Strange Attractors
Lucretia Crescent was feeling fatalistic. Her child had been taken away from her to be experimented on in the name of science, her body was deteriorating from exposure to S-cells harvested from JENOVA and sweet, forgiving Vincent Valentine whose only crime was trying to look after her had been shot and was being experimented on by professor Hojo. The professor had managed to modify the Turk so his body was more resilient and no longer needed to be fed, then done something to Vincent that triggered spontaneous metamorphoses in response to external stimuli. Sadly, throughout these experiments Vincent remained comatose and mentally unresponsive. After three months Hojo pronounced 'Specimen V' a failure and left him to die.
Knowing that her death was immanent and that Vincent had only been reduced to this because he attempted to protect her and her baby -whom Hojo had named 'Sephiroth'- Lucretia took the Turk's body to her own private laboratory and infused her dying friend with the Chaos-tainted Mako she had saved from Grimoire Valentine's failed project in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to save the man's life.
Her gamble proved a mixed success: Vincent's body did indeed heal and woke, but it was animated by Chaos, herald of the WEAPON Omega, rather than the Turk she still loved in her heart. Chaos promptly wreaked her lab and tried to kill her, body morphing and falling apart as a result of overwhelming concentrations of chaotic energies running through the tissues. Lucretia's life was prolonged a little further purely by chance when she ducked behind the bench where the Protomateria Valentine Senior had been studying was on display. Chaos flinched away from the glowing sphere, giving her an idea of how to stop the mad creature.
Implanting the Protomateria in Vincent's chest next to his heart -right where Hojo shot him- halted and swiftly reversed the Chaos-borne degradation but did not immediately wake the Turk, although the improved vital signs suggest he may eventually wake. Her goal achieved, Lucretia used her observations to complete her thesis on Chaos and the WEAPON Omega and sent it off after printing out a copy for Vincent to read when he wakes up. Her dear friend will need the information if his unusual new appearance is anything to go by.
All loose ends suitably tidied away, Lucretia went looking for Hojo to tell him of her success. Now she can die content.
Vincent Valentine clawed her way back to consciousness. The Turk had fully expected to die and return to the Lifestream, but looking back on it Hojo would never just allow a possible test specimen to die, especially when he was already interested in their genetic potential.
Her whole body ached, her senses were going haywire and her body felt wrong. Blinking, Vincent sat up on the operating table and looked at herself.
In another time and place a different Vincent Valentine would be revolted by his beastly form, conclude it was a divine punishment for his failure to protect Lucretia and her child and fall into depression.
In Lucretia's laboratory underneath the ShinRa mansion Vincent honestly did not care right now that she was a twelve-foot-tall Galian Beast of indeterminate gender; she wanted her son back and her baby Sephiroth was all that mattered. Stumbling to her feet as her body reverted back to normal -well mostly normal anyway- Vincent Valentine ignored her peculiar new and semi-organic black and red outfit, the golden gauntlet on her left arm, the voice in her head, the way the dim light burned her eyes and the pungent cleaning smells that irritated her nose. She had to get to Sephiroth. Sephiroth had to be protected.
The ex-Turk went through the half-empty laboratory complex like an avenging angel of death, dispatching all who crossed his path without a second thought as his tired brain reverted to basic Turk protocol for hostage retrieval. Doors were thrown off hinges, tables were shattered and expensive equipment was mangled beyond repair without a second thought. The voice in her head seemed delighted by the wanton destruction and was joined by a further two who joined in a chorus urging her onwards, heedless of the thick fog of knockout gas and the rain of tranquilliser darts. As Vincent became sluggish she was pushed aside by the first voice -my name is Chaos, little vessel, remember it- who continues to wreak havoc for several minutes longer before the massive overdose of sedatives finally kicked in, making her body collapse to the floor.
In another time and place, Vincent Valentine would shut himself in a coffin in the basement of the ShinRa mansion in Nibelhein as a self-imposed penance for his perceived sins.
Professor Hojo locked the unconscious Specimen V into a secure coffin in the basement and immediately fled Nibelhein with JENOVA and Specimen S, his greatest work. His important notes had already been forwarded to his database in the ShinRa Science Department in the new city of Midgar, so he didn't need anything else. More pragmatically, the professor didn't want to be anywhere near the berserk Specimen V when he/she/it woke up again. While it had been interesting that the Specimen's limit break metamorphoses were of differing gender to the original body, further study of the failure was without merit.
Specimen S had far more potential.
Point of view bounces around a bit in this chapter. Note that Lucretia believes Vincent to be male and that Hojo is unaware that 'Specimen V' has retained full usage of her faculties. The professor thinks she's just an animal now.
