Chapter 4: Reminiscence
It had been a few hours since they had departed west, away from the gorge where the helicopter was found. Soon, the sun was going to set in little hours left there was of sunlight. As they proceeded further westward of their location, nature seemed to quiet itself and the vegetation slowly started to become silent with an ominous expectation.
This felt strange to Flora, though she did not admit it. No Claymores had passed this road before. Finally they passed some withered trees, coming to a large structure.
When the building came into full view, Vincent can only said the first two words than came to mind, "Shinra Mansion."
The manor was moderately small for its size, with only two floors judging by two levels of windows as seen from the exterior. It was an old style manor, fitted for Flora's world; easily adaptable with their culture. It was comprised of wood, brick and stone. Majority of the complex was brick and stone with the wood used as strong structural support in the exterior frame. And a mansard roof covered with bluish-purple slate (or at least Vincent presumed it was slate) with windows built into it as a style.
"Is this where it came from?" Flora asked Vincent, who was behind her throughout the journey.
"It looks like it; it reminds me of something on my world somewhat," Vincent replied, looking at a replication of the Shinra Manor, though the surrounding was not of the original. There were some smaller wooden cabins, broken down tents and a heliport which is only leveled dirt with a circle with an "H" painted in white.
Examining the area, it looked as if it had been untouched by the inhabitants of nature. Not even a cobweb was threaded; it was a forsaken place, even in nature's eyes.
A series of paved roads leading from cabins and the heliport all led to the front entrance of the mansion. Two stone columns stood on either side of the front entrance: two large doors made up of stone.
Just as a precaution, Vincent always kept his hand on his holstered pistol. Even the lifeless earth could hold enemies that lie in its depths, sleeping and waiting. Flora had gotten the hint and kept her hand ready to reach for her sword, set to engage when she needed to.
"The place I've slept and been awoken from. It certainly brings a collusion of the past, the present, the future." Vincent said walking onto the stone paved walkway towards the house and Flora followed.
"This place sends a strange vibe in my body," Flora mumbled, the warm blood within her seemed to freeze with each step taken into the complex.
Entering the mansion, Vincent's memories had already resurfaced in the main hall. Various things he had experienced in the Shinra Manor in his world in a town called Nibelheim.
"The place where it all began..." Vincent mumbled.
Flora saw that he was acting a bit different from usual. The tone of his voice sounded lightened. She saw that Vincent began to act differently; since entering the manor that this replica of the so-called "Shinra Manor" is having an effect on Vincent.
"The beginning of a great change began in this hall," Vincent told her, eyeing at the middle of the room adjacent to a wooden staircase on the far right of the main hall. It led to the sub-floor which could be describe as an indoor balcony and the second floor floor. The entire interior was primarily made from stone and bricks (including the floor) and wooden furniture was decorated around the inside of the mansion. There were two and two hallways rooms on the main floor with two on either the left or the right wings, and two halls leading to either top left or right wings of the manor.
Vincent followed his instincts as his memories came with it, with Flora following close behind. He made his way to the second room on the left wing.
"Everything seems to be as it was, or almost…" he said entering what was the dining room, which also seemed to be an ideal meeting place. This was also the first place where he met her too, and began to recall the event that took place many years ago.
Vincent introduced himself. "Vincent Valentine reporting for duty, ma'am. I have been assigned your protection."
The woman gasped when Vincent mentioned his family name.
"No… Why would they send his…?" She mumbled.
"Excuse me?" Vincent asked.
"I apologize. This is the first time I've ever met someone from the Turks. Lucrecia Crescent. Pleased to make your acquaintance Mr. Valentine." Lucrecia replied cheerfully and politely at him.
Flora looked through some scattered documents on the long wooden dining table. A layer of dust was visible over the files.
Picking up some of the documents, he saw that they were random documents of SOLDIERs from a war fought many years ago. Flora also looked into the spreadsheets. Luckily for her, their worlds possessed the same language and writing; she wondered if the Organization processed information in the same way.
Flora began reading silently while Vincent continued to look for whatever he is searching for. "I don't think I can find information here; these are only profiles of SOLDIERs during the Wutai War."
"Vincent? Who is Weiss?" Flora asked suddenly as she continued to stare at a particular file. He came over to her and double-checked if she had read the name correctly.
He read it more than enough to remember the name clearly. "Weiss the Immaculate, host of Omega like I am host for Chaos. He is the pureness and I am the foulness. We are equals, yet Omega is the knight and Chaos is its squire."
Another remnant memory began to rouse his thoughts. The first time he had heard Weiss's voice.
A WRO Member spoke out, "Commissioner! A rogue transmission is being broadcast on all wavelengths!
"At last. The time has come to cleanse the world. The pure will be spared for the cause, while the tainted will be hunted down and exterminated…" a malice voice spoke through the speakers
"My body as one with Omega as yours is with Chaos."
"Vincent, who is he?" Flora asked as Vincent returned her the document, looking at the picture of Weiss. A young man with short white hair He wore what seemed to be a soldier's attire.
He turned his back onto her, "A man with a dream of a purified world and one who also brought upon murderous acts to kill innocents by the thousands. He is also a man… whom I killed a year ago."
"Killed, but it said here…" Flora began.
"I read what it said, Flora. This information is rather old according to the date this document was issued, but there is a larger plot at hand here. This isn't a mere random occurrence. Weiss had ties to Omega, as I to Chaos. Come, there must be some sort of information in the basement."
She dropped the document and quickly grabbed her sword before Vincent dragged her with him by the hand.
They came about to a storage compartment located in the next room. Stocks of wooden boxes were scatter across the room, but there was no way to this room other than how they have entered it. One particular aspect of this room is the opposite wall is curved inwards to the room. It was not a flat wall like the other three walls.
"Maybe we should explore the other rooms, this is a dead end." Vincent ignored her suggestion.
He hoped that this will also contained the same blueprint as the original, knowing the exact layout of Shinra Manor. A great amount of time was spent in this building, and he had memorized its secrets.
Across the room on the circular wall, he knocked on the bricks, and a small cloud of dust crumbled from the ceiling above. Determining this was where they would enter the basement. With a good push, the wall pushed backwards and fell into a gap in the floor opening a new access.
"Come, the basement is this way," Vincent said, revealing a secret passage to the unknown.
Flora leaned over to see the depth of a spiral stair, but it was nothing compared to where she had fallen from her missions in the past. They descended down the flight of stairs and reached the ground.
The basement was more or less the same; its construction had improved since the original. As the original looked like a mineshaft, but there were new improvement in the structure such as: steel bolts were in place to reinforce the caverns from crumbling, the ground had been leveled and cement had covering the earth. Lighting was still the same, using standard electrical lanterns which only gave enough suitable light to see.
Proceeding past a few metal doors and down the hall to the other end, Vincent's instincts proved him right: on the far end of the hall, lies a room with visibility of what he was searching for. They entered a room which was half archived library, and half laboratory with some science equipments.
"There it is," Vincent said, advancing towards the bluish orb that remained dormant. It was in some sort of test machine. The machine was still functioning, as the materia was being afloat in a green particle field as two polar points kept it in the air.
"What is this place?" Flora looked around the half library-half laboratory.
"This is a place where you can deform nature change then into monstrous forms of life, calling yourself a God for what you can create," Vincent replied with malice. He knew first hand of what took place here, for he was one of many finished products of monsters. They can look humans, but they are far from humans.
"It started nine years ago, and hasn't stopped since; no… it has been twenty-eight years ago. The day where I should've stopped it from happening, and then none of this would've happened. That is my sin… for allowing this fiendish deed to continue even after my death and the deaths of many others." He expressed remorse, and took the blame for what had transpired over the years.
"But…"
"Check the documents over there Flora; look for any sort of keywords related to 'Bahamut' 'materia' or 'clone,' and see if there is anything useful you may think," Vincent commanded her, disregarding the topic at hand.
She did as she was told to do; both placed their weapons on the table and began scuffling through the documents. Even though the materia was right in front of Vincent, he wanted to make sure it was safe to remove it just like that.
"Vincent I think I found something." Flora handed him a set of documents and he began to see the keywords he mentioned.
"Good job…" Vincent complimented her before he began to read the writing on the papers.
Flora was quite bored as Vincent read, so she just roamed around the room see various things. There were various types of items on the other side of the room. Some crystallized orbs, to be exact.
For some odd reason Flora wondered if they were magical orbs like what Vincent had. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch it, but her nosiness wanted her to. She decided to pursue her eagerness to hold it. She gradually reached out to grab it; when she touched it just slightly over the cold orb, it glowed and flashed.
Vincent was startled by the unexpected turning around to see what Flora had done, but never got a chance to say anything.
"…an organism that was apparently dead was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism Jenova X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient---X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova Project approved. The use of Mako Reactor 1 approved for use. My mother's name is Jenova… Jenova Project. Is this just a coincidence? Professor Gast… Why didn't you tell me anything? Why did you die?"
Sprouting into action he picked up his gun quickly and scoured the room for the source of 'his' voice. "…Flora… did you touch anything?" He asked, slowly moving around the room cautiously.
"Only this," Flora held out her hand showing the orb's laminating light die away.
"A data module…" It was a false alarm. Vincent placed his weapon back onto the table; believing 'he' was in the same room was nerve wrecking.
"Whose voice was that?" Flora asked, putting down the module, "You look startled; was the voice familiar to you?"
"The voice of an evil memory that will always be remembered…" Vincent simply said; he didn't want her exposed too much of what has happened in the past, or, more likely, rather not to be involved with this at all. "It seemed they required Bahamut for an experiment, though it didn't say what kind of experiment. But there isn't enough information of the user or who have retrieved it."
"So… what does that mean?"
Sighing, he tried to resist the urge to tell her another thing he'd rather not say to her. "It means my mission complete. It is time for me to return and report back."
"O-oh…" Flora held her breath.
"He's leaving? But we've only begun!" her thought shouted.
He grabbed the materia and inserted into his forearm. "I would need more facts and data for why Bahamut was stolen in the first place surfaces. And… why there is a replica of Shinra Manor on this world. There isn't much to go on with; I cannot be the only one to finalize the decision to continue on my mission."
"So your orders were only to retrieve the materia you came looking for?" Flora asked, hoping there was some sort of gap she could use to prolong his stay more.
"No, the full orders were given was to locate the user of Bahamut, user's intentions for stealing it and eliminate the user. But priority one… retrieve Bahamut overrides all other orders if they cannot be performed."
For the first time in Flora's vocabulary, she mentally said, "… Damn."
"I must dispose this facility and all traces of our presence here. I need you to leave first Flora… I'm going to change my form into the Gillian Beast; with that form, I can fully destroy this place."
"Alright, I will wait for you outside." Flora followed his instructions, and picked up her sword she began her journey back up the stairs. It was nearly sundown according to Flora the color of the skies was an orange-pink sky when she exited the mansion. She moved away, following the path leading to the landing zone for the helicopter.
A deepening roar erupted from the earth, vibrating the ground. Unlike last time, Flora did not see what Vincent's full strength in his beast form. From the Shinra Manor, a fiery explosion punched through the roof and out flew the beast she once saw.
It hovered over the building, unleashing its fire attacks causing multiple explosions, and within seconds, the building burned to the ground. Vincent landed back onto the ground, making a crater on the already deepened ground. With his iron-like muscles and fists he penetrated the ground. Unbeknown to Flora, he unleashed furies of fireballs into the ground and headed for the smaller buildings. Before long, the entire vicinity was in flames. His deed was complete.
Once again, a black aura consumed Vincent and his regular physical form was returned. A roaring fire shrieked behind him as his shadow came over her.
"I suppose… this is where we will depart, Flora."
"No wait… couldn't you stay longer?!" Flora desperately asked him.
"I'm sorry Flora, but I have to go back," Vincent tried to reason with her. She clamped onto him tightened her hug around his body.
He only stood there as she cuddled him. "I don't want you to go…" Flora whispered. He did not reply.
"Because I've fallen for you…" she finally said barely above a whisper.
"What?" Vincent's mind became shaken, "I…" Words couldn't form in his vocal chords. He tried mustering his voice say something, but she continued nevertheless.
"But, it is fine Vincent," Flora smiled looking up at him with little bulbs of tears in her eyes. "So I want you… to make this farewell memorable."
He had gotten the hint from what she had just said, "Flora…" Vincent was at his second loss for words, but he knew what he wanted to say. "Flora, I also harbor such feelings for you too… but what you are asking of me… would only mean the final chapter of our relationship."
"But…" Vincent silenced her.
"I don't want to end it here. If we do this now… we may find satisfaction in our journey together fulfilled. No… I don't want that."
She never thought of it this way. Though they may be distant from each other, it would not mean the end of what they have.
"I want this to continue… that's why I will have to turn it down. I'm sorry, Flora," Vincent said to her.
"You've changed since we first met Vincent…" Flora said, allowing her eyes to blink, "I don't want it to end either." She looked up with a satisfied smile on her beautiful, angelic features.
He lowered himself to gently kiss her on the lips, and she gladly accepted it. Though it was not passionate as she expected it, but she felt it was more than enough for her to handle.
They shared one final embrace, before Vincent turned away, trying to restrain his shoulders from trembling. She could not help her eyes caressing his back as he began to walk away; moving towards the distant forest. Then disappear from her sight. She remained there for a long time, staring at his departing form. Although they could not hear each other anymore, their words for each other were carried by the winds.
"I will return," he murmured.
"I will wait for you," she whispered.
A/N:
This chapter may have way too many cliché elements (and probably lots of typos & grammatical errors that I have missed)...
This is the first time I've put an author's note in my chapters. I wanted to give the readers a little Thanksgiving surprise to you. Even if you do not celebrate Thanksgiving; I would like to give thanks to the readers and supporters of this fiction in progress.
I would like to update you all on my current progression so far in college… I want to hang myself. Kidding, but I'm overly stressed and it's becoming harder and harder to give time to Shards of Confluence: Overture. Heck, it's even harder to even get any research done for college. Apparently I didn't know that Psychology is a highly demanded program in university and chances I might not be accepted. Since a couple thousands other Psych. Majors students wants in as well.
I cannot tell IF I'll even give another surprise with the next chapter. But just to tell you all (because I forgot to even mention it in the beginning of the fic), Shards of Confluence: Overture starts off with a series of what I say to be "Character Arcs". I've devised a series of arcs in order to introduce the next sets of characters, while continuing on with the stories. So far, I have completed the Flora arc, but does not mean she is not one of the main casts.
Also for Final Fantasy VII diehard fans, I like to apologize due to my limited data regarding to the description of Shinra Manor, because it does not describe it as it should be.
So until next time, I bid farewell and happy Thanksgiving to those who do celebrate it once again. And have a wonderful (non-stressful) weekend.
TheDarkSprit