Start Date: November 20, 2022
Windwillow
Final Fantasy VII
All roads have led back to the epicenter of Cloud and Tifa's trauma, to Nibelheim. The entire town seems to have been completely replicated in painstaking detail, stocked with impostors who claim the Nibelheim Incident never occurred. As Tifa and Cloud struggled with their own emotions and memories, they came across Sephiroth in the underground library in Shinra's abandoned mansion. With Cloud and Tifa unconscious and Aerith left alone, Yuffie - who abandoned her friends at the first chance possible - has now locked herself in a room with a cloaked, vampiric figure demanding to know about Sephiroth. Assuming she doesn't wet herself, that vampire intends to get the answers he seeks.
Chapter Thirty-Five: The Arrival of Vincent Valentine
Scene One
During Cloud's encounter with Sephiroth in the library of the Shinra Mansion, Yuffie had quickly and shamelessly fled that room and sought safety in another, previously locked room. Her logic was, it was better to be bitten than a vampire than be butchered by Sephiroth. Ironically enough, it seemed she was about to get her wish. The cloaked, black haired figure that emerged from its coffin now leered above her, and it was only through sheer, dumb will power that Yuffie still remained conscious.
"You said Sephiroth, correct?" asked the dark figure as he crouched to meet Yuffie. Much to her fear, and relief, he gingerly wiped the sweat from Yuffie's fevered brow. And, much to her surprise, he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, in an attempt to relieve her terror. "Calm down, I'm not going to kill you..." he murmured. "But, if you said the name Sephiroth, I need to know what's going on outside..."
"S-S-Sephiroth? Y-Yeah, Sephiroth! Right! He, um... He's..." Yuffie stammered madly, staring back at the dark man's piercing eyes and finding, oddly enough, a strange peace within them. After swallowing her fear, Yuffie took in a deep breath and exhaled forcefully. "He... He's in the library with my friends... He..." she murmured quietly, her fear returning before falling to her knees in prayer. "Oh, God, don't suck my blood!"
"Sephiroth's become an adult, eh?" wondered the man. Placing a tender hand to his forehead, he seemed to gather his thoughts with an acumen that Yuffie was unable to perceive. While Yuffie recoiled, he gently plopped down Indian style in front of her and brushed the black hair from his face with a sigh. "How long have I been asleep?" he murmured. "What about Lucrecia? Is she alright?"
"L-L-Lucrecia! R-R-Right... um... I don't... I kind of don't know who that is..." muttered Yuffie, slowly returning to consciousness as she became more comfortable around the dark man. "Oh, boy... These people are going to be the death of me..." she whimpered weakly. "Never should've come with those freaks..."
"Damn... Have I awakened too late?" sighed the figure, placing a hand to his face and slowly beginning to tremble. "Despite my prayers, she's been lost? Damn..." he snarled, frightening Yuffie further. "My sins are compounded moment by moment, it seems... I..." With a pained gasp, a tear dropped down his face. "I'm so sorry, Lucrecia..." he whispered.
"Uh... Mister... Vampire Dude? Um..." Yuffie stuttered again, her fear returning as he watched the agony on the man's face. Somehow, though, she wasn't deathly afraid anymore, and so she slid to sit across from the dark stranger and inhaled deeply. "I really don't have any idea what's going on, but..." she sniffed. Swallowing her fear, Yuffie's face loosened into a slightly more relaxed state of panic. "Who is Lucrecia? I've never heard that name..." Yuffie wondered.
"The name Lucrecia is the source of my pain, and the origin of my sins..." muttered the man as he wiped the tear from his eye with a soft sigh. Through his pained expression, he seemed to gather himself in much the same way Yuffie had as he lifted his face to meet hers. "She's Sephiroth's mother..." he murmured. "A woman I owe much to... and..."
"S-Sephiroth's mom?! Holy crap! Wait... He had a mom?!" shrieked Yuffie at the mention of her nemesis' name. "I kind of thought he just sort of manifested directly out of the pits of Hell, honestly, the way everyone talks about him..." she muttered, mostly to herself. As she thought more, though, a pointed thought finally came to her. "I think someone mentioned that his mom's name was Jenova... Is her name Lucrecia Jenova Sephiroth or something?"
"You know about Jenova?!" gasped the strange cloaked man as he lifted a terrified Yuffie to her feet by gripping onto her shoulders. While she again began to panic, the figure's face seemed to have changed in an instant from grief to horror. "Tell me everything that's going on here..." he begged. "What happened here in Nibelheim?! I want to know everything you know..."
Scene Two
Ugh... God, everything in my body aches. I finally find that jerk, and now I'm face down in the middle of an abandoned library... Wait... What about Tifa and Aerith? Are they alright?!
Through the darkness of his hazy awareness and the disturbance in his thoughts, Cloud slowly became aware that he was being held by someone, close to their chest. He could feel their heart beat, echoing in his ears like a distant drum, and he felt their emotions ooze into his own troubled thoughts. Slowly, carefully, he opened his eyes and found Aerith holding him tightly to her chest. Returning to consciousness, he slowly sat up and looked to the side, where he found an equally exhausted Tifa propped up against a stack of books. She was shaken, but not hurt physically.
They're alright! Thank God! But...
"He left... He's gone..." said Aerith flatly, before Cloud could even open his mouth to ask the question. His chest heaved up deep, and he exhaled a sharp sigh of relief, and as Cloud dropped back into Aerith's embrace, his thoughts began to focus again more clearly.
"That's... that's good... ugh..." breathed Cloud as his head slowly drooped to his chest. Through all his efforts he recalled the conversation with Sephiroth, but only up until he'd felt a pain in his gut and the darkness took him. With that relief came the question: what happened after he'd fallen asleep? "Sephiroth!" he gasped, sitting straight up in his seat, turning his eyes to Aerith. "Did you talk to-"
"Oh, I told him what's what!" bragged Aerith, flexing her muscles dramatically. She had no intention of telling them what she and Sephiroth had discussed, especially not his inference that he knew about her White Materia and its power and the threat that he had something to summon as well. His mention of the Temple of the Ancients disturbed her immensely...
"Let me get this straight: You came face-to-face with evil incarnate, and you told him off?" Cloud said flatly, unconvinced. He took in a deep breath, his lungs inhaling the musty air from deep below the earth, and turned to Aerith with a cold stare. "I don't believe that for a minute..." he said quietly. "Something happened, didn't it?"
"Let it go, Cloud... It's over..." sighed Tifa, her own breath haggard, as she had only recently returned to consciousness. When she'd seen Sephiroth reclining in that chair, her first emotion was fury, but as she flashed back to the sight of his cold, cat-like eyes leering down at her before she fell unconscious five years earlier, fear swelled within her and she dropped to her knees only barely breathing. She vaguely remembered hearing voices, but nothing they said made any sense before she passed out. "We're all alive, that's all that matters..." she groaned, staggering to her feet. "Uh... Wait... Where's Yuffie?"
"She must have beat feet when she saw Sephiroth, I think... Can't blame her, either..." said Aerith as she slowly lifted herself to her feet. In all the chaos she'd lost track of her too, and she was also now concerned for her friend's well being and whereabouts. "But she has to be close around here somewhere, so..." she sighed as she stuck out her tongue, "We can kick her in the butt next time we see her for abandoning us. No big deal."
The trio lingered in the library for several more minutes, briefly exchanging theories as to what had happened after Yuffie fled. Tifa's first instinct was to consider innovative ways to punish her, but her friends soon calmed her down and persuaded her to let it go. Once they'd all sufficiently recovered, the three friends staggered out the door and into the underground passage, where they were greeted by a hideous fiend. It was twice their size, barely small enough to move around, and was an abomination that was split down the middle into two separate beasts; one was a shaggy red creature, while the other was a violet colored ogre. As the party prepared for battle, Aerith was the only one to realize its origin, and as she grit her teeth she snarled at the beast, and it snarled back.
This is Sephiroth's parting gift... Dammit...
It was only a brief moment that separated the time that Cloud shoved his friends out of the path of the beast and the instant it swung at him. He was unable to evade the strike and was slammed hard into the cavernous wall, though he caught himself before he fell, drew his sword, and clashed with the Lost Number's gnarled violet claw. With great skill he parried, leading to a series of exchanges between beast and blade that ended with his departure from the ground into the wall again. Before it could finish the job, Tifa thrust a hardened fist into its face and blew it back long enough for Cloud to recover.
"Hang on! I'll heal you!" shrieked Aerith, dashing to catch Cloud's battered body. Before she could charge her magic, however, he'd pushed off against the ground and lunged at the demon. There was no time for mercy or a moment to contemplate the after effects, so Cloud took his sword in both hands and it became coated in multicolored light as his two elements pulsed through the blade. When he swung down with all his might, the Buster Sword severed the Lost Number into two equal halves, the remnants falling limply to the ground with a massive thud.
"Okay... That was a bad idea..." moaned Cloud, as he dropped to one knee and the ground cracked from the impact that had cut the demon in half as its two pieces fell to the ground. The pain was easier to manage than in previous instances, no doubt thanks to Bugenhagen's patient instruction. With a guttural groan, Cloud dropped his sword and fell flat on his back, exhausted. Turning a weary eye to Aerith, he cracked a grin. "Alright... Now you can do your job..." he laughed.
Aerith returned the smile and lifted her glowing hands to Cloud's chest. Before her fingers could reach his breast, however, Cloud took her shoulders in both hands and rolled them out of the way of the vicious aura being emitted by the corpse. They landed roughly and managed to get to their feet just in time to recoil in horror as the two halves of the monster slowly lifted themselves up from where they lay. As horrified as they were to see it rise, however, that paled in comparison to watch the two halves quake and quiver with a dark aura. The two halves' separate frames ripped out another arm and leg each from the point where Cloud had bisected them, creating two unique monsters: one a red, hairy beast, and the other a hulking, violet ogre.
"Oh, God damn!" screamed Cloud. Watching the two new creatures literally stitch themselves into two separate monsters chilled his soul, and his two companions were equally enraptured. "Tifa, you take the red one!" screamed Cloud, snatching up his sword and staggering into a fighting position. "I'll deal with the purple freak!"
Nodding, Tifa took up a position between her demon and Aerith, who quickly jumped to safety. While Cloud's sword clashed with the violet one's ironclad fists, Tifa exchanged blows with the red beast's claws. The both of them managed to hold their own, each striking blows equal to the ones they received. As the conflict raged, however, they seemed to begin to lose steam. Skidding on her heel, Tifa stomped her foot into the ground to brace herself. Tifa drew her fist as far back as she could, and with all her might she lunged with an elementally charged punch that, when it connected, blew the shaggy creature's head into tiny bits. As its remains splattered her cheek, Tifa quickly turned to find Cloud struggling against the remaining half. After wiping the creature's guts from her face with the back of her hand, Tifa turned her attention to Cloud.
"Hang on there just a second, Cloud!" called Tifa. She charged her fist again, turning on her heel with her knuckles shimmering, but before she could connect the Lost Number's final half suddenly fell to the ground face first with a massive, sickening thud. Tifa quickly halted her strike, and as she examined the corpse, she found in the bubbling pus three large gunshot wounds to the back of its head. Her eyes lifted to find two people, one of them a shivering and barely breathing Yuffie and the other the mysterious man, who held a smoking, triple-barreled revolver straight out in front of him.
"You folks and I need to talk..." murmured the mystery man. As he snuffed out the smoke from his revolver with a quick spurt of breath, he quickly flipped the gun a few times before returning it to its holster. The gun clapped against the hard leather, and the stare in the man's eyes hardened. "We need to talk about Sephiroth..." he said quietly, much to the shock of the people in front of him.
Scene Three
Cloud's initial strike had separated the beast, but it was put down by the joint efforts of Tifa's fist and a mystery man's revolver. As the remnants of the Lost Number dissolved into a foul, bubbling liquid, and after Yuffie was scolded by Tifa, everyone reconvened inside the library. Cloud offered a quick word of thanks to the mysterious stranger, but received only a cold stare in response. Aerith laid her two friends on the ground on their backs and began to heal their injuries, Yuffie again offered a feeble apology before passing out from sheer stress, and the stranger again stood silent when confronted.
"What you just fought was a chimera that Shinra manufactured a few decades back..." explained the stranger. With a sigh, he folded his arms and stared at the ceiling with a look of disgust. "I'm not familiar with that specific creature, but I do know that it is directly tied to a certain project... Now..." he said coldly, turning to the others, "Tell me what you know about Sephiroth."
"Oh, so you waltz in and order us around? Is that your idea of courtesy?" snapped Tifa, as she felt the cooling sensation of Aerith's white magic mend her wounds and replenish her stamina. She took quick stock of her mana, and was pleased to find that Bugenhagen's training had kept them at sustainable levels. "You're the one who asked us to talk!" she barked. "So you ought to talk first!"
"Your assessment is one hundred percent correct, ma'am. It's simple courtesy. I will start..." said the mystery man, much to Tifa's amazement and shock. Brushing his dark hair from his eyes, the stranger gave a two fingered salute and a grim smile. "My name is Vincent Valentine. My age, origin, and so on is irrelevant, and I won't ask any specifics from you either, so let's leave it at that," he said flatly. "Several years ago, I formerly worked for Shinra as one of their Turks."
"You were with Shinra?! So, you're actually an enemy?!" growled Cloud. Still, as his injuries were being mended, he had no way of defending himself if he really was. "We're on a mission to stop Sephiroth and Shinra!" he snapped. "If you're going to fight us, then-"
"I couldn't care less about them. In fact, if you gave them a bloody nose I'd love to be there to watch," said Vincent flatly, much to the others' surprise. "Note my use of the term former. I cut ties with them ages ago..." said Vincent quietly. "There, I said who I am. Now, it's your turn. Tell me everything you know about Sephiroth. The loud one already told me there was some sort of incident here five years ago... Well, after she woke up. The little lady passed out when I started talking to her."
"Not to say I trust you, but you did save us, so... I'll explain," said Cloud with a sigh. "My friend and I used to live here. Five years ago, there was an... incident... and Sephiroth burned the town down and murdered everyone in it..." he said with a touch of anger. "Now, five years later, my friends and I are an anti-Shinra resistance organization, with the secondary objective of finding and stopping Sephiroth. We're on his tail right now..." said Cloud quietly, turning his eyes to Vincent. "Your turn. What's your story?"
"So Sephiroth razed the town and everyone in it, attacked you folks, and is now at large. Got it," Vincent said as he held his face in his hand. His eyes, closed as if in pain, slowly opened and shifted towards Cloud. "What about Lucrecia? Lucrecia Crescent..." he said cautiously. "Do any of you know where she is now?"
"Lucrecia Crescent?" wondered Cloud. He paused and wracked his brains, but nothing came to him. To his knowledge, she wasn't there five years ago, and he'd never heard anyone - including Sephiroth - mention her name. "No," he said flatly. "Should I know who she is?"
"Hmph... Guess my expectations were a tad too optimistic... Damn you, Hojo..." scoffed Vincent angrily, angering and confusing Cloud. Placing his face in his hand again, the former Turk took in a deep breath and exhaled sharply. For a moment he seemed to contemplate talking further. After some quick soul searching, he decided to do so. "Lucrecia Crescent is the name of the woman who gave birth to Sephiroth..." he said quietly, much to the shock of everyone present. With a deep sigh, he turned his eyes to the ceiling above. "A beautiful woman called Lucrecia Crescent..."
"Okay, I have to have misheard you when you said that!" yelled Tifa. Now she wracked her brain, remembering what Cloud had said back in Kalm, and her name never came up. "Sephiroth's mother was this... thing... called Jenova, right?" she wondered. "What do you mean, she was his mother?"
"She was his biological mother. He was born from a woman I once called my friend. Claiming that her mother is Jenova is... partially correct, but not the entire story..." said Vincent quietly. A look of grief and anger pulsed across his face for a moment, before he slowly shut his eyes. When he opened them, there was a sort of thinly veiled fury in his eyes, like he was holding back a dam within him using sheer will power. "She was the research assistant to Professor Gast, head of Shinra's Science Division..." he sighed, his eye twitching as his thoughts intensified. "They made her into a human experiment for the Jenova Project. Sephiroth is the result of that Project."
"God, almighty, a human experiment?!" shouted Aerith indignantly. Her thoughts cycled through her memories as just such an experiment for Hojo, mixed with her hatred for him and her love for her lost mother, but it still didn't compute. "Was Lucrecia an Ancient?" she wondered aloud.
"Ancient? No. Her involvement with the Jenova Project is an entirely different matter..." sighed Vincent. "I couldn't cancel the experiment, and I couldn't save her..." he said sadly, gritting his teeth. "That's the reason I repose here... My sin is that I was unable to prevent the project from proceeding... All because of that bastard Hojo, I've laid here to atone for those sins..."
"He's someone we're after, too. He experimented on me and my mother, too..." snarled Aerith, her fists tightening. Much as she tried, she was unable to forget the things he'd done to her for all those years, and a sort of bond began to form between her and the enigmatic Lucrecia. "After we deal with Sephiroth, I have every intention of sticking my foot up his ass..." she growled angrily. Once she'd composed herself, Aerith lifted a suspicious eye towards Vincent. "Why don't you come with us? Fight with us?" she asked.
"Hmm... An interesting proposal, Miss... A very interesting one, indeed..." muttered Vincent, putting a hand to his chin. Their goals seemed to intersect, and they'd managed to fight off Hojo's twisted pet. Their strength seemed adequate, and if he went with them, he might come across Hojo again, and the thought of making him pay rattled his mind with pleasure. "Fine, I agree," said Vincent with a grim smile. He extended his hand to Cloud, who took it and shook it. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend... Let's go."
"Hoo, boy... You did a number on me this time, Tifa!" snarled a groggy Yuffie as she lifted herself from her back into a seating position. "I mean, it kind of looks like I ran away, but I was really going to get..." Expecting to chew Tifa out, she instead saw Vincent shaking hands with Cloud, and the implications hit her like a ton of bricks. "The vampire's coming with us?! I'm never going to sleep again! Gawd!" she shrieked.
Scene Four
So, it was decided that Vincent Valentine, the former Turk somehow connected to Sephiroth, would join the party. Yuffie desperately argued against it, but this time Aerith scared her senseless, threatening her that she would beat her up if she didn't go along with it. Though Yuffie had no way of knowing it, that was because Aerith felt a strange kinship with the former Turk, whose friend had been subjected to the same tortures she and her mother had been by Hojo. Having another person on the team that understood just what kind of monster he was? It sounded appealing to her. When introduced to the rest of the party, however, that sentiment wasn't universal.
"Again, I protest to this ridiculous agreement! This guy looks like he's gonna suck my blood if I turn around and forget he's there!" prattled Yuffie as she frantically flailed her arms and stomped her foot. "How am I supposed to get any sleep when Count Dracula's in the next freaking room?!" she shrieked indignantly. "Why don't I get a vote, huh?!"
"Because we already know what it is, and you've been outvoted," said Tifa flatly, much to Yuffie's fury. "We've already taken the vote: three votes yes, two votes no, and two votes abstained. It's decided!" she said pointedly. As Yuffie stewed, Tifa shrugged and pointed to Aerith. "Besides, it was her idea, not mine," she growled. "Yell at her."
"The only reason I abstained is because I didn't think the situation could get much worse..." groaned Red XIII. Taking a deep sigh, he bowed his head and began to whimper. "Having someone else along for Aerith to focus on is... well... Yeah..." he muttered, averting his eyes from a simmering Aerith. "Besides, having extra hands in a monster attack wouldn't hurt. So, while I'm not thrilled, I accept the decision."
"Okay, guys, let's consider this rationally: the guy used to work for Shinra!" Barret snapped. He turned a suspicious eye to Vincent, uncertain whether he'd stab them in the back at the wrong moment. "Give me one good reason I should trust him!" he declared.
"You probably shouldn't," Vincent said as he shrugged his shoulders. "If I were you, I wouldn't trust me either," he said flatly. While Tifa restrained a raging Barret, Vincent turned to the only other member of the party that had abstained: Cait Sith. He narrowed his eyes menacingly, causing Cait Sith to recoil in fear. "But if you can trust that fellow, why not me?" shrugged Vincent. "Regardless, I want to know our itinerary, Cloud."
"The situation's simple: Sephiroth said he was heading north, and that's through Mt. Nibel..." Cloud said with a sigh. But there was a wrinkle: the only place north he knew of was some far flung town with a crackpot pilot in charge. Why Sephiroth would run there was anyone's guess. "We've got to pass through a lot of rugged terrain, so we'd better get ready for something to go wrong..." said Cloud. "I've got some bad memories there, anyway. I'm not excited to go back or anything..."
Tifa's feelings were complicated, both about Vincent and going through Mt. Nibel. While she agreed with Yuffie and Barret that Vincent wasn't the most trustworthy ally, she trusted Aerith's intuition when she said he was someone she wanted on the team. With Cloud backing her up, she'd decided to throw in her lot with Aerith's faction. But climbing Mt. Nibel was a sore spot. Not only was the reactor that she'd nearly died in up there, but once before when she was young she'd had another near death experience. Though she only vaguely remembered it, she recalled that her father was burning mad at someone, someone she never blamed. Still, the mission was more important than her own fears; Sephiroth (and Shinra) had to be stopped, somehow. Despite Barret and Yuffie objecting to it, the party decided to climb Mt. Nibel with Vincent, heading north to where ever Sephiroth was headed. Cloud and Tifa would help guide the team up the mountain, and the rest of the party would help support them. With that decided, the party turned and headed towards Mt. Nibel with the intent to climb it. There were, however, two exceptions: Vincent kept a very timid Cait Sith behind to talk to him.
"I didn't want to talk to them about you, but I do want to hear answers, Reeve..." growled Vincent testily, frightening Cait Sith as the former Turk had worked with him before on undercover operations and he was well aware of his true identity. "The President sent you to deal with a handful of insurgents?" he asked. "I want to know what kind of hornet's nest I'm stirring up... What did these guys do?"
"I... The real reason I had to abstain was for them not to know who I really am... If I'd said why I don't trust you, they'd know who I was and that would be that!" sighed Reeve, through his mechanical cat. Far away in Midgar, where he controlled Cait Sith, his nerves had taken him to pour a glass of liquor to calm his nerves. "They committed terrorist bombings back in Midgar, and caused hundreds of casualties..." Reeve explained, taking a sip of his drink from far away. "My mission is to infiltrate and take them down before they cause any more collateral damage... I've already sent info to HQ about their activities without them knowing about it."
"Fighting terrorists? I wonder about that, Reeve..." Vincent said. Folding his arms over his chest, he sized up his mechanical team mate. "Are you sure you're fighting them or the company?" he wondered pointedly, surprising Reeve. "You said collateral damage. They didn't intend it, did they? But I know you. You wouldn't accept this mission unless you had a personal stake in it. What's your real motivation?"
"Bah... You've always been too intuitive, Vincent..." scowled Reeve from his distant seat. He was right; he could have rejected the mission. If he really thought they were a global threat, he wouldn't have started to waver when they entered Nibelheim. "They weren't the only ones who caused damage... We dropped the Plate on Sector Seven just to get rid of them..." he scowled. "They never intended to commit mass murder, but we did..." he said with disgust. "You know, I must admit that I'm intrigued. They don't fight for money or power. I've never seen anyone with any form of influence do that before..."
"You may have helped create Midgar, but you never sold your soul to the almighty Gil, Reeve..." said Vincent. He knew him from back before the company went amok, back when he was in it to help better people's lives. "When you saw what we did to this Sector Seven, it stoked something in you, didn't it?" he asked. "Are you keeping in contact with them for Shinra's sake or out of your own morbid curiosity?" As Reeve hesitated, Vincent sighed and turned to leave. "Watch them and watch yourself. You don't know how dirty Shinra can be..." he said flatly. "You weren't privy to the Jenova Project, so don't act like you know everything about the company. I won't say anything to them, but I want you to look at them as both an outsider and an insider..." Vincent sighed. "Along the way, you might learn the scope of what we do every day under the noses of the masses."
As Vincent walked away, the doll body before him didn't react as its true controller did. Reeve had heard what Vincent had to say as well as Bugenhagen's revelations. It was true that he'd never known about what happened with the Jenova Project; he didn't have authority to dabble in Hojo's messes. And while he never knew Lucrecia Crescent personally, the thought that she'd been used as a test tube for some twisted agenda really did shake him. Hojo's real machinations were never his problem, so he never concerned himself with them. But now?
My own morbid curiosity, eh? Maybe you know me better than I do myself...
Scene Five
Mt. Nibel, which lay just north of Nibelheim, was infamous for its dangers. Not only were there the typical dangers of climbing a wild mountain, but monster attacks were common enough to discourage the locals from traveling through it. It was only Tifa's familiarity with the area and the promise of Sephiroth's protection that spurred her father to agree to Shinra hiring her, and that choice had nearly cost Tifa her life at the end of Sephiroth's sword. For many reasons, neither she nor Cloud wanted to go there at all. The terrain was utter wasteland, no foliage and only rough crags and chunks of rock loosely designed into a navigable path. There was only a single road, one that wound through twists and turns that seemed designed to make travel there miserable.
"And here we have a tiny chunk of hell they call Mt. Nibel..." sighed Tifa, stretching out her hand to display the desolate landscape. "There are monsters here skilled at surprise attacks, and the mountain itself is difficult to climb anyway..." she explained. "When I was a kid, I nearly died here..." When she saw Cloud's discomfort at her words, Tifa bowed her head and pointed towards the northwest. "There's a large rope bridge over there we need to cross. Remember: tread lightly. Let's go!"
The path forward was indeed rocky. There was no set road to follow up the mountain, only a collection of stones that loosely directed you forward. During their travels, the party fought against several avian monsters called Sonic Speeds that swooped down to strafe them, but Barret and Vincent dealt with them from a distance and the few that got close were taken out by Cloud and Tifa. Eventually, they came to a large cliff standing over a deep abyss.
"Oh, hell no! I am not jumping down into that unholy hell hole!" Yuffie declared indignantly. She had good reason not to, as well: there were no footholds or handholds to brace against, and most travelers had to rappel down there with specialized equipment, of which they had none of. "Can't Red make a little rocky road or something?" she wondered. "I just don't want to go straight down!"
"Trying to use my Gaea materia in this environment risks bringing the whole mountain down on us..." remarked Red XIII with a shrug. "True, I could drop us down. The problem is, I can't say for certain if we'd survive the trip..." he sighed. After a little thought, he turned to Aerith and grinned at her. "But... Mix earth and water magic together, and we might be able to create a flexible platform to ride down on. You in, Aerith?"
As Aerith's response was a cheerful nod, she and Red XIII took point and stood at the top of the cliff. Aerith laid her hands on Red XIII's head and they both began to concentrate. The result was a slight rumbling, before a small, multicolored platform began to form, flattened mana solidified by stabilizing water and earth magic together to create a malleable mode of transportation. Everyone traveled down the elevator safely, but Aerith and Red XIII seemed noticeably winded.
"Are you two going to be okay? You must have used a lot of mana to get us down, right?" wondered Cloud as the last of them stepped from the elevator. "I remember how hard it is to use Materia Fusion, so both of you mixing it together must have drained you quite a bit..." he said. Receiving a nod from Aerith, his head dropped suddenly. "I was hoping you wouldn't say yes like that..." whimpered Cloud.
"Oh, we're fine! It'll be just fine, Cloud!" Aerith affirmed cheerfully, assuaging Cloud's doubts for a moment. When she took a deep breath and exhaled sharp enough to drop her to one knee, however, he became concerned again. "But, I'd count us out of fighting," she sighed. "If we need to do that again, then we'd be in trouble. As long as Red and I don't overexert ourselves, it ought to be alright!"
Though Cloud was apprehensive, he cautiously agreed to believe Aerith's words. And therein was the rub: if they had to do it again, they might not be able to move for a while. Using Materia Fusion alone was taxing, but it took double the mana to do so together. The idea of either of them helping in battle was approximately zero. So it really came down to the others to do the fighting.
Scene Six
Fortunately, after the elevator incident there were no further monster attacks. Instead, their path was a winding one that ended in a long rope bridge that didn't seem to be totally sturdy. In fact, it was rebuilt from the one that Sephiroth and his team had dropped from five years earlier and, while it was made sturdier, it allowed for only one person to cross at a time.
"Oh, yeah, this looks real stable! Not!" Yuffie snarled as she stuck her tongue out at Tifa, who promptly took it and yanked it, causing the ninja to stumble forward and drop face first into the rocky ground. "Hey, I was kidding! Gawd! Take a joke..." lisped Yuffie as she spat out the saliva she'd built up and staggered to her feet. "Glad you're back to normal..."
"See that cave up there? It's where we're headed!" Tifa said cheerfully, much to Yuffie's frustration. Upon seeing this, Tifa sighed and threw up her hands. "If you're that enthusiastic, wait until you get inside the cave. It'll be a nasty surprise..." she muttered. "Either way, if we're real careful, we can cross one person at a time."
"That's one way to look at it, Tifa. The other way is the fact that it gave way last time, and back then there were only four of us!" said Cloud with a sigh. Still, seeing no other option, he started towards the bridge. "Tread lightly, and be careful that Barret doesn't topple us," he said to Barret's fury, "and hopefully we'll make it."
Despite Barret's insistence that he wasn't heavy enough to make a difference, Aerith made a joke about it and stoked his fire a bit. Still, Cloud managed to calm him down and the team set out across the rope bridge. Slowly, carefully, they made their way up the bridge man by man. Everything went well until the halfway mark, when two big problems floated down on either side of the bridge: two Zuu, huge avians with orange beaks and sharp talons. On both ends, they were sandwiched between the monsters.
"Gah! Just what we didn't need!" Tifa snapped, her movement briefly shaking the bridge. Seeing Yuffie's panic, she lightly tapped her on the shoulder and gave her a thumbs up. "Let's have faith in our long range fighters, okay?" she said cheerfully, much to Yuffie's surprise. "Barret and Vincent have got this!"
They did indeed have two snipers on their team that specialized in ranged combat, Barret and Vincent, and they quickly (but carefully) readied to do their jobs. Barret chose not to open his Gun-arm's hatches, knowing that the kick back from the machine gun would likely topple the bridge. Instead, he gripped his Gun-arm tight and focused hard on narrowing the impact of his attack. Once he'd locked on and sufficiently dialed down the power, he fired a small shot of air that blasted a hole open in the first Zuu's head, and it fell down and away from the bridge. Vincent withdrew his revolver Cerberus, a triple-barreled revolver that fired three shots at a time. He placed it flat on his forearm, aiming close onto the Zuu's head, and fired a single time that released three bullets that pierced the Zuu's skull and dropped it. Unfortunately, it dropped it towards the bridge. Thinking quickly, Yuffie clapped her hands together and spewed out a strong wave of water that pushed the monster back far enough that it landed on the other side of the bridge with a thunderous thud.
"Oh, yeah! I did it! I did it! Uh-huh, I did it! You saw it, right?" Yuffie chanted wildly, punctuating her celebration by triumphantly tapping her head with two fingers. "My Water Style super soaker blew that sucker right out of the air! You all saw it, right?!" she bragged. "You can thank me later! No... Thank me now! Without me you'd all be so-"
"Stop celebrating and keep crossing," scolded Vincent coldly. As he did he used a tone of voice that frightened Yuffie far more than Tifa ever had. The mistaken idea remained in her head that he could suck her blood, so she quickly clammed up and continued up the bridge with the others.
Yikes! He's so freaking creepy! Gawd!
Scene Seven
Traveling through Mt. Nibel had led the team across vast spans of desolate earth and over a long, rickety rope bridge that they'd have toppled from if Yuffie hadn't sent a monster flying, and once she was done making sure everyone knew about it, the next task was to enter the mountain cave that the rope bridge led to. Ever eager for action, Yuffie charged headlong into the cave. That ended badly, as it usually did for Yuffie, when her foot slipped on a strange tube and she tumbled head first into a pool of polluted water.
"Oh, yuck! Who pissed in this stupid water, Gawd!" Yuffie sputtered. She flailed wildly in the muck and dirty water for a few moments before finally getting her bearings. After spewing out some of the liquid, she found it tasted oddly sweet, and then she realized that she wasn't sitting in water. "Oh, my God!" she shrieked indignantly, skittering to her feet and spitting the muck she'd tasted back into the puddle. "This crap's Mako! Who the hell put this here in the middle of a damn cave?!"
"I suppose you never heard why Shinra came here in the first place... but a broken reactor started the whole mess with Sephiroth," explained Cloud. Folding his arms over his chest, his thoughts turned to the incident five years prior. He hadn't seen these pipes, but Cloud knew that the reactors spanned a vast amount of area. "And five years ago, it was Hojo's twisted mutants that ended up driving him insane..." he growled.
"Oh, so it's Shinra again, huh?! Do these guys make a game out of screwing people over in every conceivable, and inconceivable way?!" snarled Yuffie as she put her hands on her hips. As she stepped towards the precipice and stared down, all she saw was a huge ocean of multicolored Mako, and it seemed that that was all that was down there. "Aw, crap!" she shrieked. "We gonna have to dive into that garbage to move on?! Yuck! I ain't swimming in that stuff, nuh-uh!"
"Look a little to your right and you'll see the maintenance stairways," Vincent said plainly, pointing to the long staircases just to the right of where Yuffie was standing. Yuffie glanced down at the stairs and began to quake, but Vincent ignored her and started down the stairs. "I suggest we not waste time prattling..." he sighed.
"I-I already knew that, you jerk! I was just testing to see if you noticed!" Yuffie huffed angrily, balling her fists and puffing out her chest. Having been played by the ultimate straight shooter thoroughly stoked her fire. Even when Tifa or Aerith pointed things out, they'd never came out that smooth. "And you're not any fun, vampire dude! What a buzz kill, Gawd!" she snapped as she stuck out her tongue at Vincent before stomping down the stairs ahead of him.
"Is she always like this?" asked Vincent flatly, as Yuffie stomped past him. Receiving only looks of sympathy and a giggle from Aerith, he sighed and started down after Yuffie again. "I believe this is going to be a very loud trip..." he muttered coldly, much to Aerith's pleasure and Cloud's frustration. The rest of the party simply gave in to the absurdity of the situation and moved on.
The way down the maintainance stairways was uneventful, as one would think. Yuffie as usual led the charge, pouting all the way, but when Vincent brushed past her she froze stock still and he moved silently ahead of the rest. Once on solid ground, they continued through a series of caverns. Several meters after they'd started, they were ambushed by a pair of Twin Brains. While Cloud cut through one, the other leered at Tifa, its eyes opening menacingly. Before she could scream, Vincent leapt in front of her and took the Twin Brain's stare, much to her horror. To the surprise of all present, Vincent slid to a stop, seemingly unaffected, and the Twin Brain readied its stare a second time. Vincent quietly narrowed his eyes at the monster, and seemingly through pure intimidation alone the Twin Brain began to freeze up. A single, well-placed shot between the eyes blasted it to bits, and as its remains dropped limply to the ground, Vincent smoothly holstered his gun and turned back to his companions, beckoning them to follow him. The others were dumbfounded, especially Tifa, as she'd taken the stare five years earlier and nearly suffocated, but Vincent seemed totally immune to it.
"Hold the phone, Vincent! I don't get it..." said Tifa cautiously, managing to catch his arm and hold him in place before he could continue on. As he stared at her coldly, she somehow mustered the courage to look into his eyes with some degree of resolution. "The damn thing stared you down head-on!" she yelled. "How did you not become paralyzed?!"
"It offered me a gift, and since I didn't want it, I sent it back..." sighed Vincent cryptically, much to Tifa's surprise. Turning, he slowly stepped towards the next chamber nonchalantly. "Don't try to read so far into things..." he said coldly as he continued on step by step into the next cavern. Tifa and the others watched in dull silence, but Yuffie was, as usual, incapable of silence.
"Okay, wait. What the hell just happened?!" shrieked Yuffie angrily as she stomped her foot on the ground. She turned to Tifa for answers, received a shrug, and gruffly folded her arms over her chest with a huff. "That thing's supposed to make you go and freeze solid like a statue, right?" she demanded. "Then why the hell didn't he stop?! Maybe he really is a vampire or something?! Gawd, what a freak!"
Though equally suspicious, Cloud chose not to force the issue. But he'd been there when Tifa nearly suffocated five years prior. How he managed to not only resist the paralysis but ignore it completely baffled him. He'd been raised on tales of the Twin Brains' danger to travelers, and yet he was completely unaffected.
That wasn't natural... He's not natural... No one should be able to do that! This guy has some secrets that he hasn't told us about yet...
Scene Eight
Vincent's strange and effortless victory over the Twin Brain was followed by several smaller chambers much like the one the battle had taken place in. A further few rooms were rimmed by reactor pipes that stretched from the ceiling to the floor, oozing radiating Mako from various small holes in the piping. There was no further sign of monsters, only a few chambers remaining until they reached the light of day. Yuffie was, as usual, optimistic. Sort of.
"We've got to be close to the exit! Right? Right?!" snapped Yuffie angrily. Taking a few dramatic looks around the room, she seemed to finally relax for a bit. "Okay, good... I think we're out of the woods..." she moaned. Her fists clenching, she pointed at the next exit. "That one's the end of the line, right?!"
"It might be..." sighed Vincent, to Yuffie's confusion. He paused briefly and looked around the room, slowly focusing on one of the pipes that led out of the chamber. With a deft motion he drew his revolver and fired once, and the Dragon hidden behind the pipe dropped dead to the ground, crashing hard into the floor and terrifying Yuffie. "It would have been if you'd missed that one," Vincent said coldly as he returned his gun to its holster after spinning it twice. As Yuffie began to nearly foam at the mouth in fear, Vincent nonchalantly stepped to the exit to the chamber and continued to advance. "Worry about the one in the next room, and then we should be alright," he muttered.
Though Vincent's words proved ominous and cryptic, the team continued on into what seemed to be a single, large chamber with a long path that led to the daylight outside of the mountain. Breathing a sigh of relief, Tifa started towards the exit, but Cloud shoved her back and lifted his sword just in time for a titanic monster to fall from the ceiling. It was a blue, multi-tailed kind of scorpion, mutated from a normal monster into a truly formidable freak by the contaminated water of the reactor. This beast, the Materia Keeper, was a heavily armored boss monster with bladed claws on the end of its limbs that were joined by retractable lances of cartilage capable of tearing a body into shreds. Barret quickly opened his weapon's hatches and aimed it, but to his shock Aerith quickly batted it down to the floor before he could fire.
"If you try firing that giant thing inside this cave, it'll probably collapse and kill us all!" scolded Aerith. She pointed towards the ceiling, where the Keeper had dropped from. "Look at the top of the chamber. There are already cracks from where it was hiding!" she said darkly. "Using any kind of heavy artillery is going to be suicidal. We've got to be careful."
"On top of that, Aerith and I are out of the picture," Red XIII sighed. As his friends turned to him in confusion, he opened his mouth and a tiny spark fizzled like a small cough. "When we used Materia Fusion, we used too much mana... And now, we don't have enough power to put up a fight, sadly..." he moaned. "Besides that, none of our abilities could be useful in this narrow chamber anyway..."
"Oh, just peachy! What the hell are we supposed to do, then?! Politely ask it to move its sorry ass and not kill us?!" snarled Yuffie as she stomped her foot with such violence that a tiny rock dropped from the ceiling. While Tifa glared at her, Yuffie continued to fume and pointed dramatically at the Materia Keeper. "The sucker's freaking huge!" she shrieked. "What do we do, you jerks?!"
"You're too loud. Make too much of a fuss and we'll drop the roof," Vincent said softly, so resolutely that Yuffie froze stock still and skittered backwards to safety. Turning his eyes to Cloud and Tifa, he swiftly drew his revolver and refilled the chambers. "Careful, close range combat is the way to go..." he sighed. With a nod, Cloud and Tifa split up to either side of the chamber and Vincent cocked his gun. Unknown to the others, he had another ability to draw on, one they'd already seen but hadn't understood.
Time it right, hope it makes a mistake, and we've got it. Simple as that.
Scene Nine
Heavy artillery was out, Materia Fusion was out, and if Yuffie continued to yell the room might have caved in outright. Now, Cloud and Tifa divided the chamber in two, each taking one side while Vincent remained in the center. While Yuffie stewed and the others prayed, Vincent carefully examined the Materia Keeper's anatomy. There were several front claws, along with three scorpion tails in the back that he assumed were used as its finishing move. While he hadn't seen it personally, Vincent had read about a three-pronged lightning attack called Trine that was created in much the same way: three focused bolts of lightning from three focal points. As he narrowed his eyes, Vincent carefully examined the beast as it moved; its every movement, however slight, might mean to them the difference between life and death.
If it is Trine, I just need to take the hit and I can put it to rest. Neither of their weapons can probably pierce its armor.
As they cautiously and carefully strolled to either side of the room, Cloud and Tifa prepared to attack. Both of them knew that they had to attack at one, single point with enough force to destroy the Keeper's armor. The only way to do that was to coordinate, evade, and try to find an opportunity to mix Tifa's fist with Cloud's focused Materia Infusion. The two slowly took up positions on both left and right, waiting for the Materia Keeper to make the first move. It did so, slashing out with both claws in a pincer motion that scattered the pair. As the Keeper's claws lashed back out, Cloud and Tifa each parried one of the blade knuckles skillfully and both quickly leapt on top of the beast's head. Tifa hardened her right heel (normally hardening it, as Materia Fusion would cause too much after shock), lifted up her leg and slammed it into the beast's head, creating a loud cracking noise as its shell deformed. With a smirk, she turned to Cloud for the finisher.
Go get 'em, Cloud!
To Tifa's surprise Cloud took her by the collar and yanked her backwards, landing just in time to keep the three scorpion tails from puncturing her from three different directions. The Materia Keeper's three back appendages began to quiver and slowly formed into a triple-pronged formation. While at first Cloud and Tifa didn't understand what was happening, the impact of the burning hot laser emitted from all three stingers that ripped open a line in the ground showed that it was a fierce, cutting beam that split the ground in half. They dodged as best they could, darting back and forth, but finally the Keeper's attention and all three stingers focused directly on Tifa. The others were horrified, and Cloud became filled with a primal sort of fear, fear that his friend was about to be sawed in half by the laser.
Damn it! Get out of there before it fires!
Just before the laser fired, Vincent charged forward and slammed his shoulder into Tifa's airborne body, sending her skidding to the floor and forcing the beam to penetrate his right shoulder. To Tifa's horror he dropped to one knee as she slid to a halt, and though she tried to reach him there was no time to avoid a second shot. However, the Materia Keeper suddenly seized up as Vincent stared it down. As a strange, bubbling acid began to dribble from its maw, Vincent lifted his left arm and narrowed the fingers of his gauntlet into a single point. When the five claws had united into one, the gauntlet began to shake and a sharp, golden beam of energy shot from his fingers. The ray swiftly pierced the Materia Keeper's brain and turned it to mush, and its body quickly dropped lifeless to the ground, soon joined by Vincent. Vincent fell on one knee to the floor, his left claw desperately clutching the wound on his opposite shoulder. Though everyone was shocked and struck dumb, Aerith quickly darted forward and laid her hands on Vincent's wound. Vincent flinched as her healing energy began to stitch his muscles back together, but gave a deep, soothing sigh as his body slowly started to regenerate.
"What the devil just happened?!" hissed Aerith as she knelt next to Vincent. As his flesh was pieced back together and a hole formed in his cloak where it had been pierced, Aerith quietly tried to assess what had just happened. She came up empty. "I've never seen someone use a monster's attack like that!" she gasped. "What did you just-"
"Yeah, what the hell did you do, vampire dude?!" Yuffie shrieked as she gripped her head in both hands. Her fingers frantically skittering across her skull as if attempting to do a math equation on her head in an attempt to deduce what had happened. "Good God!" she screamed. "That was freaking-"
"Be quiet," scolded Vincent, a single stare shocking Yuffie and dropping her unconscious from fright. As he patted his now-healed shoulder, Vincent slowly picked up his revolver and returned it to its holster. "I told you before: It offered me something, and I gave it back..." he said coolly.
"I... still don't get it..." Aerith sighed as she hung her head. No matter how much she wracked her brains, nothing came to mind as to what he meant. "But it looked like you used the same laser that the monster did!" she gasped.
"Precisely," said Vincent. He took in a deep breath and exhaled, turning to Aerith with what passed as a fairly warm smile. "Both that beast and the one from before? I observed and replicated their techniques..." he said plainly. "They used to call it a certain name, but no one's referred to it as Blue Magic for quite some time..."
"Holy hell! Enemy Skill! That's what he did, he took the attack and turned it back against the bastards!" exclaimed Cloud. Taking in a deep breath, he folded his arms over his chest and tried to remember about the technique. "Before he used that laser, Vincent used that paralysis technique that the Twin Brain used to suffocate it!" he gasped. "Blue Magic... I've never heard of that term, but I've heard about an Enemy Skill materia that functions like that!"
"Okay, hold the damn phone! I got two problems with this!" exclaimed Yuffie as she lifted two fingers. "One: He got hit by the first thing and didn't stop breathing!" she growled. "Two: I don't see anywhere that he's got materia equipped! Does being a vampire allow you to ignore the laws of magic?!" Yuffie hissed.
"I don't know its name, nature, or location," shrugged Vincent. He ran a hand over his chest, slowly allowing his fingers to drag against his cloak. "It seems to come from inside my body. When I'm in mortal danger, it reverses it," he said softly. "The effect vanishes and I'm restored."
"That's... bizarre... I've never heard of such an ability!" Red XIII exclaimed. He tilted his head, trying to figure out what to say, but came up empty. "Is it like my Form materia, you think? That it changes something into a new state?" he wondered.
"No... I don't see anywhere he has a materia equipped, and even then I don't see how it could enable him to copy monster attacks..." sighed Aerith. "Granted I've never considered it, but I always guessed that monsters use a sort of magic that we can't..." she said quietly. "If he can use that kind of magic, it has to be something stronger than normal materia... It's like it's been embedded into his body or something..."
"Is that even possible?" wondered Tifa. She ran through the battle again and came to the same conclusion: Vincent had mimicked both the Twin Brain and the Materia Keeper's abilities, but to do so he had to be struck by the attacks. Somehow, he wasn't paralyzed by the Twin Brain, and sent back the Materia Keeper's laser, both times after taking the attacks. "Maybe it's something like muscle memory?" she pondered. "Except a bit more sudden and a lot more unorthodox. He memorizes the feeling of it, and then..." With a sigh, she threw up her hands. "I give up. This is too much for me to figure out!" Tifa groaned.
"Does it matter?" asked Vincent. As he worked out a kink in his neck, he tried to analyze it as well. He hadn't equipped any materia since before he went to sleep. The only change between then and now were Hojo's various experiments...
I remember another voice from when I was sleeping: Lucrecia's. Did she do something? If only I could remember her words... I've lost the meaning of her term "Chaos..." And then, "Omega..." What did she call it, a Protomateria...?
Author's Notes
Yup. Vincent. I made him a Blue Mage. The way I analyzed it was, that if he could transform into his three Limit Break forms it would presumably rip open his clothing and leave him naked, and we can't have that, although I'm sure that some fans would disagree with that conclusion. Another thought was to have his transformation emerge from some sort of cocoon, but there isn't really any explanation I can think of for him transforming into Frankenstein and that chain saw wielding killer from whatever movie... He's used the Galian Beast in Dirge of Cerberus, I think... and there's no way I can't include Chaos at some point, which I've already been thinking about and I've pinned down when and where he will, which really shouldn't take much effort to deduce when and where if you're here in the first place. So I figured the best way to use him was by using monster's abilities - Blue Mages use monster attacks, he transforms into monsters, hence Vincent somehow became a Blue Mage. Curse me out all you like, I kind of like the mechanic.
And yes, it references his Protomateria from Dirge of Cerberus... which to be honest, I never played because my reflexes suck. Apparently it lets him tap into Chaos and Omega, two of the ultimate beings the Planet has created. The basic idea of reversing danger was similar to Kid's Astral Amulet from Chrono Cross... Which rewinds time when Kid's in danger or something similar. So, I went with the Protomateria reversing the effects of status attacks and returning Vincent to normal. So, for example, Bad Breath would briefly affect him, but the Protomateria would kick in and return his system to normal. It's BS and I know it, but again, I kind of think it's cool.
I've also tried to keep Vincent's dialogue to a minimum. I figured that he wouldn't be the type to drag things out, like Yuffie, and so he's ended up her polar opposite. Hopefully I've recreated the whole badass thing he exudes. Not doing so would be a crime, and hopefully I won't get any hate mail.
Next up are Rocket Town and Wutai. I've just finished the latter as of 12/8/22, and hopefully I'm going to keep you guys coming back... At this point, I imagine a lot of people have given up, and I can't blame them with thirty-plus chapters and no end in sight. This will be a long ordeal, but hopefully you guys can find the kind of enjoyment I get from writing it, to reading it.