Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy VII; Second Generation ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I can't believe catching Chocobos could be so difficult!”, Jessie sighs, as she rode on one of the three giant yellow birds they managed to capture while Pixie sat behind her recharging her batteries.

 

“Hey look on the bright-side sis, we don't have to walk to Fort Condor or Junon”, Zack says, riding beside her while Nicole seated behind him holding onto his waist with something rolled up in a blanket in her lap.

 

“I still feel sorry for that Chocobo the monsters killed…”, Nicole mournfully states, “Leaving this poor little baby orphaned…”, she adds, lifting the corner of the blanket away to uncover the tiny bundle of fluffy golden-yellow feathers wrapped under it, causing it to chirp from the disturbance in it's warmth.

 

“Do you think it's wise to bring a baby Chocobo along for a mission as dangerous as the one we're on?”, Jessie asks.

 

“I'll protect this precious bundle of feathers with my life if I have to, it's the least we can do for it's mother's sacrifice…”, she mutters.

 

“I'd love to see the look on Barret's face; after the struggle he'd gone through 20 years ago, to hear something like that to come from the mouth of Rufus Shinra's daughter!”, Zack laughs, knowing that the burly dark-skinned man would be hopping-mad than so happy that he'd be speechless.

 

“I guess it is a little funny, after all the hell my grandfather put the world through, I turned into one of the people who'd go against everything he stood for…”, Nicole sheepishly replies, petting the tiny Chocobo to comfort it in the loss of it's mother.

 

“Like our dad might say: `it is a good thing Rufus saw the error of his ways before it was too late' or something like that”, Jessie comments, imitating her father.

 

“That was a pretty good impression of your father, Jessie”, the younger girl laughs.

 

“Hey, how much farther till we get to Fort Condor?”, Yoko questions, riding on her Chocobo with Vincent slumped up against her from behind, still unconscious.

 

“It should be just on the other side of that hill”, Jessie answers, pointing to the hill in front of them.

 

“Well we need to hurry, Vincent just started burning with a fever a few minutes ago”, the singer states, glancing worriedly back at her passenger as sweat drips off his face, “And he's getting worse!”

 

“Then come on!”, Jessie orders, digging her heels into the Chocobo's sides to speed up it's run.

 

Yoko follows Jessie's example in speeding up her Chocobo, but uses the reins to get the bird to move faster instead of her heels.

 

“Hang on tight, Nicole!”, Zack warns, before speeding up their Chocobo to chase after the two females.

 

“Right!”, she nods, tightly wrapping one arm around his waist and the other to hold the baby Chocobo in her care.

 

 

 

 

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-Outside Fort Condor-

 

 

 

 

 

“Is there anyone here? We need some help!”, Jessie calls out, leaping off the back of her Chocobo before it even had a chance to stop.

 

“What is with all the ruckus?”, a middle-aged man questions, as he walks out of the cave-like door.

 

“A friend of ours is sick, we need your help”, Yoko replies, as she rode up having to quickly grab Vincent before he slid off of the Chocobo.

 

“Carol, come quick! I think it's another one of those problems!”, the man shouts, as he quickly takes hold of Vincent's limp form and pulls him off of the Chocobo.

 

“Are you sure?”, a woman who looked like she had a lot of stress in her life asks; or what they guessed from all the gray hairs she had, as she runs out of the door the man had come through.

 

“Unconsciousness, sweating enough to fill the condor's nest, and a fever hot enough to cook an egg”, the man lists off, “Sure enough, it's Death-root poisoning…”

 

“Death-root?”, Jessie questions, completely confused as Yoko climbs down off of her Chocobo.

 

“You mean the most potent and deadly plant on the whole planet?”, Yoko gasps, withdrawing the bullet she had extracted from Vincent's body, “Who ever shot this bullet must also have knowledge in poisons too…”

 

“Ed, get him inside and into a bed quickly! And administer the antidote!”, Carol orders, “Tell me, how did this happen to your friend?”

 

“We were traveling through the Mythril Mines and Vincent was shot in the back; while shielding me from the bullet that was meant for me, we removed the bullet before it could cause anymore damage, but…”, Yoko explains, “But…after that he started to get sick… He's been unconscious since he was shot…”

 

“Is that the bullet?”

 

“Yes, it is…”

 

“Let me see it”, Carol says, as Yoko complies handing the bullet to the older woman, “It's hard to tell, but there is trace signs that this hollowed-tipped bullet was filled with liquefied Death-root”, she states, while examining the bullet, “How long ago was he shot?”

 

“Three hours ago…”, Yoko replies.

 

“T-three hours ago?”, she stutters, “He should have been dead two hours ago!”

 

“I guess he's just lucky…”, Jessie shrugs, `The real reason he's still alive probably has something to do with the experiments done to him…', she thinks.

 

“There are some people who have lived longer, though…”, Carol mutters, “Like that fellow, what was that delivery-man's name again…?”

 

“Cloud Strife…?”, Jessie questions.

 

“Oh that's right! His name was Cloud Strife! How did you know?”

 

“He's my father, and 20 years ago he had helped in the fight to protect the condors”, she answers.

 

“So that was why I recognized him… Cute fellow too…”

 

“So can we spend the night, while our friend recovers?”

 

“Sure, anything for the child of the man who helped save the condors”.

 

“Thank you very much…”, Yoko says, bowing.

 

“Don't mention it”, she replies, vanishing inside of the cave-style door.

 

“Now where the hell is my brother?”, Jessie huffs.

 

“Sorry I'm so late!”, Zack call out, riding up to them on his Chocobo, “We had to stop to feed the little one”, he explains, pointing towards Nicole behind him as she held a syringe-style basseted full of mashed up Chocobo-greens to the baby Chocobo.

 

“Well, that's a relief. I was afraid you got lost like you did when mom and dad took us to visit Nibelheim…”, Jessie remarks.

 

“I was only 7 years old!”, Zack retorts, as he hops off the back of his Chocobo.

 

“That is quite enough children, let's just focus on getting some rest, food, and supplies”, Yoko states, playing the peacekeeper.

 

“Yoko's right. Besides, your bickering is upsetting little Shinta…”, Nicole says.

 

“Little… Shinta…?”, Jessie asks.

 

“Nicole decided to name the Chocobo, Shinta”, Zack replies, as he helps Nicole off the back of the adult Chocobo while she lovingly held the baby Chocobo; Shinta, gently to her chest.

 

“Besides, we should relax until Vincent wakes up, I might have found out who the shooter is”, Pixie says, as she flew towards the doorway into Fort Condor.

 

“Come on, we all had a tiring day and we need to rest, okay?”, Yoko points out, heading towards the door, “But if the two of you are restless, why don't you catch one more Chocobo”, she suggests.

 

“Why one more?”, the female sibling questions.

 

“I don't think Vincent wants to share riding a Chocobo”, she states, vanishing inside.

 

“There's one point…”, Nicole responds, following after the singer carrying her precious bundle.

 

“Might as well…”, Zack shrugs, causing his sister to huff in frustration.

 

 

 

 

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-Vincent's Dream-

 

 

 

 

Vincent; while back in his glory-days as a Turk, stands by the window to the right of the desk; which is where Hojo sat behind of, in the music-room of Shinra manor in Nibelheim.

 

“Is it true?”, Turk Vincent asks.

 

“Is what true?”, Hojo questions in his annoying voice.

 

“That Lucrecia... That Dr. Crescent is to take part in this project?”, he began then corrected himself.

 

“It's true”, a female voice answers, causing Vincent to turn to look, watching as she walks over to Hojo's side on the other side of the desk, “Why are you so surprised?”

“But using your own child for an experiment?”, Vincent asks her, the concern in his voice overriding his cool and collected demeanor.

“Hah!”, Hojo snorts, “I don't know what you're implying, but both of us are scientists. We know what we are doing”, he scoffs, “You are the last person to have any word in this. Now leave us at once, boy!”

Vincent lowers his head, as if to gather some confidence, “But...”, he began.

“But what?”, Lucrecia coldly questions, causing Vincent to hesitate, “If you have something to say, say it”, she continued coldly.

 

“Are you... Are you sure this is what you really want?”, he stutters with concern completely plastered all over his face and in his voice as he steps forward a few steps.

“Am I sure? Am I sure!?”, she accuses, out-raged, “If this only concerns me, then yes, I am sure!”, she snaps.

“Oh… I-I just...”, he mutters, staring down at the floor ashamed, mentally beating himself for voicing his concern.

“All I did was watch. I didn't even try to stop her…”, the present-day Vincent thinks, “I know trying wouldn't have changed her mind, but I could…no… I SHOULD have tried! That was my sin, not trying harder to stop her… and my punishment was to lose my life for her sake; to save her from Hojo… Yet, I still failed doing that as well…”, he mentally tells himself, “I now know that I redeemed my first sin of not trying to stop Lucrecia, by trying to right my mistake; resulting in my death…”, he says, forgiving himself for what he should have done before, “But Hojo decided I should be punished for interfering with him and his `Precious' Experiment… Turning me into what I am now…”, he sadly adds, hugging himself.

 

“Yet… I caused Lucrecia pain with my sacrifice… gave her grief over the fact that I died protecting her; like my father had done for her years earlier… That is the only sin I'll never forgive myself for…”, he states, “And she'll never forgive herself either… Even though I never blamed her for mine or my father's deaths…”, he continues to say to himself, smiling softly to himself as he recalls Lucrecia's last words to him when he connected to her heart 17-years ago.

 

“I-I finally...I finally realized my true feelings, even if you may never understand them. Not that I mind, though. But...this isn't how it was supposed to be. I've made too many mistakes, and I've hurt you...so, so much. Oh, why did I do what I did?! I'm so sorry! ...But I'm so happy...you survived”, were the words she had said to him.

 

“She blames herself for my death and I blame myself for causing her grief… The circle is never ending…”, he mentally chuckles.

 

 

 

-End Dream-

 

 

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Hazy blood-red eyes slowly blink open, wincing from the brightness of the light hanging from the ceiling of earth, `Where am I?', he mentally asks, as he slowly sat up in the bed he found himself in, his blurry-vision starting to focus on his surroundings, `Fort Condor…?', he ponders, recognizing the rest area of the structure.

 

Vincent looks down at his hands, still finding them gloved/gauntleted, but they were trembling and felt cold, in fact his whole body felt cold despite the heavy blankets he was under. He was still in his long-sleeve black shirt and pants, his boots sat on the floor beside the bed, his red cloak laid draped over a nearby chair, and his head-band sat neatly folded on the nightstand next to his holstered Cerberus. He brings his right hand to his head as a bout of dizziness tries to overcome him, the cool leather of the glove feeling good against his extremely-warm forehead.

 

`Why is my forehead so warm…?', he wonders, biting the tip of one of the fingers of his glove and tugs his hand out, then brings his bare-hand to his forehead, finding it burning-hot, `A fever…? I don't get sick anymore…!', he thinks.

 

Then he suddenly remembers the reason why he was unconscious, “Was the bullet…poisoned…?”, he whispers, knowing that the only time he ever feels like he has a cold; after Hojo's experimentation on him, is when he is/was poisoned or lost a lot of blood.

 

He carefully makes his way over to the edge of the bed, putting his feet onto the floor and shakily pulls his boots on, then unsteadily walks over towards the ladder leading up to the upper-levels, leaving his cloak, gun, and head-band where they were. Tightly gripping the rungs of the ladder as he slowly makes his way up, sweat dripping from his chin from his exertion, and when he reaches the top, the upper level looked the same as it did 20 years ago, two ladders on the further wall; one leading to the scouting-post/nest and the other to the item & weapon shops, a ladder poking out of the floor by another wall leaded to the entrance into Fort Condor, and a table sat in between where he stood and the entrance.

 

Yoko sat slumped over the table, her gun; a Glock 17, laid in pieces on the table, disassembled by it's owner to clean the parts when she had fallen asleep.

 

The former-Turk quietly walks over to her side; as skillfully and gracefully as he used to as a Turk, and as he reached out to touch her shoulder, Yoko suddenly bolts up, reattaching the slider onto her gun and jams a loaded clip into the gun with lightning-fast reflexes, pointing the loaded weapon at his head with her reddish-brown eyes glazed over in fear.

 

“Whoa, easy Yoko… It's only me…”, Vincent states, shocked at her inhumanly speed in reassembling and loading her gun, `I wasn't that fast 50 years ago… But fear can do that to you…'

 

Yoko suddenly blinks; like someone awakening from a nightmare, the glazed over fear vanishing from her eyes, “Uh, Vincent…?”, she gasps, then notices what she had done when she awoke, lowering her weapon, “Sorry…”, she mutters.

 

“Have a nightmare you're running from?”, he asks, sitting down.

 

“Yeah…”, she quietly replies, “How are you feeling?”

 

“A little feverish… But other then that, I'm fine…”

 

“You're lucky to have survived that poisoning, Death-root is very hard to recover from without receiving the antidote within an hour of the poisoning… Yet you lived for a full 3-4 hours after the fact…”, she explains.

 

“It's just how my body is…”, he says, “…now…”

 

“The experiments affected your responses to poison and sickness, right?”, she guesses.

 

“Yes…”

 

“Vincent, I…”, Yoko began.

 

“Well, it's good to see that you're both awake”, Pixie states, flying up to them, “I know the identification of the shooter, and I need everyone awake and present. I'll go get the others”, the robotic-fairy informs, flying down the ladder to the entrance.

 

“I might as well find the care-takers and ask them about borrowing a monitor or T.V. I know Ruvie will want to communicate with us…”, Yoko sighs, getting up and walks away, “Don't go too far Vincent, you're still recovering”, she states, smiling at him from over her shoulder.

 

`Wasn't she going to tell me something?', Vincent pondered, as he watches her vanish up the ladder leading to the scouting-post.

 

 

 

 

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-Ten Minutes Later-

 

 

 

 

“Okay, you got all of us here. What's going on?”, Jessie spat, being in a sour-mood from having no luck in catching another Chocobo.

 

“Were all here, because we need/want to know who the shooter is, right?”, the robotic-fairy replies, walking on top of the table beside the monitor Yoko had found in the old Mako-reactor.

 

“Yeah… yeah… Get on with it!”, Jessie snaps.

 

“Very well…”, Pixie sighs, un-tucking a gold-cord from her red-obi; revealing the cord to be a wire/cable for input/output, plugging the end into the monitor connection and the screen flickers on, displaying Ruvie on the screen.

 

“Pixie has informed me of what has happened”, Ruvie states, with her hands enclosed in front of herself, “How are you feeling Vincent?”

 

“I'm fine…”, he flatly replies.

 

“Though it seems impossible to do this while amidst the confusion back in the cave, but Pixie managed to get a picture of the shooter and I've identified her”, the head of the WRO's Intelligence department explains, moving one of her hands to a keyboard beside herself, typing on a few keys and the image of a young girl with long black-hair briaded and pinned-up behind her head and dark brown eyes, armed with a sniper-rifle fills the screen, “This is Riku Onimako, Age: 10, Blood-type: AB…”

 

“Riku Onimako…”, Nicole whispers.

 

“What's wrong, Nicole?”, Zack asks.

 

“Riku Onimako, is the only child and sole heir to the Onimako estate. Her parents are close friends of my father and diligent hunters, their company; Onimako Pharmaceuticals, is the leading corporation in medical-supplies”, Nicole answers.

 

“That is correct Nicole, but their daughter had vanished last year when they had gone to their cabin in the mountains”, Ruvie says, finishing the tale about the girl, “And she isn't the only person to have gone missing in that mountain-range, a young woman named; Kazuki Kakei, has vanished there 2 years ago as well”, she adds, as a picture of a young woman with long brown hair and blue eyes appears on the screen.

 

“Where is the mountain-range?”, Vincent questions.

 

“The mountains near Mt. Nibel…”, Reeve's daughter informs, as her images returns.

 

“Nibelheim…”, Vincent whispers.

 

“Not only was Riku shooting a gun, she had also taken a picture of our group…”, Pixie states, “I had picked up on the electrical-waves from the flash of the camera, so whoever her boss is, they now know our faces as well”, she warns.

 

“Just great!”, Jessie shouts, “Like we needed anymore problems!”

 

 

 

 

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-Somewhere in the Nibel Mountains-

 

 

 

 

“So this is who their sending after me?”, Sephanie's voice echoes through the cavernous-room as she looks at the image on the giant-monitor, “The brats of those two fools who killed my father, a robot, and a spoiled-princess… The other two I don't recognize…”

 

“The man in the red cloak is another fool who killed your father named; Vincent Valentine, my dear”, a male standing behind her replies, “But the girl…”, he trails off as he looks at the monitor, “It can't be…!”, he gasps.

 

“What's wrong, H?”, the woman sitting at the computer-console asks.

 

“Riku, tell me the name of the girl in this picture!”, H orders.

 

“Her name is Yoko Kuro, a famous singer…”, Riku replies, her voice monotone and lacking emotion.

 

“Yoko…?”, he sneers, “So, she survived Meteor-Impact after all…”, he mutters, a sinister smirk forming on his lips as he stares at Yoko's image on the screen, “I can't wait to meet her again…”

 

 

 

 

 

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