There is precisely ten minutes of wednesday left at the time of uploading, so we are still on time, sorry for the late night upload! Enjoy the chapter guys.
-Chapter Sixteen- Revelations
"You call what I have been doing 'Standby'. I really do hope your definition of active is miraculous." Vincent replied, getting to his feet and striding over to him. He and Reeve shook hands. "Not quite as simple as you thought that was going to be I bet?"
"Who ever said I thought it was going to be simple?" Reeve asked, a smile now creeping onto his face.
Yuffie and Tifa entered the room, the latter obviously enraged. "Why the hell didn't you tell us that you had Phoenix!"
"Oh sue me, I was saving it for a rainy day and I think today qualified!" She beamed and pretty much skipped into the main sitting room. "Don't tell me you are annoyed that I have it?"
"But where did you get it?" Tifa asked.
"A little bird laid an egg and it was inside, what does it matter? Point is I have it and it saved our lives right?"
"It matters a lot, we could determine where other materia is." Vincent said in his deep voice. "But that isn't the issue at the moment…" He looked back down at the beaten Shaun, "…does anyone have healing magic?"
The all in turn shook their heads. Vincent examined him closely, during which the rest of them were immersed in conversation.
"So do you think it is just those two who have found each other, Rufus and Tseng?" Tifa asked Reeve.
"I highly doubt it. You saw just how resourceful he was in there. He was using magic in this world in a way that isn't possible in ours. Why does it all act so differently here I wonder?" Reeve went and sat in the armchair in the corner of the room.
"Not as simple to use by all means, but we can wield it to more effect here." Tifa voiced. "Was there anything of use on the monitors?" She asked, now addressing Yuffie.
"Nothing that I could make heads or tails of. Just a load of blinking lights on a map, whenever I tried to investigate further it just said 'Access Denied, Password Required'." She looked a little disappointed, "There was one thing that stood out, there was a huge blinking black light in London, any ideas what that could mean?"
They all pondered this for a moment before admitting defeat.
"Again we can worry about that later." Vincent spoke again, now looking at all of them instead of Shaun. "He has fractures to his left arm, jaw, and right leg just below the knee, whatever magic they used on him has left him in quite a state of shock. From what I can tell Red is still alive, I've no reason to believe one can live without the other. The trauma they have gone through will leave them unable to change until they have recovered so…" He trailed off.
"Since when were you a medicine expert?" Tifa asked, to her surprise Reeve chuckled.
"There is much that you still need to know, and now I think is the time, wouldn't you say Vincent?"
"As good a time as any Reeve, I'm going to need some bandages to patch him up as best I can without healing magic. If only we could have snatched Tseng's…" He looked over at Yuffie, who was swiftly changing back into Savina.
"I'll see what I can do. I'll be as quick as I can." She swiftly left.
"We shouldn't begin until she is back, not in great detail anyway. I think my story is one you should all hear." Vincent said.
Tifa moved over to Shaun and allowed Alex to take control. "He looks a complete mess…"
"I'm sure he has looked better…" Vincent voiced, "…I don't believe we have been properly introduced. Vincent Valentine at your service ma'am." He extended his hand which Alex took.
"Name's Alex, nice to meetcha." She thought that he had an oddly impressive aura about him.
A good fifteen minutes passed without much being said. At last though, Savina strode back through the door, bandages acquired. "Hope I got enough." She threw what must have been enough to satisfy a hospital ward over to Vincent.
He picked them up and started patching Shaun up as best he could. By the end of which he did look a lot better, even if still terrible.
"So how do you know how to do all this?" Alex asked, obviously for Tifa.
Vincent looked over at her. "One of my hosts was a doctor. I learnt everything from him and kept the knowledge."
Savina had allowed Yuffie to take back over at this point. "One of your hosts…wait…you're how Reeve knew we could change hosts!" Things were starting to click into place.
"That's right." Chirped in Reeve. "He is the reason I know pretty much all of what I know, how many hosts have you had now Vincent?"
"I tend not to keep count…I would guess around twenty by now." They all looked at him in amazement. "I never stay in a host for too long, haven't found one I can establish a decent rapport with yet."
"So you just wipe their memory?" Alex asked. It wasn't so much a question as a statement.
"Don't have too much of a choice. It is a miracle we have all gone undetected for so long, if any of us were discovered we would be experimented on in a lab, not something any of us want I'm sure." He then walked over to the TV set and switched it on, to nobody's surprise, the explosion of the apartment building was headline news.
"How are we going to cover this up?" Reeve asked, obviously he had been relying on Vincent for answers a lot.
"We can't, it doesn't look like anybody got any definitive proof of the phoenix though, which is lucky…"
They all read through the headline scrolling across the bottom of the screen several times. Seven people had died from the explosion and twenty three injured. Yuffie was the first to speak.
"Damn Rufus Shinra…why did he wire the damn place to blow!" She punched a nearby wall and then clutched her hand in pain.
"This isn't his world…" Vincent pointed out, "…I don't think he cares who he kills, he is hell bent on getting back to our world."
"So if you have gone through twenty different hosts…" Alex said, obviously trying to get the conversation back onto a lighter subject, "…and you keep the knowledge of each one every time. Isn't your head just about ready to burst?"
Vincent chuckled. "I only keep the relevant knowledge, I don't keep all of their past and present thoughts. For example, I can speak almost every language, give or take a few of the lesser known ones."
Everybody seemed impressed, Alex then suddenly let Tifa take back over. "You've been getting around a bit?"
"Across the world my dear Tifa…" He replied, his eyes still fixed on the TV screen, "…I dare say I'm not the only one, Rufus has travelled far and wide. I should know, I've been following him whenever possible."
"You see Vincent here is how I knew Rufus was in England. He is also how I knew about the commotion in the Louvre." Reeve got up as he said all of this and began to pace the room.
"Oh!" Yuffie shouted, making them all jump, "If you have been across the world then you must have loads of materia!"
"Sadly not…" Vincent answered, "…isn't as easy to come by here as it was in our world, though I do have a theory why."
"Go on…" Tifa prompted.
"I think it is still bleeding across into this world, piece by piece, little by little. The funny thing is it's like they can think for themselves, all of them have appeared in such convenient locations. That materia you stole from the tower for example, and the one in the Louvre, it's like they are testing us, making sure we are worthy to wield them." He looked at them all and noticed they were hanging on his every word. "Has nobody else thought this?"
"We didn't consider them thinking for themselves." Reeve said.
"It's merely a theory." Vincent brushed the comment aside, "Chances are I am completely wrong."
"So what materia do you have?" Yuffie asked.
Vincent exposed his forearm and produced three differently coloured orbs from it. One red, one yellow and one green. "You of course know I have fire magic, this one…" He pointed at the yellow, "…is sense and this one…" He pointed at the red, "…is Odin. Can't say I have used him very much but he has come in handy when I have."
"So how does sense work over here?" Yuffie asked, curiously.
"Interestingly, it's like you can sense other peoples intentions rather than their strengths and weaknesses, it isn't really one hundred per cent effective though, I have found it to be flawed sometimes. I'm almost certain that it worked on Rufus though, he seems to be gathering as much materia as possible."
"I already told them that Vincent." Reeve cut in.
"Apologies…" Vincent said, "…how about Sephiroth's intentions, these are merely a guess but an educated one at that."
"You think you know?" Reeve asked.
"Shouldn't we all? What was it he was after back in our world and would stop at nothing to get? What is it we spent all our time trying to prevent him from getting only to fail?" He looked around, there was a sudden look of realisation on everybody's face. "The black materia. It has to be here too, or on its way between worlds. He must be looking for it, the night I saw him he was researching landmarks."
"You spotted him?" Tifa asked.
"Took a shot at him as well, hit him I will have you know, once…Wasn't enough though, he has barrier magic and he uses it well, almost killed me by reflecting a bullet straight back at me. Didn't think it was possible, was nearly killed." He pulled down the neck of his shirt to reveal a scar at the base of his neck.
"Brilliant…" Yuffie sighed, "…a magic expert in this world just like he was in ours, and we thought Shinra were the problem?" The report was still looping on the news channel.
"So what do we do? We can't just let history repeat itself. If he goes after the black materia here the world is done for." Tifa looked at the floor as she spoke.
"I'm still not sure that is our priority Tifa." Vincent voiced, "The gravity of this whole situation is still far beyond any of us. Divided we fall, united we conquer, we must find the rest of the parasites before we can even think of taking on Sephiroth or Shinra head on."
"Hey wait just a minute…" Yuffie interrupted, "…it's not like we did terrible against Rufus and Tseng!"
"They are only a fraction of the Shinra corporation. There are at least a hundred of them! You think that your manipulate is the only one in existence? Look at myself and Tifa, we have both found fire magic. Rufus is homing in on the materia which matters most to him and shelling it out to those who can use it best, his Turks…" Yuffie was entranced by his every word, "…Let's see, Tseng, Rude, Rufus, Elena and Reno. Each capable of controlling twenty people at a time at least by now, and always changing who they control. Before long they will have an army."
"This is still all guess work though!" Reeve cut in. "You have no way of knowing for certain just how many there are under the Shinra's control."
"No, but we must expect the worst." Vincent retaliated. "If they don't have that many then great, but until we know precise figures let's assume the worst, ok?"
Reeve didn't reply.
"The black materia…" Tifa persisted, "…is the greatest threat. If you don't have any possible locations on our allies then we must focus our sights on finding it. Any possible locations?"
"For our allies, no. For the black materia, several." Vincent replied simply, "Each of them likely and extremely far away from here."
"Well name some, we have to start our search with all haste!" She pressed.
"If you insist…we begin our search when Shaun is at least fit to morph again though, agreed?" Tifa nodded at him, "Right, possible locations… Obviously powerful materia is emerging at landmarks and secure locations, so I have looked at some of the world's oldest and greatest landmarks. The Great Wall of China almost certainly has some kind of materia there, the pyramids of Egypt without a doubt will have something. Stonehenge is an interesting one yet my search there yielded no results, I could continue for ages…"
"So which do you think we should try first?" Tifa asked.
"The great wall, it runs for miles and miles, but if it's there we will know, I am almost certain of it."
"Wait wait…" Reeve cut in again, "…you want us to search the Great Wall of China for something the size of a large marble?" Vincent nodded at him. "…Vincent have you completely lost your mind from all this host hopping?"
"Pretty sure I haven't. You seemed happy to take my advice up to now? Why the change of heart?"
"Who said I had a change of heart? I'm merely speculating at the size of the task ahead." Reeve walked over to the window and looked out. "How long until Shaun is fit?"
"About a month, but we don't have that much time. We should find some healing magic as soon as possible, that is our priority."
"Oh can we stop changing our priorities and pick one guys!" Yuffie whined. "Find allies, find black materia, find healing… Pick one!"
"We can't do the first two without the last. So we search, if we are lucky it may just reveal itself to us." Vincent did not however sound hopeful.
There was a silence during which they all watched the TV report on the disaster through again. Fortunately there was still no mention on the phoenix, something about this must have crossed Vincent's mind.
"So where did you find the Phoenix materia?" He asked Yuffie, looking her straight in the eyes.
"Hyde park here in London." She replied. "Believe it or not, it was flying…"
"Beg your pardon?" Vincent asked.
"Flying you know, flap flap, swoosh swoosh." She made a mocking wing motion. "Nobody seemed to notice it except me and Savina so we snatched it out of the air."
"Don't tell me you summoned it in a 'remote' location like you did with Alexander?" Yuffie looked at the floor.
"You heard about that I guess?" She asked.
"As did Rufus Shinra." The atmosphere suddenly became very tense.
"You haven't explained your other theory yet Vincent…" Reeve said after a long silence, "…about why we are here."
"Hmmm…now that is an interesting thought…" He looked at them all with a crooked smile. "My only conclusion can be that it was a very powerful magic that brought us here, one beyond even Sephiroth's skill. You remember in our final battle our materia started to vanish I take it?"
They all nodded. "Was a little bit of a pain…" Yuffie agreed.
"Nobody can take your materia from you without your permission, it's impossible as Shaun demonstrated. There is no exception to the rule, which is why my only possible theory is that the planet knew we were going to lose against Sephiroth…"
"What?" Tifa looked shocked. "What do you mean the planet 'knew'?"
"When the planet is injured it gathers lifestream to heal itself right? My theory if you will, is that the planet used its last line of defence, something unheard of in the course of time. It knew it would not survive if Sephiroth won but couldn't just leave him unchallenged. So it pushed him and ourselves through into this world to beat him here, which leads me to believe that is our way home…" Again holding the room with his words Vincent gazed upon his companions shocked faces. "Honestly am I the only one who has been doing some deep thinking?"
"It would appear so…" Tifa replied, "…there is a flaw though. Why did it push Shinra through to this world too?"
"Because to all intent and purpose Shinra also wanted Sephiroth dead, perhaps the planet thought that they would help us." He couldn't help but laugh.
"Well if your theory holds any truth then the planet was very wrong." Yuffie said, speaking for the first time in a while. "What was it thinking? Us and the Shinra get on, pu-lease!"
"Neither here nor there at the moment." Vincent replied again. "That is just about all I know. We must begin our search for healing magic."
"Agreed, if we all pull together we should find it in no time right?" For once the optimism seemed genuine, and the search began…
A/N: A shorter chapter than usual =). Hope you liked it guys, BIG chapter coming up saturday. Reviews and con-crit always appreciated, short n sweet or long and informative, we like them all! Until saturday.
R&A