Divergence

It took the better part of a year for Vincent to catch up on eighteen years' worth of world events, most of which covered the rise to global prominence of the ShinRa Power Company. The former Turk spent days at a time trawling through old news footage on the Global Information Network, reading ageing newspaper articles and hacking into the Turk Mission Database through one of the many backdoors she'd installed when she'd had to set the damned thing up twenty years ago. That had technically been punishment duty, but as a result of her overzealous efficiency the entire infonet was riddled with keyed entry points she could open with ease.

The standardised program files she'd written to make information distribution more efficient had been leaked to the public as the standard template that was now used by pretty much everyone using the 'net for the past two decades, meaning the entire system -no matter how encrypted or password protected- was accessible though the 'ventilation ducts' she'd embedded in the program structure, which in turn enabled her to eventually get her hands on absolutely everything in any computer attached to the infonet, especially those on the old ShinRa central network. Some of the more obvious surface access pathways were already being exploited -probably by other enterprising Turks- but the deeper corridors were pristine, unused since the last time she'd travelled them.

Vincent found Sephiroth barely four months into her information hunt: he was currently in Wutai, a first-class SOLDIER fighting in the war that had been dragging on for almost five years already. Reading between the lines of the reports sent back to headquarters regarding her son's behaviour made Vincent want to cry and prompted numerous trips up into the mountains to kill things; her son had clearly never had a childhood, never been allowed to express himself honestly and been forced to hide inside an icy fortress of perfection that he was now unable to escape. Notes about his inability to act as part of a team, interact emotionally with his comrades and utter lack of distinction between civilians and enemy forces made it quite clear that her baby boy hadn't a clue about people and trusted no-one.

The first thing she was doing after she found him was taking him on a camping holiday out in the middle of nowhere. Sephiroth was under far too much pressure and had been since, well, forever. He'd been in the field since he was fourteen, for Gaia's sake!

The rest of the year was divided between obtaining more information on Hojo, ShinRa -the mentions of a 'Deepground' made her Turk senses itch- the SOLDIER project and laying the groundwork for her departure onto the world stage to rescue her son. Teaching Cloud was fitted in between all of this, though the boy was a very quick study now his body was strong and fast enough to keep up with the lessons.

Vincent also fitted in a visit to Cloud's mother, as her plans involved taking the illegitimate Shinra along with her when she left Nibelhein; the former Turk did not want to leave without him and then have the stubborn child turn up six months later on his own.


The short, spiky-haired blond proved to have a natural instinct for swords, the bigger the better; Vincent however was not a swordswoman. The closest she got to using swords were her paired long knives, thirteen and fifteen inches respectively, which could be considered short swords if you wanted to get technical. Despite being officially a sharp-shooter, Vincent's real specialty was knives, garottes and other assassins tools; shooting was a result of nurture and years of hunting with her father.

As Cloud seemed to be one of those rare people to have a knack for large blades in spite of his diminutive stature. Vincent therefore taught him how to use her long knives; proportionally to his size they were practically swords anyway. She also taught him various other kinds of knife-fighting -one and two-handed- which she was very good at, as well as how to handle different types of knife at the same time and switch between them smoothly according to the situation. It did not take Cloud very long to pick up on the differences between fighting with and against matched and mismatched blades, how to dodge, lunge and shift between blades according to the needs of the moment and -most importantly- how to hide your arsenal on your person. He had a gift for it. As a reward for his diligence Vincent gifted her student with six of her own knives: the matched switchblades, six inches each; the pair of thirteen-inch knives that were practically swords in his small hands; the thicker ten-inch blade that looked more like a meat cleaver than a proper knife; and lastly the slender four-inch stiletto that was for stabbing rather than slashing.

Vincent also ensured Cloud was aware of his surroundings by ambushing the boy regularly enough for the ten-year-old to develop a sixth sense for threats targeting his person, trained him in stealth until the boy could slip past a Nibel wolf undetected and beat tactics, logistics and strategy into his head until they were almost second nature. She also taught her blond protégé to shoot, which he no instinct or talent for but managed anyway, how to hack -which Cloud was steadily getting better at- and how to gather information, which was entirely theoretical since they lived in a tiny village where everyone knew everyone else. Disguises were also covered, as were breaking and entering, pick-pocketing, poisons, traps and other nasty little tricks. The only really legal lessons were the ones on wilderness survival and monster identification.

But in order to really give Cloud practice in the areas he needed to hone the boy needed to leave Nibelhein. Which was why Vincent eventually found and spoke to his mother on the subject.


Vincent chose to call in at Cloud's house a few hours before the boy came out of school, introducing herself to 'Mrs Strife' -which was indeed a false name- as a mercenary and monster hunter looking for a helper. The former Turk told her student's mother that Cloud had met her outside the village and asked for lessons on combat and wilderness survival, showing a remarkable knack for both. Cloud had recently told his mother that he wanted to join SOLDIER, so it was to be expected that he would try to get some training and experience.

The red-eyed avatar told Cloud's mother that she wanted to accept Cloud as an apprentice and take him across the continents with her for at least four years, giving the boy the option of joining SOLDIER if he still wanted to or prolonging the apprenticeship if he did not. Apprenticeships were common in villages and towns where a craftsman chose their successor through competence rather than bloodline, but very rare indeed in Nibelhien. Cloud was unlikely to ever come home even if he didn't join ShinRa.

Mrs Strife was hesitant, but when Cloud got home and found out what Vincent was suggesting he begged and pleaded shamelessly until his mother gave in and agreed. The blond boy was ecstatic, bouncing and whooping happily at the prospect of leaving the village a whole four years earlier than he had hoped for.

That decided and Cloud's mother lavishly repaid for the 'loss' of her son, Vincent Valentine packed all of her weapons, equipment, supplies, Materia and information scavenged from the mansion and her monster hunting expeditions and hid it in her student's attic. Then the former Turk set about orchestrating her 'escape': she did not want Hojo to suspect that she'd had any help getting out of the coffin and needed to hide how much she'd removed from the building. The locking bands were refastened around the coffin and snapped, a hole was melted through the basement door and then, late one spring night after the roads were finally cleared of snow, Vincent let Chaos go on a loud and highly destructive rampage through the laboratories and the manor itself, making a special effort to completely obliterate the computer storage area and the library as well as the expensive Mako tanks. The Rampage culminated with the being setting the building on fire before blasting through the roof, leaving the mansion to partly collapse in on itself as it burned.

Loose ends all suitably tied up, ten days after the mansion's destruction Vincent left Nibelhein with her new apprentice Cloud at her side, headed over the pass towards Rocket town. Sephiroth was a SOLDIER in Wutai, so she and Cloud would have to go to there rather than to Midgar. Her student would have plenty of time to practice his skills along the way.


And Vincent leaves Nibelhein with Cloud. What do people think of our Chocobo-head's choice in weaponry?