Chapter 13
"Cloud, I'm worried about Vinnie. It's been three hours since he last said anything. He's acting less the Vinnie we all know and more the Vincent from the coffin!"
"Yuffie, I'm sure it's nothing," Cloud said before getting ready for the next fight. Diamond Weapon had just shown up and is marching for Midgar.
"…Yuffie, what happened after you left?" asked Red XIII.
"We went to this cave. It was filled with crystals and this black lifestream. It also had an occupant," Yuffie led him to her room and showed him the picture of Vincent and Lucrecia. "This woman right here, she was in the cave."
Red XIII looked at the picture, then back at Yuffie. "The thing is she hadn't aged a day. Anyway, they exchanged a few words and Vincent left. He's only said one sentence to me since then."
"…My guess is he has a lot to think about. Don't worry Yuffie; I'm sure it'll be alright."
"I wish I was so sure."
Vincent was on the observation deck, going over everything. The Death Penalty was his best gun but it gave no experience to materia, and he would need all the strong materia he could get when he fought Sephiroth. He holstered it behind the Cerberus, where it would be easy to grab if he needed it. Pulling out the Cerberus, he made sure the barrels were straight and the revolvers all worked properly.
If a person sends thirty years for the ache in his heart to begin to sooth, and at the end of the thirty years he saw the cause of the ache again, how many years will he spend to sooth it again?
Vincent pulled back the hammers and gave them a test fire.
No remark, Vinnie? Let's try this then. None. Lucrecia made her choice. So this shouldn't affect your's.
Vincent began loading the Cerberus and putting spare ammo in his belt.
Vinnie, Yuffie is down there worried about you. I'm sure she is afraid to lose you back to that coffin… Where I belong. After that, Vincent no longer replied to Chaos or the others.
The Highwind came to land in front of Midgar. The fight was about to begin. He got up and walked downstairs where everyone was gathering. "Hey Vin…nie… are you okay?"
"I'm fine Miss. Kiseragi."
Diamond weapon turned from them. They had just fought it with enough hard hits that would have put down several of Shin-Ra's best Soldiers. And it was turning away as if to say, 'I'm done playing with you, it's time I fight my true opponent.' It only walked a hundred yards, where the objects on its shoulders opened and started firing on Midgar. At the same time, the sound of the canon firing was heard. With its energy spent, Diamond weapon could only stay there and watch while the blast of Mako came at him and punched right through his body.
"…Diamond's energy blasts just slammed into the top of the Shin-Ra Headquarters. President Rufus was up there," Cait Sith said in his new accent. "…That's very strange, the canon is charging up again for another shot."
"Why, the barrier is already down?" stated Cloud.
"I'll give you a live feed. 'Who is at the Sister Ray's controls," said Heidegger's voice. "Really, Heidegger, you shouldn't make demands to your superiors.' 'Hojo! What are you doing? If you fire that again, you'll destroy Midgar!' 'So. A city, a thousand cities, all will be sacrificed to help my son!' 'You're mad, you damned bastard!' 'Ah, Reeve, tell me, are you still in contact with Avalanche? You have been getting awful chummy with them. I'll bet you are in a transmission with them.' 'What? You, soldier, place executive Reeve under arrest!' 'You can't do that Scarlet!' 'Wrong. If President Rufus is dead, control of the Company goes to me. Heidegger, come on, we need to stop Hojo, and I have a new toy I want to try!' 'So long Reeve, GHA-HA-HA!' …Well, that stinks. So, Cloud, what do we do next?"
Cloud said "Stop Hojo," while Vincent said "Kill Hojo."
"I think we all know where we're going. Hey assholes," Cid said, meaning the crew, "I want to be over Midgar before I can spit! MOVE IT!"
"Well, hello Cloud." Cloud stopped and turned around. Behind him, Reno, Rude and Elena walked up. "How you been?"
"Reno, I don't have the time to deal with you, Rude, or her. Cloud, I trust you can handle them," Vincent said before running forward.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Reno.
"One name, Lucrecia Crescent," replied Yuffie before following him.
Reno nodded, fully understanding. "So Cloud, how are…" was all Yuffie heard before it faded away. She soon caught up to Vincent, running at a sprint.
"Do you know where to go?" No answer. "I guess not."
"…The canon is attached to the Shin-Ra building. If I can't climb the scaffold to the station, I'll go along the canon. Either way, I plan on killing him before the night is through."
The two came across the Shin-Ra building before the scaffold. Going inside, they made their way up to the floor that the two were joined, collecting items along the way. But there was a slight problem. One of the shots from Diamond destroyed the hallway leading to the only way onto the canon from the building.
"I guess destiny doesn't want us to go through this way," said Yuffie.
"Freeze!" Yuffie and Vincent turned around to see over a dozen armed soldiers pointing their rifles at them. "I said freeze!"
"Well, this doesn't look good," Yuffie stated as she raised her arms, as did Vincent. As they started to lower their guns, Yuffie pulled a few shurikens out of her arm guard, dived to the side, and threw them, each embedding themselves into an eye of four soldiers.
Vincent also dived to the side, when he came up, he was in an alcove. Across from him, Yuffie was also in one. "I don't suppose you have an idea?"
"Nothing comes to mind," replied Vincent. In his mind, he made a mental check of all he and Yuffie had to deal with them. He had the Cerberus and the Death Penalty, Yuffie had the Rising Sun. Their Materia included Contain, Odin, Leviathan, a mastered Ice attached to Magic Counter, Mimic, Cure with an All, an Enemy Skill that was mostly complete, and both had a Lightning and Fire. Yuffie also had Morph and Vincent had Deathblow.
The Cerberus fired as two Soldier tried to come up on them. One scurried back, the other fell over.
"…Yuffie, Leviathan! And make sure to press yourself hard against that wall!" Vincent dug his claw into the floor and pushed his feet against the wall. When she did her best to secure herself, Yuffie activated Leviathan. The now familiar feeling of his senses expanding took place and he saw the sea serpent. Any moment now, he would flood the hall with water. The only problem was that while he and Yuffie wouldn't be hurt by the water, their bodies were still there. And could be thrown out with the soldiers.
Water rushed by him, carrying the soldiers with it, and fell out of the hole. Leviathan disappeared and Vincent breathed again. Despite his best, the water had pushed his feet from the wall. If his claw hadn't been in the floor, he would have gone over too. Yuffie was still where she had set herself. Letting go of the wall, she stepped out into the hall. "That was fun."
A gun fired, hitting her in the arm. Vincent was over to her in half a heart beat. Grabbing her, he heard two more bullets being fired and felt them take him in the left side of his back. Spinning, he pulled the trigger on the Cerberus. All three bullets hit the soldier's head.
"Damn, missed one," Yuffie said, pressing hard on the wound. Vincent cast regenerate on her and the tear knitted back together. "Hey, what about you?" Yuffie pulled aside his cloak and found two round holes in his shirt. And the bullets were right beneath them, flattened. Lifting the bullets from his skin, she found it was only bruised. "Interesting."
"One of the results from Hojo, I'm afraid. His experiments gave me a nearly indestructible body, and then they killed me. It still hurts like hell though."
"I imagine," Yuffie said touching one of the spots, his whole back tensed. "Sorry, Vinnie!"
"Don't worry about it… We better get down there; we won't get to him from here."
At the bottom, they found Cloud about to go up. "Don't bother, we were just up there, Spike," said Yuffie, "the way to it has been destroyed."
"Well, that sucks."
When they came out of the man hole, they saw the scaffold to the controls only a few blocks away. As they headed to it, something big stepped into their way. "We just can't get rid of you!" stated Scarlet.
"GHA-HA-HA! So, let's just kill them," replied Heidegger
"Why are you protecting Hojo!" yelled Cloud. "If he fires again, we'll all die!"
"Correction, you are going to die and we'll stop Hojo," answered Scarlet.
"If you refuse to let us pass, we'll go through you," Vincent said, pulling out the Death Penalty and aiming it at the two.
"Nice gun, but it will never get through the Proud Clod's armor!" Scarlet retorted.
They went inside and closed the hatch. Vincent pulled the trigger, and a shot hit the hatch. "OH SHIT!" came over the speaker on the thing.
Finally the Proud Clod was destroyed and they ran forward. Going to the top, they found Hojo at the controls. "Hojo!"
He spun around and looked at Vincent. "Well, well, if it isn't my failed experiments. To think, of all my experiment, two of my failures are my strongest. Except for Sephiroth of course"
"You Bastard, he was your son!"
"Temper, temper Vincent Valentine. He is still my son. My son and Jenova's." Vincent actually started to growl, and some fangs grew in his mouth. Hojo stared at it for a moment, unsure what was happening. "It doesn't matter what you do, I will still fire this mako canon."
"Hojo," Cloud said, "we have had allot of people say something like that lately, guess what they didn't do."
"Well, there is a difference between me and them," he pulled out a vial and drank it. At the same time, Vincent let out the rage that had been building up. Chaos stepped out of the darkness that had surrounded him.
"Hello, good doctor. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Chaos."
"Whoa, I never thought the Vamp actually had real demons," Barret said.
Two monsters appeared at the side of Hojo, while he pulled out a gun. But he was still no stronger than a normal soldier. But then his body mutated.
Yuffie was in back, ready with Cure spells and phoenix downs when ever someone needed them. Otherwise, she was too transfixed on Chaos to do much else. Chaos looked allot like Vincent, his face was almost the same. Which made sense, it was Vincent's body. But it appeared his cape had become Chaos's wings. His hair had grown ridged and spiky. His right hand was now also clawed. And his skin was even paler, almost blue. To say the least, it turned him from appearing only deadly to looking like Death incarnate.
He was constantly up at Hojo, tearing parts off him as fast as he could re-grow the missing pieces. This caused damage to himself as well, so Yuffie spent allot of healing on him.
Hojo took notice of where the healing was coming from and tried to attack her. But again, Chaos got in his way. "Hello Yuffie, I am so glad to finally meet the person whom has caused the greatest amount of unrest in my host," Chaos said this with a smile, meaning it, in part, as a joke.
"… A pleasure," Yuffie stammered.
Hojo changed again after an attack from Tifa. This form was lithe and small. It didn't have any hands to cast spells. In their place were blades. And he seemed to have gone berserk. He was attacking everyone with an abandon.
"The Jenova cells have taken over his body. Soon his mind and soul will be destroyed."
"Wait, why didn't that happen to Vincent? Or Lucrecia, I saw her."
"Right, about that…Lucrecia is dead; her body has long since turned to dust. Only her soul and mind still remain. As for Vinnie…" At that moment, Hojo started attacking him. "I'm afraid I'll have to continue this later."
The fight lasted another ten minutes before Hojo fell. And without anymore energy brought out by the fight, Chaos didn't have a chance to finish talking with Yuffie. But that was okay, he could still tell Vinnie.
Lucrecia, I have avenged you. In the back of his mind, he felt Galian Beast stretch and say, when am I going to get to come out again! Not to mention killing him for putting these four in my mind.
Ah, about that, there is something I've been waiting for the right time to tell you. Only I was put in here. The other three are the result of your mind coming in contact with me. They are creation of my own mind? Made very real by me. You could probably gain control while in their bodies. Maybe even my body. Like I will believe that. Wait, did I just say 'like!' Yes, you are Vincent. Think about it, what do you see yourself as? A beast, a monster, and a… Murderer. All of which are far from the truth, by the way. Also, I am not a demon, per say. I am a weapon for the Planet, created from Lifestream that has been contaminated with some substance. But that isn't the worst of the things I have to tell you. Which is?
…Hojo did not put me in your mind. I came after his experiments on you. But who put you in my mind then? …Lucrecia Crescent. Liar! No, you were dead. And Lucrecia couldn't let you die too. Too? …You mean my father, Grimoire, don't you? Yes. The container with contaminated Lifestream ruptured. Grimoire pushed Lucrecia out of its path and ended up in it. He died moments later.
Anyway, your body was decomposing, but it wasn't too late to save you…by her thinking. Personally, I thought you a corpse for a few hours. Yet, somehow, she was able to combine us. After that, I don't remember anything.
The Jenova cells you had in you were destroyed by me after my…grand entrance. That's it? That's it. …So she pushed me away because she didn't want to be reminded that she was the cause of my father's death. Yeah. I think Cloud is calling you.
"Vincent! We need to get people out of this area! There's a reactor under the Headquarters! It was probably damaged by the attack!"
Vincent nodded. "I'll start getting the wounded together and helping the EMS in the building."
"Alright, Yuffie, you get this sector. Tifa, sector 2, Barret…"
Vincent stopped paying attention. He took one look at where the body of Hojo had fallen, which had turned back to normal, and went to the Shin-Ra Headquarters.
He had just finished with the headquarters and had walked outside. But something was bothering him. And it was Hojo. Pulling out his PHS, he called Yuffie. "Yuffie, check the Mako Canon." "Why we've already been there… What on earth!"
"Thank you Yuffie." Hanging up the PHS, he ran for the controls. He just doesn't want to die, does he? I'll have to disappoint him.
When he got there, he saw Hojo over the controls. Upholstering the Cerberus, he aimed at his head. But an explosion blasted from the mako storage cell. Hojo's body was destroyed, being so close to the blast. With the scaffold falling, Vincent realized he was about to die, it was a long drop.
"VINNIE!" Vincent lifted his head and saw Yuffie heading to him on a borrowed EMS hover bike. He jumped on and took the controls, being that Yuffie was about to be sick. Okay, now he is dead. "Yuffie, you have beautiful timing."
Author's notes: (checks watch) I'm tire, you take it Chaos.
Now why should I?
Because if you don't, I won't let you in on how this fic ends.
…You have a very good point. 1sniperwolf doesn't own Final Fantasy 7. He is a pitiful mortal who will likely amount to nothing.
Hey, stop being mean!
What, does the truth hurt?
YES!
I have done what you ask, now tell me!
Fine, fine, now listen well. …(whisper, whisper)… Now don't speak a work of it!
Wait, who the HELL is Shelk!
What did I just say.