"I don't know who she is, Reeve," Vincent said into his phone. Outside, he breathed in the mountain air. He glanced up at the ruins of the manor, again reminded of the pain he suffered years ago in that place. Cringing, he turned away. "She doesn't know, either."
"And you just found her?" Reeve asked from the other end. He almost sounded skeptical. As if Vincent had any reason to lie to him.
"That's what I said." Vincent didn't know what to do with the girl, so he had called his old friend for help. He couldn't just leave her, not like he would have back when he was in his Turk days. One of the disadvantages of having what Yuffie describes as a 'heart of gold'. "She's scared."
Reeve sighed and Vincent pictured the Commissioner pinching the bridge of his nose. "You know it's not your job to help the helpless, Vincent. You can't go picking up every stray kitten you see."
"Okay." Vincent disregarded Reeve's words easily. The girl wasn't a cat, she was a human being. "She looks like she's in pain. So I'll probably bring her by the headquarters so you can get a doctor to look at her."
"You can't just-..." Reeve stopped himself, for which Vincent was happy. He didn't want to remind the Commissioner about all the favors he owed him. "Fine, we'll be waiting."
Vincent shut his phone, disconnecting without saying goodbye. His usual habit. He turned and glanced back up to the manor and for a moment, all was calm. He merely watched the ruins with solemnity. But the longer he looked, the heavier his heart felt.
"Stop whining," Hellmasker growled in the depths of his mind. "You've had well over sixty years to get over that wench." Somewhere in the corners with this hellish demon echoed the faint noise of a chainsaw, making Vincent cringe. It was like nails on chalkboard, to his mind.
"Is it more, Vinnie?" A different voice cooed, dripping with malice. The most familiar voice: Chaos. "You know it is. It's the girl; she doesn't bode well."
"Nothing bodes well," Vincent replied casually to the calamitous voices. The breeze ruffled the end of his cloak as his feet led him back up the front walkway of the senile mansion. "How long have you known me? Since when has anything bided well?" He wasn't throwing himself a pitty party here, he was stating the facts.
Pushing open the creaking massive door, he let his mind think about more about the girl. Maybe she wasn't really a girl; she looked above the age of twenty. But they were all young to him. All just kids, with a whole life to live and make mistakes in. Normal mistakes, not mistakes that send the person you love locked in a mako-fused crystal for the rest of her life while you have no choice but to kill her son...
He grunted. This manor always made his mind go back to what he could not change. To what no longer mattered. His eyes searched the grandiose room for the frizzled girl, finding her at the base of the rickety stairs. She looked up at him with wide eyes filled with innocence. Eyes that pleaded for help though the girl had not said one word.
Eyes that mattered. "Getting this girl her memory is something that matters," Vincent thought inwardly. "No matter how it bodes."
He looked at me with something sparking in his eyes. Like a memory or an idea. Then a mere fraction of a second later, it was gone and he sighed, "Let's go." He gestured out the wide open door. "I'm going to bring you somewhere safe, just until we figure out where you belong."
Beautiful daylight streamed through, highlighting every dust particle in the air. It framed around Vincent Valentine, almost making him appear...angelic. I guess he would have to be somewhat angelic, or demonic, with the color of those piercing eyes. Either way, he was helping me.
I carefully rose up off the bottom step of the stairs, trying not to move too quickly, and made my way towards him. The stone floor was cool against my bare feet and the thick layer of dust felt like sand as I moved. As I came closer, he glimpsed down to my feet. "It's not much of a walk to the nearest town," he said, "but it might be since you're barefoot."
"I'm sure I can manage," I replied with a small smile of reassurance. I'd have to manage; I was positive I wouldn't be able to find a random pair of shoes lying around in an abandoned mansion. But then again, Vincent was able to find a random girl lying around in an abandon mansion... Which sparked my curiosity…
"What were you doing in the manor?" I asked, gliding past him and into the warm, fresh air. I glanced back over my shoulder just as a forlorn expression crossed his face as he spared one last glance at the spacious room. He closed the door behind himself then turned to me with a look that said he didn't hear my question. I repeated it.
"Looking for data files," he answered. The reply was short and curt-he didn't want to explain any further. Instead he stepped ahead, his golden sabatons silent against the hard earth. He gestured around in the air, changing the subject. "There are wild monsters around here, so it's best to stay close." He gave me a stern look, as if saying, I mean it, and continued on to the large metal gate at the manor's entrance.
Just as we were stepping through, a flock of giant birds dropped down from the sky, crying out with hunger. One flared its wings out while screeching a viscous caw only seconds before a bolt of lightning shot from its gaping beak. The streak of white-hot light flashed inches before my face and I let out a frightened yelp, instinctively reaching my hand out for Vincent Valentine. To my relief, he caught it with his owned armored hand, pulling me behind himself. With his other hand, he swiftly un-holstered the weapon at his thigh, bringing it up to the face of our attacker with intense speed. And without the slightest hesitance, he shot it out of the air.
But that only signaled an attack from the others.
The majority of the rest swooped down, fearlessly taking on Vincent. I cried out his name, feeling too helpless to do anything, when suddenly there was a fierce tugging at my hair. I was yanked violently away from my cloaked guardian and dragged several feet away. I hollered out in protest-my muscles were screaming from whatever had left me in pain earlier- and reached up for my hair. I felt scales on taloned feet, feet that were yanking and pulling my head and hair seemingly everywhere at once. I could no longer tell if the owner was still trying to separate me from Vincent, or if it was desperately trying to escape the Medusa-like kinky curls it managed to ensnare itself in. Either way, I wanted it to let go.
I hollered out again, a deep cry of frustration and pulled my hands from my hair. I thrust my palms upward toward the raptor-like bird and, with a power I'm not sure where from, I neutralized the threat. A burst of fire erupted from my upturned hands and seared through the chest of my attacker, sending it flying from my head. Probably with a good bit of my hair still wrapped around its talons.
I lowered my hands and spun, searching for Vincent. A good ten feet away, he stood, surrounded by the corpses of the overgrown birds. His weapon was lowered and he watched me with expressionless features, unnaturally calm while I breathed heavily with sweat now glistening over my forehead.
"Are you okay?" I asked, expelling my breath. My body trembled involuntarily. What had I just done? Where did that fire come from?
Vincent's eyes did not move from me for a long moment, and I feared that he was beginning to think negatively of me. Great, now who would help me find me?
After a while, he stepped toward me with the silent movements of a ghost. Saying nothing, he stretched his hand towards my face. Not knowing his intentions, I froze and my rapid breathing stopped, catching once again in my throat.
His hand moved past my face and I watched it, unnerved, in my peripheral vision until I couldn't see it anymore. Something shifted in my hair, then his hand returned to my line of vision. Carrying one single, severed talon. Vincent let it drop from his gloved hand and it landed with a sturdy thud at my feet. With one abrupt movement, he turned and walked again to the direction we were going, his scarlet cloak billowing in the gentle breeze.
"That is just disgusting," I squeaked, my hand instinctively going to my curls. I stared down at the grotesque talon and wrinkled my nose. It had gotten stuck in my hair when... I didn't finish the thought.
I glanced back up to Vincent Valentine, who was gradually getting further away. "How come nothing got stuck in your hair?" I called huffily. He didn't respond, didn't even stop walking. Instead, he reached behind with his armored hand and slowly, teasingly ran the golden claws through his silky, obsidian locks. They glided through easily and unhindered.
I smoothed my palm down over my curls with a frown, trying to suppress the sure frizz that resulted from the attack. "Bastard," I muttered as quietly limped after him.
Vincent heard the name the girl murmured under her breath, but didn't reply. He was quite used to the envious comments he received about his lengthy, knot-free hair. Instead, he focused on the problems that arose since discovering the female.
For one, he had never seen that type of bird before. And he had traveled to Nibelheim numerous times. Those over-fed birds had been waiting for them to leave the ruins of the mansion; they had probably perched themselves right above the exit on some cliff in anticipation for him and the girl. And they had obviously tried to separate the two. No doubt, they were after the girl. But who sent them?
And for two, where did that blast of fire come from? Yes, it came from her hands. But that's the problem. Magic typically comes from materia, and Vincent couldn't sense any materia on the girl.
Vincent took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it, careful not to let her hear him sigh. Nothing could never be easy, could it? He should have known helping her find her memory would have involved so much more.
He lifted his face skyward as he passed underneath the Nibelheim archway. "Time to rescue the helpless kitten," he thought to himself.
"Meow," Galian chipperly replied.