Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy VII; Second Generation ❯ Chapter 12 ( Chapter 12 )

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Outside Junon-

 

 

 

 

 

“There it is”, Pixie announces, as she flew in front of the others.

 

“Finally…”, Jessie sighs, “We could have gone here sooner, if we didn't have to stop because of my brother's sudden motion-sickness…”

 

“Hey, it isn't my fault the lunch `you' cooked didn't agree with me!”, Zack protests, “You never could cook anything from scratch, always had to make it from those prepared meals that all you had to do was cook/heat them…”

 

“I didn't think the Mac-n-cheese she made last week was so bad…”, Nicole mutters.

 

“Nicole, you're not helping my situation…”, the female sibling growls.

 

“Children, children, children… Could you possible stop bickering long enough so we can get into town and into an inn? We're all cold and wet, and probably want hot-showers to warm our bodies up, right?”, Yoko butts in with slight annoyance in her voice.

 

“Yoko does have a point guys”, Pixie states.

 

“Fine!”, Jessie huffs.

 

“Don't worry, Jessie. I'll help you improve your cooking-skills…”, Yoko whispers, as she ride up to her, “Then your brother can't complain…”

 

“Thanks…”, she quietly says, appreciated by the singer's offer.

 

“Don't mention it”, the singer smiles, “Hey, Vincent!”, she calls out, looking back at him to find him trailing far behind.

 

Vincent continued to ride towards the others, his vision a little hazy and blurring from time to time, and every fiber of his being felt sour and weak, but he hid his tiredness behind a mask of indifference, `This is not caused by the poison, but what is causing it?', he asks himself, so deep in his thoughts that he didn't even realized that Yoko had ridden up to him until he felt a hand on his forehead, “Huh..?”

 

“You don't have a fever…”, she mutters.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Checking if you have a fever… You look paler than before we left Fort Condor”, she replies, “Anyway, let's hurry. Junon is just a quick Chocobo sprint away”, she states with a smile.

 

“You're hiding…”, Vincent says, causing Yoko to flinch, “You're hiding behind a mask too…”

 

“What makes you say that?”

 

“You don't want the others to know that you're hurting from the death of Saiyuki and your crew, so you hide behind a mask of cheeriness…”

 

“Yeah… I kind of forgot I told you how Saiyuki died that night we got drunk…”, she quietly answers, letting sadness consume her features.

 

“I know it's painful, but we've all lost someone dear to us… For you it's the only woman who was a mother-figure to you and for me it's… Lucrecia…”, he gently explains, reaching out to cup her cheek in a comforting manner and she simply leans into his touch, accepting his action.

 

“Thank you, Vincent…”, she whispers, reaching up to hold his hand, only to have skin touch skin, causing her to gasp and pull his hand from her cheek to find it gloveless, “Vincent…?”

 

“What? This is the first time you noticed that I wasn't wearing a glove since we left Fort Condor?”, he chuckles, “I still haven't removed the gantlet yet…”, he adds, showing her his still gauntleted left hand/arm, “But I'll let you in on a secret…”

 

“What is it…?”

 

“You're the first person I've touch skin to skin in 50 years…”

 

The comment causes Yoko to gasp and begin blushing.

 

“Hey! Come on you two!”, Jessie shouts to them.

 

“Coming!”, Yoko yells back, looking over at the `leader' of the group, “Let's get going before she gets `too' impatient”.

 

“She's too much like her father…”, Vincent comments, starting his Chocobo into a trot.

 

“I'll race you!”, she challenges, starting her mount into a run, her rain-cloak billowing behind her as she bolts past him.

 

“Hey, Junon isn't going anywhere!”, he shouts, chasing after her.

 

“A race, huh?”, Jessie smirks, watching as they raced past and hurriedly starts her Chocobo into a hard-run, trying to get in front of them and get to Junon first.

 

“Just what we need, a competition on who's the better racer…”, Zack groans, starting his and Nicole's Chocobo in a easy-trot.

 

“Good to see that someone is at least acting responsible…”, Pixie comments.

 

“Don't get me wrong, I'd love to join in on the race, but we have little Shinta to worry about…”, he corrects, pointing behind him to the sleeping chick in Nicole's lap, “It be bad to joust him awake for a silly race…”

 

“Besides, I can't hold onto Zack `and' Shinta at the same time for a race”, Nicole states, sounding disappointed.

 

“Very well then, just follow them”, Pixie sighs, sitting on top of the adult Chocobo's head.

 

A few minutes later Jessie, Yoko, and Vincent's Chocobos slow down from using up all their stamina, while Zack and Nicole simply catch up; riding on their Chocobo with plenty of stamina left, and reach the gate before the others did.

 

“I guess the moral of `slow and steady wins the race' from the story the tortoise and the hare was right”, Zack mocks, as he leaps off the back of his Chocobo.

 

“Shut up, you smart-ass!”, Jessie spat, jumping off her ride's back.

 

“There they go again…” Nicole groans, while still sitting on the Chocobo's back.

 

“Are they always like that?”, Yoko asks, as she helps Nicole down.

 

“Yeah, Jessie inherited her father's short-temper; when he was anger that is, while Zack inherited the patience and common-sense of his parents”, the younger woman explains.

 

“Hm, I see…”

 

“Cloud, Tifa, or the others never bickered like this…”, Vincent mutters to himself, as he removes his stuff from his Chocobo's back and gives it a swift swat on it's behind to send the bird running back into the wild, “Yuffie was maybe the only annoyance…”, he sighs, walking towards where Yoko and Nicole stood.

 

Vincent quickly snaps his head to the side as he senses something flying towards him, spotting a flying blurred-disc coming right at him and he didn't have time to dodge it as it swiftly slices his shoulder, the wound extremely deep as he instantly couldn't move his arm. The only thing he could do was clutch his shoulder as he collapsed to his knees on the ground with a grunt.

 

“Vincent!”, Yoko and Nicole scream, as they saw him struck and fall to the ground, gaining Jessie and Zack's attentions.

 

“Look out!”, Jessie shouts, noticing another blurred-disc flying towards Vincent, running to get in between the man and flying-weapon, defecting it with her buster-blade.

 

The rejected weapon spins back in the direction it had come from, landing into the hand of it's owner, a young teen of 17 with short spiky red hair; the back being mid-back length and tied in a low-ponytail with jade-green eyes and tanned-skin, wearing a white dress-shirt with the top three-buttons undone underneath a navy-blue blazer and with matching dress-pants, armed with a 2-foot wide chakram in each-hand.

 

(A/N: Look up Kingdom Hearts 2; Axel, for the image of the weapon, and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children; Reno, for outfit and hairstyle.)

 

“Pretty perceptive of you…”, the teen mocks, “Not many can defect my chakrams while in flight…”

 

“Zack!”, Yoko calls out to Jessie's brother, causing him to nod then run towards where Nicole stood, as she draws her gun.

 

“Oh, two against one… This is going to be fun…”, the teen coolly chuckles, licking some of Vincent's blood off one of the blades on the weapon, “Show me what you can do…”, was added as both weapons were sent flying towards the two females.

 

Jessie bats away the chakram aimed at her while Yoko dive-rolls out of the path of the other one and fires a few shots at the enemy, but the teen dodges the bullets.

 

“Shit! He's using Haste!”, Jessie curses.

 

“Then we're going to as well”, Yoko states, activating her Time materia casting the Haste-spell on herself and Jessie.

 

“Your skills with Materia is amazing, but your skills in tactics is lacking…”, he mocks, running to where Vincent laid injured.

 

“Crap! His aim was to take out Vincent!”, the appointed leader shouts, running to intercept him.

 

“I don't think so…”, the singer mutters, as her Time materia glows, not to cast another Haste-spell but to cast Slow on the enemy while she ran. But the spell had no effect on the enemy, not even slowing him down, “He's invulnerable to Slow-spells!”, she yells in alarm.

 

As the enemy reaches Vincent and has one of his chakrams pointed at the stunned Ex-Turk's throat, Jessie's buster-blade was against the enemy's neck and Yoko's pistol was aimed at his temple; cocked and ready to fire a fatal point-blank shot into his head. But the enemy still had the upper-hand despite his predicament, he had Vincent at chakram-point and his other weapon was pointed at Yoko's heart; three lives were on the line now.

 

“Why are you here?”, Yoko coldly questions, keeping her cool despite the threat to her life.

 

“I've come to take back what you've kidnapped…”, he replies.

 

“Kidnapped…?”, Jessie asks, puzzled.

 

“THAT IS ENOUGH!”, Nicole's voice rang out.

 

Jessie, Yoko, and the enemy all turn their heads to look at Rufus's daughter; Vincent didn't as he was in too much pain from his wound, Nicole stood a few feet in front of Zack, her hands clenched into fists at her sides; little Shinta was in the safety of Zack's arms while his `mommy' vented her rage.

 

“Lady Shinra…”, the teen whispers.

 

“Lady…Shinra…?”, Jessie mutters in confusion.

 

“Renji Kawasaki! Stop this nonsense this instant!”, Nicole coldly orders, as her energetic blue eyes quickly turned an icy blue, reminding Vincent of her father; back when he was the ruthless President of Shinra Power Company.

 

“But your father sent me to find you, he said you had been kidnapped”, Renji anxiously explains.

 

“My father didn't get the letter I sent?”, Nicole sighs in exasperation, “The letter should have been in his hands two days ago…”

 

“Lady Shinra…?”, Renji questions.

 

“Renji, get this straight. I wasn't kidnapped; I left of my own accord to stop Sephanie”, she coldly replies.

 

“But… Orders are orders, I'm not backing out of my mission until I hear from your father himself!”

 

(Du-du-du-du-dah-dah-du-du!), Renji's cell-phone rings.

 

(A/N: I tried to make it sound like the victory-track from Final Fantasy!)

 

“Yeah? Renji here”, he says, answering the call, “I see, sir… Yes… I understand…”

 

“So…?”, Nicole coldly asks, a smirk forming on her lips as Renji hangs up with a sigh, “What did my father say?”

 

“He got your letter, and has changed my orders from retrieving you to protecting you…”, Renji sighs.

 

“So… He's on our side…?”, Jessie questions, with her buster-blade still against Renji's neck.

 

“Renji is on our side”, Nicole gently replies, letting the coldness fall from her face and voice.

 

“Good, so long as that is clear…”, she sighs, lowering her blade, while Yoko had already put her gun away and tending to Vincent when Renji and Nicole's exchange of words began.

 

“Damn… that was one hell of a blood-lust I sensed coming off of you, Renji”, Yoko comments, as she uses Cure1 spell on Vincent with her Restore Materia.

 

“I had orders to kill whoever had kidnapped Lady Shinra… I mean Nicole…”

 

“But I wasn't kidnapped…”

 

“Sorry for the misunderstanding…”, Renji chuckles, trying to lighten the mood.

 

“Your mannerisms, hair-color, eye-color, manner of fighting, and your clothes…”, Vincent flatly says, “Reno Kawasaki is your father, right?”

 

“Yeah, he's my old man”, Renji replies, “And I'm a Turk in-training!”

 

“Rookie…”, Vincent scoffs, “Besides, I thought the Turks were disbanded after Shinra Corp fell…”

 

“The original version of the Turks was disbanded, but my father went over his assets and found a business in the body-guarding services; like the Turks used to be 50 years ago…”, Nicole explains, “So the Turks became bodyguards to be hired to protect the individual who hired them, with a side benefit of corporate espionage, but with none of the assassination or kidnapping parts…”, she continues, grimacing at the part about assassinations, obviously upset about that part of her father's old business.

 

“While my old man, Uncle Rude, Tseng, and Elena stay at the side of President Rufus”, Renji finishes.

 

“I see…”, the former Turk mutters, `Like it was when I was a Turk… The way it's suppose to be…', he mentally says.

 

“Um, has everyone forgotten that it's still raining and little Shinta is getting fussy”, Zack points out, trying to keep the small bird under control, but his wet-feathers causes him to slip from Zack's grip and Shinta lands on the ground, running towards Nicole.

 

“Oh, that's a good boy… Come to mommy…”, she coos, as Shinta runs into her arms, chirping happily.

 

“Come on, let's go find an inn for the night”, Yoko says, helping Vincent back to his feet.

 

“Oh, right!”, Jessie agrees, remembering that it was cold and wet where they stood, and they all probably needed hot showers.

 

 

 

 

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-Inside Junon-

-In a Pristine Inn on the Upper Level-

 

 

 

 

 

“Here are your keys!”, Yoko exclaims, holding up three keys, “Jessie and Nicole, room 312”, handing the key to the girls.

 

“Thank you…”, they say, taking the key.

 

“Zack and Renji, room 311”.

 

“Good, close enough to protect Nicole…”, Renji sighs, as Zack claims the key.

 

“What about Vincent? You only have one more key left!”, Nicole asks.

 

“Vincent and I are in the Capital-suite”, the singer replies, “Don't give me that look, it's a room with two bedrooms and a shared bathroom…”, she adds, after everyone in the group looks at her like she had three heads, “Besides, there isn't any other vacant rooms left for us to have separate rooms…”

 

“Is that true?”, Zack questions, looking over at the Ex-Turk.

 

“It's true, the inn is practically full from the festival happening…”, Vincent quietly answers.

 

“Festival! There's a festival!”, Nicole exclaims, “Let's go to the festival, Zack”, she says, clinging to his arm.

 

“Nicole, that isn't a good idea…”, Yoko warns.

 

“Why not?”

 

“It's because the festival is celebrating the down fall of the Shinra corporation, headed by a woman named Priscilla, who's hatred of anything relating to your family could put your life in danger…”, she whispers.

 

“She has a point, Nicole”, Zack states.

 

“But I want to go to the festival…”, she dejectedly sighs, as Shinta begins to chirp unhappily from his `mommy's' depression.

 

“Why don't she just call herself by another last name and enjoy the festival like a normal person”, Jessie suggests, feeling her friend's sorrow, “We'll be right beside her incase any trouble happens”

 

“Yeah, I can call myself Nicole Owens; my mother's maiden name”, Nicole agrees, cheering up, “I've done it before”.

 

“Fine, just don't get into trouble”, Yoko retorts, but secretly glad they found a solution to keeping one of their members safe, “But before you go, remove the things that ties you to Shinra first, that means Renji's pin and Nicole's pendent…”

 

“Okay, we'll just drop our stuff off in our rooms and be on our way”, Renji says.

 

“Be careful you four”, Yoko waves to them, “Hey Vincent…”, she began to say as she turned around, only to find Vincent on his way up the stairs; sluggishly and slumped over, “He must be tired…”, she whispers, following him up.

 

 

 

 

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-The Capital Suite-

 

 

 

 

 

As Yoko unlocks the door to the room, Vincent walks in after her and leans against the wall; the climb up the stairs had drained him, as Yoko carries her bag inside, then closes the door; locking it, and Vincent straightens himself upright so Yoko wouldn't notice his exhaustion.

 

“Why don't you take the first shower, I'd like to unpack a bit before I jump in”, Yoko offers, “You look like you need it…”, she adds, vanishing into one of the bedrooms.

 

Vincent simply drops off his things onto the chair beside the door inside the other bedroom, hanging his cloak up on a hook on the back of the door, he takes off his gantlet, glove and holstered-weapon before placing them on the table, and removes his headband letting his bangs tumble over his face; covering half of it, and as he made his way towards the bathroom, he catches his refection in the mirror in the foyer of the suite. His skin had taken on a pale ivory color; almost as white a snow, which was a drastic contrast to his onyx-black hair and the blood-red eye that wasn't covered by his hair, just from his appearance he could tell the poison had taken it's toll on him.

 

He closes the bathroom door; locking it, behind him and slumps against it, trying to catch his breath as he involuntarily shivers from the feeling of having the sensation of ice flowing through his veins, he ignores the feeling long enough to turn on the shower and remove his boots. The warm/hot water flowing from the shower-head felt extremely good running onto his hand as he checked the temperature, before completely undressing and climbs into the shower, the water falling onto his cold, stiff and aching body, but the cold feeling refused to leave a spot on the left-side of his lower ribs.

 

Suddenly, pain starts shooting through his body from the cold spot on his chest, causing him to clutch his side as his vision started to blur, and he could feel himself falling towards the shower-floor, his vision turning black as his head struck the floor.

 

 

 

 

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-Vincent's Dream-

 

 

 

 

 

“Talk! Why did you let this happen!?”, Vincent angrily asks, closing the distance between him and the deranged scientist.

“Silence”, Hojo demands, pulling his hand from inside of his lab-coat, a glint of silver catching Vincent's attention.

 

“You!”, he angrily growls, recognizing what Hojo was holding in his hand; Vincent's polished silver gun, he takes a step towards the armed mad-man.

 

“Silence!”, the mad-scientist orders, squeezing the trigger.

 

A gun-shot rang out though the lab, Vincent could only gasp out in pain as the bullet tore through the left-side of his lower-chest and he quickly discovered that he was having a very hard time breathing.

 

`I was shot…with my own gun…', he thinks, as a stream of blood began to trickle from his mouth and he fell forward onto the floor, now only able to stare at Hojo's shoes.

 

“Why…why can't these people just keep quiet?”, he heard Hojo mutter to himself, as his vision began to turn red, darkness crept in slowly along the edges, and a large puddle of blood formed underneath him.

 

Vincent could hear his breathing getting shallower and shallower with every breath he took, and he felt his heartbeats getting weaker with every beat.

 

“I can... body... next experiment... a genius... I am... success here... justify... failures...”, were the last words he heard before he had slipped into the darkness of death and awoke as what he was now.

 

 

 

 

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Vincent slowly blinks open his eyes, the water from the shower still raining down on him and he could see a small stream of water-diluted blood flowing towards the drain. As he sat up, he had to bring his hand to his temple as a throbbing pain pounded against the inside of his head, feeling a bleeding gash there from when his head hit the floor.

 

“That's right…”, he mutters, sitting on the bottom of the tub still holding his head as the water continued to spay down on him, “It was raining that day too… That's why…”

 

A knock on the door interrupts his thoughts, “Vincent, are you alright? I thought I heard a thud!”, Yoko worriedly asks, from the other side of the door.

 

“I'm fine! I slipped and hit my head!”, he replies.

 

“Hit your head…? Unlock the door so I can check for an injury…”, she says, trying to turn the knob to enter the room, but it wouldn't turn from when Vincent locked it.

 

“It is alright, it's just a small bump”, he reassures, feeling the wound healing as he spoke, “Besides, any injury I would have received would have healed by now, remember?”

 

“Oh yeah, I forgot…”, she states, “Well, hurry up then! I'd like to take my shower soon, if you please!”

 

“I'll be out in a minute!”, he answers, getting back to his feet and turns off the shower, stepping out and wraps a towel around his waist, gathering his clothes in his arms before he walks out of the bathroom, to find Yoko standing outside wearing a pair of fluffy-red slippers and a red-silk bath-robe, her long hair was pinned up in a hair-clip, “The shower is all yours now”.

 

“Thank you…”, she nods, blushing at his state of dress as she walks past him into the bathroom, “By the way, you're looking much better than you did before…”, she adds, before closing the door.

 

Vincent glances over at the mirror and sees that his skin had taken on it's normal lightly sun-kissed pale-peach color, `I am looking better…I'm feeling better too…', he thinks, smiling as he heads into his room.

 

 

 

 

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