Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy VII; Second Generation ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Stay away from me!”, Yoko screams, as she runs down a hallway, her white silk nightgown and unbound black hair trailing behind her.

 

The maniacal laughing of a man echoes through the corridor as she continued to run, “You can't escape, my dear!”

 

Her chest heaves with every breath she tries to take in as she ran, but she was slowly down as she felt herself shrinking smaller and smaller until she was a crawling-infant. She could feel cold and clammy hands pick her up and she feels his warm foul-smelling breath on the back of her neck.

 

“I told you, my dear. Wherever you run, I'll find you. You can not deny my will…”, he whispers into her ear, his voice carrying nothing but insanity and promises of pain.

 

“Nnnnooooooo!”, Yoko screams out.

 

 

 

 

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Yoko bolts up in bed, clutching her chest and coughing as she tries to take air into her lungs.

 

`That nightmare again…', she mentally tells herself, `It's just a dream… Nothing else…', she adds, hugging her shoulders as she shivers, `But why does it seem so real…?'

 

“I need some fresh air…”, she mutters, rubbing her brow as she glances around at her sleeping comrades, before moving to slipping her shoes on and climbs up the ladder to the upper-level.

 

But not without her movements being closely watched by blood-red eyes staring out from the darkness of the shadows, before the owner too climbs up the ladder after her.

 

When Vincent reaches the top of the ladder, he catches sight of Yoko's shoes vanishing through the hole for the ladder going up to the scouting-post. Quickly following her, he climbs up the ladder and walks up the steps into the post.

 

What he saw when he entered the room stunned him, Yoko sat in the window staring out at the landscape below, the moonlight streaming in through the window illuminating her and making her skin glow like something ethereal, her black hair shimmer like onyx-colored silk, and her reddish-brown eyes sparkle like garnets.

 

Yoko lightly gasps, feeling his presence in the room, “Vincent…”, she gasps, turning her head to face him, “What are you doing up?”

 

“I heard you scream out in your sleep?”, he replies, “Bad nightmare…?”

 

She quickly hugs her shoulders and starts trembling, “I-I try to forget it, but when I come close to, I just have it again…”, she sobs, the fear in her voice making it quake, “It's been happening for as long as I can remember…”

 

Vincent just walks up to her and drapes his cloak over her shoulders, “You're going to catch a cold up here in just a tank-top and shorts…”, he states, concern audible in his voice.

 

“Thank you…”, she whispers, clasping the edges close with her hand, “Wait!”, she says, grabbing him by the sleeve as he tried to walk away, “Stay with me a little long, please…”, she begs, looking up at him, the fear from her nightmare still evident on her face.

 

“Sure…”, he mutters; seeing Lucrecia in the young woman, letting her wrap his arm around her shoulder as she scoots up a bit to let him sit behind her and leans back against his chest.

 

“The moon sure is beautiful, isn't it?”, Yoko asks, after a moment of silence.

 

“Yeah… It is…”, he replies, looking up at the crescent-moon.

 

“Why are you doing this for me?”

 

“Huh… What…?”

 

“It's obvious that I remind you of someone you know, someone you love, right?”, she states, sitting up so that she was no longer leaning against his chest.

 

“Huh…?”, Vincent utters, blushing as he realized that she was right.

 

“Your blush tells me everything, you're only comforting me because I resemble the woman you love…”, she flatly says, looking at him with indifference, “I know this, because I took a Psychology class in College, which allows me to read your emotions and expressions like a book…”

 

“Lu-Lucrecia… I had committed a despicable sin against her, and…”, Vincent began, feeling he had to explain, “And, she died because of it…”

 

“I see…”, she mutters, regret in her voice, “I shouldn't have asked…”

 

“No, it's alright… I've never spoken to anyone about her before…”, he states, “At least, not in detail…”

 

“Did… No, do you still love her?”, Yoko questions, correcting herself from past-tense to present-tense.

 

“Yes, with every moment of my abominable existence…”, he answers, with his eyes downcast.

 

“Don't you call yourself that, not ever!”, she demands.

 

“But it's true… I'm a monster for not protecting her…”

 

“Listen to me…”, she softly says, gently cupping his face in her hands, “You're not a monster, the only real monsters out there are Sephiroth and his daughter…”

 

“Don't you understand, I'm a monster for not stopping the experiments that created Sephiroth!”, he quietly shouts, staring into her eyes.

 

“Didn't stop…? What do you mean by `not stopping'?”, she confusedly asks, “Those experiments happened over 50 years ago… How…?”

 

“It's complicated, but you must swear on Saiyuki's soul that you will not repeat what I'm going to tell you to the others…”, Vincent sternly says, removing her hands from his cheeks.

 

“I swear on Saiyuki's soul and that of my mother's…”, she vows.

 

“It was 50 years ago; give or take, I was a gun-man for the Turks back then when Shinra was still a Manufacturing company. I had been assigned the protection of the scientists of the Jenova Project, more importantly the only female on the team; Lucrecia, stationed at Shinra Manor in Nibelheim. Over the course of a few weeks, feelings had developed between us, but…”, he trails off.

 

“But what?”

 

“But… Just as I was ready to tell her my feelings and propose to her in her lab, I saw an opened file on her computer; a file about my father, she had worked with my father and had been there when he died. Lucrecia had walked in just as I had found the file; we had gotten into an argument about her working with my father, so we went for a walk through the town to maybe calm our nerves and after she had told me what had happened, she was quite upset that when I tried to tell her that it wasn't her fault, she ran off and I didn't follow her. I should have, but didn't because I felt she needed some time to herself, it was a week later she had entered into a relationship with one of the other scientists on the project; a man named Hojo…”, he explains, spitting at the last part.

 

“Extreme dislike for the man, huh?”, she chuckles, picking up on that last part.

 

“He was the only monster there, offering the child growing in her womb from their union for the project. The child born would grow up to become the monster called; Sephiroth, but during Lucrecia's pregnancy she grew weak and sick from the exposure to Mako and Jenova-cells. I tried to talk her out of it many times, but she insisted on continuing; I guess I never made it clear that I was worried for her well being. Then suddenly about half-way through her term, she collapsed in the music-room and started coughing up blood…”, he says, his voice cracking from emotion, “I-I had been so anger that Hojo had allowed this to happen, that I confronted him in his lab, I shouldn't have let my senses be blinded by rage or I would have noticed to gun Hojo had hidden in his lab-coat; my own gun, the next thing I know I'm laying on the floor with pain in my lower-chest, a puddle of blood forming underneath me, my vision and hearing are leaving me, my breaths getting shallower, and my heart is slowly stopping. I died at the age of 27…”

 

“Died…? But you're right here in this time 50 years later…”

 

“It doesn't end there…”, he states, “I don't know exactly what Hojo had done to my body, but I had awoken on a operation-table months later, and in my dazed-stupor my body had transformed into that of a monstrous-creature. I had locked myself inside a coffin for 30 years, where Jessie and Zack's parents; Cloud and Tifa, found me, and because I had died and the experiments performed on my body, I don't age anymore and is essentially immortal…”, he finishes, “That is why I'm a monster, for not protecting the woman I love and for allowing the monster called Sephiroth to be created…”, he adds, turning his head away from her.

 

Yoko just simply frames his face in her hands and gently turns his head to face her, “I thought I told to not call yourself that… Your body may transform into a monster, but what the flesh is doesn't matter, it's the soul inside that matters; your human-soul…”, she says, moving one of her hands to rest it against the flesh covering his heart, “You still have a human heart beating in your chest; one that beats the same as the one inside me, and for allowing a monster to be born is just poor `human' judgment…”, she explains, “That's all…”

 

“Yoko…”, he whispers, “You've only known me for a few days, and you've already cut my feelings to the bone… You're the first person I've ever told my past to and the only one to make logic where there was none…”

 

“My teacher thought so too”.

 

“You're right…”

 

“About what?”, she asks.

 

“About only comforting you because you resemble Lucrecia, not just in face but in personality as well, though some of your personality isn't like hers…”

 

“I probably inherited my personality from my mother and father…”, she states, going back to staring at the moon.

 

“Your parents… What are their names?”

 

“I…don't know…”, she sadly replies, “Saiyuki didn't know and all my birth-records were destroyed when Meteor hit Midgar… the only link to my past is a metal ID-bracelet with only my first name and birth-date on it…”

 

“Then how did you know about their personalities?”

 

“The caretaker who raised me; till Meteor-Impact, told me what they were like, but never their names…”, she says, looking at him with the same look as a little girl who's puppy got run over; in front of her eyes.

 

“So your past is an enigma. The way I want my past to be with other people…”

 

“Yeah, but I now know your past. Does this mean you're going to have to kill me for knowing?”, she jokingly asks.

 

“No, I think I can trust you to keep it a secret…”

 

“Good, didn't want to end up dead just yet…”, she sighs, slightly glad he played along with her joke, “I still can't believe you're at least 77 years old…”

 

“My hair should be all white or at least starting to turn, I should have wrinkles on my face like Reeve, my eye-sight and/or hearing should be going. I should at least look my age, but look at me! I haven't changed in 50 years…”, he morbidly states, the mental-anxiety eating at him.

 

“There you go again, criticizing yourself…”, Yoko offhandedly remarks.

 

“Not to mention my ability to heal beyond faster than a human… Like a…”, he is abruptly cut off by Yoko's finger on his lips.

 

“Don't say monster or anything not referring to human…”, she warns, knowing what he was going to say next, “You really need to stop looking at the label you gave yourself or what Hojo had done to you, it's your human heart and soul that matters…”

 

“You're right, plus I think Lucrecia would say the same thing…”

 

“You see, just keep being the man Lucrecia fell in love with, even if you hide it behind a mask of indifference for other's to see...”, she says, joyful that he was starting to take her advise, “And so concludes tonight's therapy-session…”, she yawns.

 

“Tired?”

 

“A little…”

 

“You should get some sleep. Unlike me, you don't have super-human abilities…”

 

“It seems my therapy is working…”, she smiles, as she heads towards the stairs towards the lower-levels still clutching his cloak around her shoulders, “Good night, Vincent…”

 

“Night…”, he mutters, staring out the window as Yoko had been doing when he followed her here.

 

`I'm so sorry, Vincent… For lying to you about my past… You and the others would only hate me if you knew the truth about me…', Yoko thinks, as she longingly glances over her shoulder at Vincent, `Forgive me for not telling you who my parents are…'

 

(A/N: *Smirks Deviously* Only I know the truth about her past and I'm not telling!)

 

 

 

 

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-The Next Morning-

 

 

 

 

 

“Vincent, thank you for loaning me your cloak last night”, Yoko says, offering the folded-up material back it's owner.

 

“It was nothing…”, he mutters, taking his cloak from her hands and puts in back on.

 

“What happened last night?”, Zack questions, confused and clueless as to what happened while he was asleep.

 

“I think they're on friendlier terms than they were yesterday…”, Jessie replies.

 

“I think so too”, Nicole happily states, having caught the 4th Chocobo they needed without any effort, much to the ire of Jessie and Zack who had spent all afternoon trying to catch one but with no luck.

 

“Whatever, onward to Junon!”, Jessie shouts, leaping onto the back of her Chocobo.

 

“Looks like it's going to rain…”, Yoko comments, looking up at the overcast sky as she climbs onto the back of her Chocobo.

 

“Which means we should hurry there before it starts falling”, Zack says, pulling Nicole up behind him while she continued to hold her precious bundle.

 

“I don't little Shinta to get wet, it be bad if he got sick at this age…”, Nicole whispers, gently petting the soft-feathers on the baby Chocobo's head causing it to chirp in contentment.

 

“Let's get going then”, the singer states, as she starts her Chocobo into a trot, not wanting the tiny fluff of feathers to fall ill while under Nicole's care.

 

 

 

 

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-An Hour Later-

-Halfway Between Fort Condor and Junon-

 

 

 

 

 

“Just great…”, Jessie curses, as rain began to descend from the heavens, and made her bangs stick to her face.

 

“Poor Shinta…”, Nicole wimpers, as the tiny bird began to chirp unhappily from his feathers getting wet.

 

“Here, I have something you can use, Nicole”, Yoko says, digging around inside her bag and pulls out a few water-proof hooded-cloaks, handing one to the doting caretaker, “I have for everyone if you want one…”

 

“Thank you…”, Nicole nods, slipping it on and wraps the bottom-edge around Shinta to keep him warm and dry.

 

“Most appreciated…”, Zack thanks, as he takes one.

 

“Man, for a famous singer, you sure are prepared for surviving in the wildness…”, Jessie states, also taking one.

 

“I used to do a lot of camping before I got famous, and it's better to have something and not need, then need it and not have it…”, she laughs, drawing the hood over her head, before steering her mount towards Vincent, “Do you want one Vincent?”, she asks, holding a rain-cloak out to him.

 

“No, thank you…”, he quietly declines.

 

“Are you sure? You're still recovering from being poisoned and can catch a cold from the rain…”, she says, still offering it to him.

 

“I don't get colds anymore…”, he quietly states, “Not since before… you know…”

 

“Oh…”, she gasps, understanding what he was saying, “Sorry to have bothered you…”, she politely replies, turning her Chocobo to ride back over to the others.

 

But with her back turned to him, she missed the shiver traveling through his body as he rubs his arms trying to warm them up, `Damn it! Why does my body have to feel so cold every single time it rains…?', he mentally asks himself.

 

“Hey, are you alright?”, Yoko's voice questions, interrupting his thoughts.

 

“Huh…?”, he gasps, looking up to see that she hadn't left his side yet, “I feel fine, why do you ask?”

 

“You look a little pale…”, she says, leaning forwards to check his forehead, “I mean your still recovering, right? So I'm just going to check your…Whoa…!”, she screams out, as she slips on the slick feathers of her Chocobo as she leaned over, only to have Vincent catch her by the shoulders, steadying her before she fell head-first onto the ground.

 

“Whoa…Careful…”, he chuckles, still holding onto her to make sure she didn't slip again.

 

“Uh…”, Yoko utters, as a blush completely engulfed her face, “Sorry…”, she mutters, as she hid her eyes behind her bangs in shame.

 

“You alright?”, he asks, as he watches her straighten herself upright on her Chocobo's back.

 

“I am now…”, she quietly answers, still hiding her eyes behind her bangs, “Thank you…”

 

“You've ridden on Chocobos before, right?”

 

“Yeah, but never in the rain…”, she nervously states, lifting her head up enough for him to see her cheeks were still red.

 

“Then just remember to hang on tight and don't lean over to the sides while riding in the rain”, he gently instructs, a hint of amusement in his voice.

 

“Nice to see that you find amusement in my embarrassment…”, she sarcastically spat, urging her Chocobo to trot back to the others.

 

`Sometimes laugher is the best medicine…', he thinks, allowing himself to lightly chuckle at Yoko's misfortune and actually feeling better.

 

 

 

 

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