had been perfectly ordinary white sand in it. The sand fell down like normal sand, but the moment the sand touched the middle of the device instead of falling through it the sand did a 180 turn and made it's way back up to the top of the Lifetimer. "TOO STUBBORN TO DIE, THAT ONE." James looked at the small brass plaque presenting the title "Mirri Lufkin" to any who looked at the Lifetimer.
The next one was even more unusual. It was filled with that sand that was trying its damnedest to fall through the opening in the middle of the Lifetimer, but couldn't do it. This was because the "sand", despite very clearly being made of thin grains of sand, happened to be clumping together like dirt with blades of grass growing from them. Try as they might the few grains in the top, refused top refused to fall to the bottom.
"THERE ARE PLENTY OF STUPID PEOPLE WHO TRY TO CHEAT ME, BUT I ALWAYS GET THEM IN THE END. that girl has a painfully good system however. there I was with my scythe all sharpened and ready to reap, and then this happens. look at me, i'm so angry i'm speaking in lower case." James quickly glanced at the title "Aeris Gaste" was that Aeris' last name? James couldn't remember properly.
"Well Sephiroth said she can grow flowers in Lower Midgar so this must be easy by comparison, right?" Lacking an answer from Death he moved onto the next one. It rose from the table to the ceiling, which under close inspection was a long way up. Thus James, who had always had a head for numbers, took a guess that a century in this lifetimer glass would equal a year in a normal one.
"I FOR ONE WON'T MISS THOSE THINGS, SUCH LARGE LIFETIMERS ARE A PAIN TO MOVE AROUND, I ALMOST THREW OUT MY BACK ONCE." James glanced at the label "Alexander Diamondclaw" and then went onto the next one.
It had grey sand, and it did nothing. It didn't go up or down, it was just frozen like a photograph. He checked the name "Niro Rose" that made no sense. Death apparently could read his mind, which made sense as he was Death after all. "CONSTANT MOTION IS STILL CONSTANT."
James had never thought of it that way before, he took a moment to scratch his ear, at least he didn't have to think about adjusting his hat first. He moved onto a very odd one. It was filled with sand of every color, though most of it was predominantly black, As James looked closer he also noted that all the black sand was on the bottom of the Lifetimer.
The top was exclusively filled with sands of other colors. Sand that was trying to flow down into the bottom, but it was impeded. A silver stone was wedged in the very middle of the Lifetimer and it prevented almost all the other sand from falling down. James glanced at the name and things made sense. "Vincent Valentine."
"VAMPIRES, NOW THERE'S A PROBLEM. MY LIFETIMERES ARE DESINGED WHEN THE PERSON IS BORN RATHER THEN WHEN THEY DIE. SO SOME VAMPIRES HAVE A LIFETIMER FILLED TO THE BRIM OF BOTH ENDS WITH STOLEN SAND." James wasn't very sure about the "stolen" part, those red specks of sand had been his own and he had given them to Vincent. "What are those specks of Mirri's sand doing in Vincent's Lifetimer?"
He asked the question out loud to no one, and Death certainly didn't feel like answering. James moved onto the last Lifetimer, it was, odd. It had clearly been designed by someone who was very good at designing hourglasses, but not very good at ones that timed things. Because instead of sand it was filled with silver rocks that were much too large to fall through the section that sand normally fell through in the middle of the Lifetimer.
James looked down at the name and smiled. "Sephiroth" yep that was what Seph's should look like. Suddenly James frowned as he looked even closer. "Hey! Seph's Lifetimer has his last name on it, except that its all covered in dust. A little bit of spitshine should clear that up, you really should take better care of these things."
As James leaned closer Death's voice exploded behind him. "that is not for you to know!" What happened next James couldn't be perfectly sure of, but he had to venture a guess, Death whacked him between the ears with the blunt end of his scythe. It was about that time that everything got light.
-------
(Vincent's flashback)
"So I lost." It was an understatement if ever there was one. Vincent's entire body was filled with pain as never before. He had never been captured in combat, but he doubted any kind of torture most savage tribes might deliver to him could have compared with the pain he was now in. Which made sense, it was only by perfecting civilization that things like killing and pain could be perfected.
It was amazing that regardless of how much pain he was in he was still alive. He couldn't move, couldn't act, could barely breath, by some unknown hand he could speak, but he was alive. All across his body needles had been driven into his skin pumping in unknown (and Vincent was glad for that small mercy) chemicals into his body. Whatever they where, that was probably why Vincent was still alive, though he was quite sure that none of those chemicals had been painkillers of any type.
It was a testament to the warped mind of the man standing over him that the pain could be so clear while Vincent was hovering on the edge of death. "That's right you bastard Turk, sooner or later savages are brought to task by science!" Hold the phone, since when was Vincent the savage of the two of them?
He killed people, preferably from long range, though he had done some hands on stuff, but he did it quick. He doubted anyone would ever complain about the pain Vincent Valentine (assuming they even knew his name, which they shouldn't have) gave them by putting a round through their heads so perfectly that their brains blew out the other side of their skulls. He had tortured a few people, he had forced himself on a few women, on orders, but that was on orders, and Vincent's skill at torture couldn't hold a twinkle, let alone a candle to the man standing over him.
Vincent killed people because he had to pick up a pay check to buy food and a place to live. He was a perfectly civilized person, performing his perfectly civilized part to keep the perfectly civilized world running like clockwork. That some people found the job of removing parts of the clock that had broken down, or refused to work a distasteful occupation was their own problem. If they felt like voicing it, Vincent would be glad to remove them from the system as well.
Hojo seemed to be doing this for personal revenge, the novice. He was of course a genius and quite adept at dealing pain, but he was still a newborn babe in Vincent's world. Rule number one as a Turk: don't make it personal. Making it personal slowed your reflexes, and made you do stupid things.
Granted Vincent had committed this cardinal sin himself, if he had been smart it would be Hojo on the table instead of him, and with a 9MM bullet in his head instead of needles in his skin. Still Hojo was making this far too personal just because he had finally discovered that his wife had just given birth to Vincent's son as a result of the many times Vincent had been willing to simply lend her a shoulder to cry on, and a bed to sleep in.
Ohh and let's not forget all those scars on her Hojo, never seen anything like them beforehand myself, you must have thought a lot of yourself for someone who couldn't work with a man who was fing his wife and not realize it till the kid was born. You didn't realize it then did you Hojo? You didn't realize it till I tried to free him from you that you finally caught on, some genius you are. So how is it that Vincent was the savage and the man who was drawing Vincent's death out to infinity was the civilized one?
Didn't seem very fair to Vincent, but the guy being operated on didn't get to make the rules. "Sephiroth will be taken to Midgar tomorrow, he'll never belong to you. The body of my wife is being suitably dealt with. Much like you she will spend eternity as an empty shell of a body, she'll never belong to you either!" Vincent didn't have the salvia to spit in Hojo's face, and that was a pity. He was however able to smile, and that had the desired reaction.
Hojo punched Vincent in the face, Vincent could have snorted in contempt. A broken nose, he had worse on bar runs. Not to mention that Hojo had almost no muscle strength, if it wasn't for the fact that some of those needles seamed to be sucking the marrow and cartilage as well as fluids out of Vincent's body it wouldn't have achieved anything.
Surprisingly even though Vincent didn't have any saliva left, he did have blood to bleed from his wounds, which just showed him that with Hojo things always got worse. "You've lost everything! Your money, your job, any hope of ever making something of yourself, and soon I'll even steal away your ability to escape it through death!" If that was true, why was Vincent still smiling?
Somehow he managed to find enough strength to speak, and uttered his last words with complete conviction. "I did my job Doctor. I gave you a specimen that was the peak of physical fitness. I do so hope that you think of me every time you look in his eyes Doctor. This is Sephiroth Valentine, son of a bastard, born while his mother was married to a man other then his father, he will inherit the Planet!" Everything went black for Vincent as Hojo was unable to form coherent words. A Turk to the end, kicking, screaming, and bleeding blood that was at least 20 proof.
------
Melkore found the situation intolerable. He had been flown to a prison on HIS airship, to see HIS greatest creation built by OTHER people! People who where not him! People who didn't understand just how important a weapon had to be! Mass production was a powerful tool for the masses, but took the soul from a thing!
So he sat in his dark cell wishing he had Sylvia for two reasons. The most obvious one was that if he had Sylvia he wouldn't be sitting in this cell any more. The other reason was that strumming a few chords would help ease the incredible tension and indignation he felt at this situation. How dare they build HIS Mako Cannon without his explicit permission!
A certain part of Melkore wondered why they had built it once he could get past his artistic anger. The Mako Cannon had been designed as the ultimate finisher. It was made to attack and level cities from halfway across the Planet, what the hell did Shinra want with it now? It was unlikely that Melkore would be getting any answers sometime soon, or before he died, as he had a feeling that this definitely would be sometime soon.
It was happening right now apparently, the door to his cell was opening. A man stepped in pistol raised, Melkore was prepared going to expire in a blast of indigence, how dare they kill him in such an unceremonious way, he closed his eyes. "BLAM!" "BLAM!" BLAM!" "BLAM!" Dam this guy was a bad shot, Melkore didn't feel a thing.
Melkore opened his eyes and was about to demand that they find someone to kill him who at least wasn't cross-eyed, when he realized three things. The first one was that the person holding the gun was so unrecognizable that he could only be one person, Niro Rose. The second thing was that the bullets had snapped the chains round his hands, and legs. The third thing was that something familiar was strapped across Niro's back, something wonderfully familiar.
"About time, I thought you were going to let us rot in here or be killed by Shinra." Niro unstrapped Sylvia and tossed it to Melkore who caught his guitar like a long lost lover. Niro's smirk was painfully smug, but then he hadn't spent any time in a cell. "What can I say, capital punishment isn't up my alley."
Melkore carefully strapped Sylvia across his shoulder, turned off her safety and stood up glaring at Niro. "Are you nuts, it's the only sensible way to do things! It doesn't make economic sense to pay good money to keep convicted felons sheltered for the rest of their natural lives while law abiding people can't afford to retire!"
As Melkore walked out the door a group of guards were starting to rush through the single door into the cellblock area. Starting to, but didn't get very far before the strains of "Jail House Rock" and a flurry of bullets from Sylvia made a deep circular impression on them.
"Well take it on a case by case basis and we'll work it from there.
Sound fair Morningstar?" Melkore blew smoke from his six barrels and acquiesced, Niro clearly had a plan. "All right then, since you clearly know what's going on, enlighten me to which way is out." Niro smiled that smug smile as he stepped in front of Melkore, and reloaded his gun. "We can't leave just yet Melkore, there's something you have to take care of."
----
"Don't bother trying to talk to him girl, the thing you once knew no longer exists!" Across strands of wire, James and Mirri had no choice but to look each other in the eyes. James' eyes where still vacant, they showed no emotion, no pity, and no remorse. Mirri for her part showed no fear, no regrets, and no indecision in her eyes even she faced off against James.
James' right hand acted while his left kept his grip round Mirri's throat tight. Wires shot out from it in a single loop and wrapped around it's intended target. Hojo let out a scream of surprise and barely managed to let go of the test tube filled with Aeris' blood in time to avoid getting hurt as James' wires encircled it. James' wrist jerked, and the test tube flew back to him.
He raised it back and drank deeply from the vial. Despite Hojo's screams of protest he drank the entire container in silence, and then used his long feline like tongue to lick up any possible drops that he had missed. His task completed, he clenched his fist, crushing the testable. He let go of the glass shards that remained and allowed them to sprinkle themselves against the floor.
If James had any hand injuries, his red gloves made his blood impossible to see. Hojo shouted pleaded, and screamed, but James paid no attention. Then an index finger and thumb rose, and between them they held a life. "SNAP!" The small device came apart easily between the two forces exerted on it. He dropped it, and with the same graceful smooth motion he instantly snapped the wires from his left hand back into his gloves. As the lens hit the floor and shattered joining the glass of the vial, Hojo let out a piteous moan like one who has just watched his child killed.
"Just like they say, it's all fun and games till someone you know gets hurt." Hojo looked like he was about to say something, but he couldn't manage to get the words out through his all consuming rage. A moment later he had another impediment, James with his eyes once again bright red now had strands of white around Hojo's neck.
Still with difficulty, Hojo wheezed out one word. "Monster!" James just looked Hojo right in the eyes and shrugged. "Yeah Doctor, I get that a lot with my hat off. But you're the one accusing me for what I don't have any control over, while you willfully mutilate the bodies of others. So what does that make you? A representation of humanity, a mongrel, a monster?"
When Hojo tried to respond, James pulled slightly tighter. "Don't say anything Doctor, I think it's time for you to listen to someone else for a while. Oh and thanks for giving me the enhanced, speed, stamina, and whatnot. However, you almost ended the first of my nine lives, not to mention you seem to be building your life around making other people's worse instead of better, I suggest you consider a change in occupation."
After James made that dramatic announcement he took a moment to scratch his right ear with his right hand. "Hey Mirri, I'm not sure what's the best thing to do with this guy. So why don't you tell me how hard you want me to make it for him to breath?" "James we have a problem." James was still keeping his eyes locked on Doctor Hojo, who was just barely breathing. "What problem? I could gut this Doctor like a fish if I wanted to!"
"James, the problem isn't with him, it's with Aeris!" James turned around in surprise, and instantly agreed with Mirri, they had a problem. Where the table that Aeris had been held down by reinforced restraints used to be, there was now a pile of scrap metal. Immersed in that pile of scrap metal, as it had been necessary to claw, rend, and chew its way out was a wolf with brownish red fur.
Its freedom secured, it turned its gaze to Hojo, and James knew a desire to kill when he saw it. James released his wire and Hojo managed to get enough air into his lungs to scream in fear. The wolf leapt for Hojo, and James leapt for the wolf. He managed to catch it halfway and drag it to the ground. The wolf snapped at James and tried to scratch him with its claws, but its goal was to escape James rather than hurt him.
For his part, James managed to get a good firm grip around Aeris' neck and hold on for all he was worth, fighting franticly to impede her progress. Mirri watched this happen and then acted with complete serenity in a manner befitting the situation.
Dr. Hojo's joy at having James' wires no longer around his neck was short lived, to say the least. Regardless of the fact that Hojo's body was lying slumped over with a blade piercing it's skull so cleanly that the bridge of his glasses had been severed, and the two lenses hanging limply from his ears before falling to the ground, Aeris' rage wasn't lessened. She apparently wanted to rip Hojo's dead body limb from limb, and it was all James could do to stop her from doing so.
"Mirri, could you give me a hand? I can't use my wires or I might hurt her!" Mirri would always boast she knew James better then he knew himself, few people disputed it. "Use your tail." Understanding flashed in James' eyes, using a one handed grip for a few perilous moments he acted.
Reaching down into his red sweat pants he quickly grasped and removed his fifth limb and ace in the hole, whatever that meant, James wasn't sure. It was a makeshift harness to say the least, but with deft hands James' managed to slip his tail under Aeris' chin, and pass it over to his other hand to grasp. Then he gave a sharp pull on it, and to his extreme amazement, it worked.
Either Aeris was starting to get control of herself, or she reacted to the restraining motion instinctively. Or it could be that both her eyes were now focused on the flaming tuft of a tail that hung just inside her vision. Either way, it worked. Aeris finally started to give ground to James as he started to pull her body away from Hojo's corpse.
The more ground James gained the less Aeris struggled. When the group was finally over the threshold of the door (Mirri made sure to grab James' hat), Aeris let out a pitiful whimper, and finally stopped fighting. James let out a sigh of relief and returned his tail to its normal position with one hand while stroking Aeris behind the ears (an area that always worked for him) calmingly.
"Good girl Aeris, good girl. Now listen, revenge on a dead body doesn't help anybody, particularly if it means hanging around this place, okay?" It sounded perfectly normal to James, but Mirri would later claim it clearly wasn't any human language he was speaking.
But then maybe, just maybe, the idea of giving up hate in order to do the more intelligent thing, (the gap between them was very wide as James was able to easily tell which was a better choice) was universal. Or as Alex had realized before hand James was fairly passable when it came to speaking wolf.
-----
Vincent looked at his hands, such as they were. Had he ever been that strong? Had he ever been this weak? As a vampire he should be stronger then a human. As a vampire, he should do everything he wanted to do as a human. As a vampire, he could! He slowly sat up, feeling determination surge through his body regardless of age.
"I think I can get out of here, but need your blood. As hungry as I am right now, I might kill you." Alex finally stopped batting at his chains in desperation. /Do feel free to try Vampire. You are truly ignorant of your own history. Vampires were Cetra once, Cetra taken by Jenova and twisted until they drank blood and could not stand the light of day. They exist to kill us, and we Garou exist to kill them. A Garou's blood is exceptionally sweet to a vampire, and exceptionally potent, you will find I have more then you need in me. If you can get at it./
Vincent slowly stood up, his chains drawing tighter to keep him from moving, chains he was too weak to escape. "Come closer, Werewolf." Alex went back to pawing at his chains in desperation causing him to once again swing back and forth. /My parents told me a story when I was young. A story of a warrior whose name was forgotten but whose memory will never fade away. He was a great Get of Fenris, but in the end to save his pack he had to face forces of the Wyrm not even he could overcome.\
Alex drew slightly closer to Vincent as he swung more erratically, a leg, a neck, the chest, anything would do/The Wyrm's forces took him alive and forced a collar of silver around his neck, much as I have had, even though he continued to kill them as they slipped it on him, much as I have. The Wyrm wanted to punish him, defile him, she wanted to turn him into a vampire. The Wyrm's strongest vampires were gathered in one place to make the transformation possible. Each of them took their fill of his blood before adding some of their own to his body.\
Alex swung one last time and Vincent lunged. He moved to the extent that his chains would let him, and though his hands and legs had no grip, his teeth managed to sink themselves in Alex's neck pushing through fur and skin. Unlike all of his other victims, Alex did not become delirious as Vincent drank his blood, instead he continued the story.
/When he awoke the warrior's fur had turned snow white, like the skin of the vampire, and as he looked at his creators with red eyes, eyes that remembered who had been, he felt anger grow in his un-beating heart. The Wyrm's strongest vampires, all gathered against one being, and yet they shivered in fear, suddenly realizing what they had done, they had not defiled the warrior, they had made him stronger. The warrior killed them, massacred them, every single one of them, ripping them to pieces with his bare hands, no longer even needing his claws.
He tore their heads from their necks and took back his blood along with that of the Wyrm's strongest vampires. With each one he killed the vampires felt fear turn their blood cold, for they knew they were doomed. They tried to flee into the shadows, but the warrior followed them, because he was a vampire as well. Every single one of the Wyrm's strongest vampires died, most piteously screaming for mercy to the one whom they had showed none.
The warrior emerged in bright sunlight, the kind that will burn the skin from a vampire's bones in seconds. His fur was thick however, and the sun didn't touch his skin, he was unhurt. He returned to his pack, and they knew him, just as he remembered them. They accepted him, and though he could no longer eat meat he still hunted with the pack, and took down prey for them.
He would suck his kills dry of blood before handing them over to his pack. The wolves would fight each other, no one ever died, but they would fight each other for a chance to say they had taken bites from one of his bloodless corpses. He never died, only became so powerful that he was called to keep Fenris company, and he weakened the chains that held him.
No pack other then a Get of Fenris one would have accepted the warrior, they would have turned on him and killed him for he would not have killed his own kind. The warrior is our hero, he represents everything the Get of Fenris stand for; striking at the Wyrm with every weapon we have, and making them fear us like no one else. In my family, we know that we are descendants of the warrior, that one whose blood was pure enough to survive the foulest taint.
To this day those who serve the Wyrm still dread the word 'Barghest', and the Get of Fenris revere his memory. Translated into Get it means what it is, like all proper Get words, a Garou who is also a vampire. However, in the corrupted original language that it was first spoken in that terrified shrieks of vampires who had thought themselves immortal and were about to learn otherwise, it had other meanings. In Wyrm like most Wyrm words it has many meanings.
Meanings that can be taken in many directions onto infinity, and not even its known definitions make much sense. In Wyrm I would say 'Barghest' means 'the one who remembers.' Do you not wish to show these pathetic humans who try to hold us the power of the Barghest, Vincent?\
Vincent would have responded, but he was too busy at the moment. Alex was right, Vincent was thirsty enough to drink a well dry, but Alex's blood was an ocean. He was not a virgin, but it didn't matter. Not even his... son's blood could compare with this. It was ecstasy. It wasn't just sustenance, it was more then that. It was pure undulating bliss to the extent that Vincent expected James to appear floating before him as the world lost focus.
Vincent broke away before he wanted to, but he just couldn't take any more of it, he was full regardless of how much longer he wanted it to go on. Vincent pulled his fang's from Alex and managed to lick his wounds closed, as a surge of something much more tangible then determination filled him.
Even connected to the wall, the chains had no chance against Vincent's overflowing strength. The wall would not break, so the manacles themselves snapped from Vincent's limbs, even the reinforced one on his left hand. "You know Alex, there's a strength to being human. You don't have to care about tomorrow, you can abuse the system all you want because you'll be dead before it matters. You don't have this fing ever present knowledge that tomorrow would be another day that you'll be alive, instead you were surprised that you had survived as long as you had."
As Vincent spoke he got to work on Alex's chains, rending them apart with more ease than he had his own. Alex managed to land on all fours as Vincent freed him from the last chain. "I mean look at us Alexander. We're in a tactically hopeless situation. Our commander is gone, we're all locked up in cells in the middle of an enemy military base, the sensible thing to do would be roll over and die."
/What would be the human response to this situation?\ Vincent smiled as he rubbed his hands together even with the disparity in size. "As a human I'd say we get drunk, kick some ass, die screaming like idiots and spitting obscenities after taking rounds in the gut and watching the life slowly drain from our bodies. If we survive the only reverence we show is that we make sure to piss on the graves of all the people we kill. Come on Alex in the spirit of things that vampires and wolves have in common, Carpe Jugulum!"
It was inspiring sentiment, but came just short of being fully translatable from human to werewolf. /I think you are right, this problem requires a human approach no matter how odd that approach is. Scent marking graves? Is that how you humans announce to others who was responsible for someone's death?\ Vincent didn't bother trying to explain it to Alex, he turned his attention to the heavy iron door before them.
"I think I can go to shadows and open it from the other side." "No need!" The words where twisted, as if spoken in a voice that wasn't quite human. Turning around, Vincent understood why. Alex was no longer a six and a half foot wolf standing on four legs.
He was a ten foot tall creature, half wolf, half human, wholly monstrous, standing on two legs, his arms boasting of muscles that looked right for wrestling Vlakorados for fun. Of course that ignored the dagger-like claws that tipped each digit. Alex had to crouch slightly to fit into the cell, and Vincent couldn't help but whistle. You just didn't see things that screamed "DEATH" as loudly as this thing did these days.
Vincent stood aside and Alex approached the door. "This is the Crinos form. Translated from Get that's 'Destroyer', as I said, Get of Fenris words are what they are, unlike human languages. I've been reserving this for a most dangerous situation, like this one. Let it begin!"
The door was designed to be incredibly difficult to move, but that was designed with human beings in mind. No matter how much humans planned in advance, they couldn't have predicted the door facing what Vincent now saw. Alex grabbed the door, and without much difficulty at all, ripped it off its hinges. Then as the two guards on the other side raised their weapons in surprise, Alex threw the door at one of them.
The blow was akin to hitting an egg with a sledgehammer, the guard hit by it was slammed up against a wall and his body crushed in half. The second man started shooting at Alex in helpless fear. His bullets were lead 9MM, shooting at Alex's with such rounds was akin to hunting dragons with a rusty spork. The bullets hit Alex, but if they even managed to penetrate his hide, they where almost instantly pushed back out as he regenerated.
With a single slash Alex easily separated the guard's body into several pieces. Vincent normally would have had to stop and lick up the blood before he could continue. This time he didn't however, he was already full from Alex's blood. He was full, and that made him free.
Wolves were only dangerous when they where hungry, Vincent had finally escaped the cycle of feeding and sleeping, he was full, he could do whatever he wanted. He grabbed both of his guns from the wall, they were still loaded and ready for action. "To whatever end, Alex." "For Blood and Glory, for Fenris, and for our Alpha!"
-----
The huge monster headed for Junon base like a giant shark cutting through the water. The Junon defense system was not completely compromised, but it was weakened. Every possible guard and SOLDIER rushed forward to fight the thing with any weapon they had.
The thing was gigantic beyond measure, how could anything possibly stop it? Junon's costal guns fired, and the batteries that hit the thing seemed to at least slow it down but did not stop it. It rose out of the water, and stared directly into the face of the huge Mako cannon as it's claws began to rend through the base's walls.
-----
The guards were already dead, so Niro didn't bother to avoid stepping on them. When they had been "captured" escape had been simplicity itself for him. Seven captives walk in, six and a guard walk out. Unless Shinra did a complete check of every single person who worked for them they had no chance of finding Niro.
Thus he had plenty of time to scout out the base and plan his escape with Melkore. "What is this place?" Unlike Niro Melkore took time to avoid stepping on the dead bodies.
Niro smiled as he looked around. "The Shinra defence grid is currently down. Secondary systems have come on line, but the Mako Cannon is a new addition, it doesn't have a back up wired into the secondary system. All it has is this thing, a manual fire button, or lever in this case. That thing out there is determined to tear this base to shreds, no real loss, but then it will move onto the city. Dr. Melkore, how would you like to save the city of Junon?"
Melkore's eyes misted over, as he approached the lever. "Niro, I shouldn't have to tell you that this is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. It's time to test fire Melkore's Mako Cannon! Forget saving the city of Junon, it's time to reduce this giant monster to a pile of slag! FIRE ONE!" Melkore pulled down the lever, and waited for the shot that would be heard round the world.
-----
The huge shell was already loaded into the barrel. The pulling of the lever caused a huge hammer to slam into the huge shell just like any other gun. The only difference was that the shell was glowing green, and when the hammer struck it, the thing burst to life like a jet engine. The WEAPON had been looking down the barrel to start with, it had investigated further to see why it was suddenly making such strange sounds.
The thing saw a bright flash of light, and then it saw nothing. The WEAPON had been designed to destroy entire armies of Jenova beings and fight Jenova herself. Melkore's Mako Cannon had been built with the idea that a single round from it could destroy all of Shinra HQ. The scale fit perfectly.
The WEAPON, minus one head, fell backwards and sank beneath the waves.
-----
Melkore pumped his arm decisively and hugged Sylvia tightly to him as he watched what happened over a video monitor. "TAKE THAT NATURE! MANKIND WINS
AGAIN!" He turned to Niro, eyes full of appreciation. "If you were in the shape of a woman right now I would kiss you! I can die a happy man having seen that happen, my life has been justified! My desires fulfilled! My magnum Opus completed! My masterpiece revealed to the world! My..."
Niro whistled, cutting Melkore off. The room was very near the top of the Junon base, and the ceiling had been torn off by the WEAPON'S claws. As Niro whistled, (it was now possible since there was no roof) a rope ladder was lowered directly into the room. Melkore looked up, and his eyes misted over again.
He adjusted Sylvia so that it was strapped across his back and hugged Niro tight enough to make it hard for him to breath. Halfway through, he spoke through gritted teeth. "If you ever tell ANYONE about this, I swear I will KILL you." Then Melkore grabbed the rope and started to climb up. Niro coughed and grabbed the bottom rung of the rope. "I thought you'd like it."
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They had moved through a lot of the base killing as they went. James and Mirri were at the forefront with Aeris following on all fours. Just after James had dispatched a group of guards, he stopped where he stood. He removed his hat, and scratched his left ear with his left hand. "Niro's calling. Mirri, we need to get outside!"
Mirri glared at James, they where almost out of the base, they had come to the T section they had crossed once before. The way out was right before them, to the left a door lead outside. Mirri looked back no one was following them, random chance was better then no chance, that was what they had if the elevator had no power and it probably did.
James rushed out the door, and was instantly struck without words for one of the few times in his life. Niro "stood" before them, hanging onto a ladder suspended from the deck of the Valar. "Good to see you James, Mirri, and Aeris I presume? The Valar has recently had a change of management, it is once again in the hands of its creator where it belongs. Would you guys like a ride?"
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"I never though this would happen Vincent." Alex had taken a human form for the reason that there was no one else to kill. Taking Crinos form seemed to have long-term effects on his human form: its customary hunter-green clothing had been replaced by combat boots, jeans, a close-fitting black T-shirt, and lifting gloves. His hair was unbound and fell across his face and shoulders, and he absentmindedly tossed a looted combat knife from one hand to the other.
From their special cell in the basement of the base they had fought all the way up to where they now stood on the top of the Mako Cannon. The two looked down on the waters below and the city as well. "Tell me Alex, do your people say that Vampires can fly?" "Like bats." Vincent looked down at the water which was so far below them and so deep. "Think I can fly?" Alex looked up at the sky; it was about as close to noon as it could be. "Not a chance. We'll fall like stones." "Think we'll die?" "That's debatable. You're already dead, and I refuse to die to anything less than a worthy opponent."
"Think we'll survive?" "I'll pull your body from the water myself, so that I might have the honor of killing you." "If I was smart, I would turn to shadows and escape that way." "If I was free to make my choices I would go back to killing until I drown in their blood."
"So, since that's out of the question, what with them all already being dead, let's jump." "Actually if you guys were smart you'd listen to me. Though, it is nice to see you getting along." The Valar now hung poised over the top of the Mako Cannon, Niro having just lowered himself down from it by a rope ladder before Vincent and Alex.
"So do you guys want to survive?" The Valar lowered slightly so that Vincent and Alex could grab hold of the rope ladder. "So it looks like we're not going to die after all." "I'm still dead Alex." "You have my sympathies." "I don't need them."
"You'd be surprised how many things you need, Vincent." "Since when did you two start calling each other by first names instead of by race?" "We had communion with each other. We broke bread and drank wine." "By which Alex means we broke bones and drank blood." "So nice to see we're all one big happy Midain family, James is gonna love this."
End chapter
FN: That was a ride and a half wasn't it? The version of Death portrayed in this chapter belongs to Terry Pratchett. That said, wow, I don't have anything else to say, I guess this chapter just really speaks for itself.
OWAN: Says him… Sorry again for the delay, and thanks for your patience. We'll probably be able to get the next chapter up in less than a month, and we've certainly got a ways to go. This has been your Diversity Sensitivity chapter.