Chapter 16: Unrecognizable

Vincent Valentine:

I opened my eyes slowly wincing at the bright light above me.

"He's awake." A female voice whispered to the left of me. I felt a soft hand rest on my arm that was held down by a metal constraint device. "Vincent?" the voice was louder and clearer this time and I recognized it to be Lucrecia. My eyes shifted to her. She had on a face mask, thick glasses, and a white hairnet. I blinked slowly and had an urge to smile at her. She had saved my life after my final attempt to kill her husband. Much time has passed since Aubre escaped and I knew it… She was either grieving over my assumed death or hating me for taking this long to get back to her. But Hojo was dead now… She and Mila were finally safe and there would be no need for them to continue to live in hiding should they go on without me.

She removed the restraints holding me down and I sat up feeling a bit more normal since the first time I woke up as an experiment.

"What the hell did Hojo actually do to me?" I looked down at the claw on my left hand versus my human right hand. She laughed softly as she took off her hairnet letting her long brown hair down. She took off her glasses and mask as well and came closer to me. My sense of smell had gotten considerable stronger as well as the rest of my senses.

"He made a botched attempt at creating a monster, but what good is creating a power being that no one can control?" She shot me a seductive smile and proceeded to touch my face. The sensation of another human's skin against mine was too much… I slapped her hand away.

"What have you done… I don't want to be controlled!" The anger inside me built so quickly I was already to the point of wanting to break something. My emotions were off the chart as well. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down.

"You won't be." Her voice quivered slightly. I imagined she was afraid of me, of what I could do now with this power. "You are the only one that can control the power inside you now. I know you will use it well." She moved away from me and I could see the heartbroken expression on her face in the mirror wall as she turned away from me.

"I...I'm sorry. I did not mean to yell like that. Thank you, Lucrecia." I said as I stepped down from the bed I had been lying in. I wore only a pair of black pants and black boots.

She never looked back at me, but she spoke her last words to me firmly before leaving the room. "Go to her."

Aubre Naluri:

Between caring for Mila and keeping up with my new job here at Seventh Heaven, time flew by… I looked down at the calendar on the desk in Tifa's office realizing it had been three years now since I had escaped from Shinra manor. Not only was this place a bar and a hotel, but now Tifa had started doing secretarial work for none other than Cloud Strife and his new delivery service. It was a relief to see someone from my former life again, but he and I agreed to keep our short past relationship a secret. He hadn't exactly committed himself to Tifa, but would like to keep that choice an option. Once in a while I'd run a few easy local deliveries for him for extra cash. I'd begun saving up since last year for an apartment at a complex not far from here. It occurred to me that Cloud might be waiting to move in with Tifa until I moved out. But the thought of living completely alone was still so scary not knowing if one day Shinra would find me. I had already lost hope that Vincent would…

Vincent… I hadn't heard a word from him or Reno or anyone… Part of me just knew he had stayed at Shinra Manor to confront Hojo and ended up getting himself killed, but another part of me still held on to the hope that he was out there somewhere trying desperately to get to me. I continued to stay strong for our daughter and not shed tears or succumb to depression.

I rang the doorbell of a small office in the town down the street. I had a small package for the residence with the instructions to "not leave the package in the mailbox or by the door." I started to feel uneasy as I waited patiently for them to answer. Finally, a young female with shoulder length, wavy, red hair came to the door. From behind the screen door I could only see her from the neck up, when she opened the door the view from her waist down almost sent me running. I swallowed hard. A Turk…

She all but snatched the package from my hands and turned away. I held back the sigh of relief as I went to turn away.

"Wait…" the voice said behind me.

I turned slowly to her again. My heart was beating out of my chest. Did she recognize me? Was I still a wanted woman!? When she turned to go back inside I bolted off the porch.

Vincent Valentine:

"Your delivery's here." Cissnei spoke quietly place the small box on the table in front of me. She sat down across from me and showed a rare smile. "The girl outside…. I think she's the one you've been looking for."

Cissnei was not part of the assignment at Shinra Manor, but she had served under Tseng many of other times as he was her senior in their section. If I was going to survive in the outside world without being hunted down, I was going to need some back up and Tseng gave me his word that I could trust her. She barely finished her sentence before I jumped up and ran to the door. I stood on the porch surveying the area. She was gone…

I came back inside and sighed loudly. "What would make you think it was her?"

She was quiet for a moment before looking up. "Big green eyes, small frame, the instant fear in her eyes when she recognized this Turk suit." She had opened the package and pulled out the receipt. "Strife's Delivery Service… and look here's an address."

I snatched the piece of paper from her hands.

Aubre Naluri:

The run in with the Turk had me a little scared about doing deliveries so for the past few weeks I hid out in my room during the day and helped Tifa clean up the restaurant after hours. Tonight Tifa had asked me to help with bar tending. There was a festival going on in the town that would surely bring more customers in. I rarely bar tended. That was Tifa's main job and the place never too busy and she depended on the amount of tips she would get from her small groups of customers. I put on a pink tank top with a pair of short khaki shorts and let my hair hang down around my shoulders. I kept it dyed black all except for one streak down the left side of my face.

"Where're you going, mommy?" Mila asked me. She and Marlene, a young girl Tifa had taken in before I had come here who would watch Mila occasionally, sat on the floor playing with her dollhouse.

"I've got to help Tifa tonight, sweetie. I'll be here when you wake up." I smiled down at her and bent to her level before giving her a kiss and a hug. Nothing felt as good as having those little arms wrapped around my neck.

I looked over the drink mixing book Tifa put together for me to try and brush up on how to make some of the more popular drinks. While the first trickle of customers came in.

"Hey, will you get that guy a Jack and Coke. He's been a regular for the past couple of weeks." Tifa said pointing to a rather wild looking man cloaked in dark red with long black hair flowing every which way. I quickly made his drink and walked down to the end of the bar.

"Here you go, sir! Would you like to start a tab?" I said with a smile despite the feeling of wanted to run the other direction when he turned his dark eyes to mine. He stared at me for quite a while as if waiting for me to say something else. When I didn't he turned his eyes to the bar and lowered his head.

"No this will be all…" with that he shoved 5 gil in my direction. "Keep the change."

"Thank you. If you need anything else, let me know, ok?" I said in my best Tifa voice. He looked up suddenly and spoke.

"Actually…" he began and then he placed his left arm on the table at least… I think it was his arm. I looked at it and looked back at him. The lower half of his face was covered mysteriously by the cloak and his forehead covered by a bandanna. All that was really visible were those piercing dark eyes… which kind of reminded me of Vincent's only this mans were much darker. "…never mind."

He stayed in that spot the entire night and I would catch him just watching me. I began to get nervous wondering if maybe he was a hired hit man here to kill me and kidnap Mila. The rest of the crowd left around one in the morning and he still sat there sipping on first drink. It was closing time… Luckily Tifa walked over to take care of him.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but we're closing now. Do you need a room? We actually have one open, surprisingly." I could tell that this man made even Tifa nervous by the way she held her hands behind her back squeezing her fingers; probably secretly wishing he'd just leave.

"I'll take it."

Vincent Valentine:

She didn't even recognize me… Here I was expecting she'd jump across the bar into my arms once she had looked into my eyes or heard my voice… I watched her interact with the other customers. She had been afraid of me…

I knew I couldn't leave here until I told her it was me, but this was going to be harder than I thought. And where was Mila? Gods, I wanted so badly to see her. The barmaid offered me a room for the night and I took it.