Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Look Again ❯ What will you find? ( Chapter 1 )

It was only a few months after meteor's initial destruction of Midgar and Holy saving the world, which didn't deserve to be saved. When you really look at it these people, they didn't deserve to be saved… I mean inevitably this would happen again… Labs could be rebuilt…New experiments could be made…and people would continue to drain the life force from this already crippled planet till history's events replayed themselves all over again.

Besides that after Meteor had destroyed Midgar and Sephiroth was supposedly slain Avalanche stayed at the ruined city to try to help survivors from the catastrophe the insane man Sephiroth had created. They did the best they could and soon after that they all split up. Barret got Marlene and they went to live with Cid who went back to Rocket town and eventually fell in love with Shera, the only women ever able to put up with him. Nanaki went back to Cosmo Canyon to take his father's place as leader and become apprentice to Buddenhagen himself. Cloud and Tifa, who ended up admitting their feeling to one another, headed to Junon raising Chocobos, one of Cloud's weirder hobbies, to sell and rent to the people traveling around the now growing city. Yes after Midgar's demise sure Junon was damaged but it was salvageable and Shinra grew back again with new scientists, Turks, and leaders. The events that almost killed everyone in the first place left them all unfazed…Ignorance is sickening. The little annoying Ninja went home to her family as well. Yes Miss Yuffie Karasagie finally grew up a little and accepted her responsibilities as a noble in her own village, much to her father's delight. And I… I Vincent Valentine…had nowhere to go. Sure Tifa, cloud, Cid, and everyone else had offered my refuge with them but… but I didn't want to live with these people. I wanted to crawl back in my damn hole forget the fact that I didn't need to atone for my sins. I…I still loved her even though I knew she was dead… I couldn't help it… It was like telling a moth not to head towards the flame…hopeless. I continued on in my pointless existence never the less because I knew that is what she would want. Lucrecia wouldn't want me off pouting in that damn coffin no matter how much it appealed. She would want me to go out and live like a real person. One step at a time though… I am not the very social type. I decided to hang around Midgar for a while longer seeing what I could salvage in weapons and Materia to sell or use for my own fancies. I had found many objects… gil left behind…Materia…weapons…food…bodies. Yes the gruesome side to Midgar… the fact was the deeper you dug in the wreckage…the gorier it got. It is not like it bothered me but it seemed a waste for so many people to die for no good reason. I even found some of Hojo's labs and other various…. experimentations. Most of them were animals either dead or mortally wounded in their cages screaming some god-awful call in pain and agony. A quick bullet through the skull shut them up quick enough, actually a humane thing to do on my part if you think about it. Besides that there was nothing interesting that I had actually found, and I was about to head back to Junon on my black Chocobo I am proud to say I raised all by myself…God awful attitude it had.

I had decided to take one final sweep through the ruins looking for anything else I could sell. I had to beat the other dealers who showed up to dig themselves, but most of them stayed out of my way…a quick glare with my eyes usually sent them running. I had been digging for about an hour when I heard a whirring noise like a machine running or something like that. At first I figured that it was more than likely a junk dealer using a machine to dig through the ruins but as I followed the noise I realized the noise was coming from below me and I hadn't remembered anyone being as deep as I was now. I had my own series of tunnels I had made through the mess and no one dared to even get near them after I nearly shot that one guy thinking he was a monster. I dug further down towards the sound my interests peaked at this new development. "What the hell would be down this deep?" I thought to myself as I used my claw to create a rather large hole in a metal sheet blocking my way. I started to step through the hole when I noticed there was nothing to step on. It was a deep hole… a very deep hole at that. It looked like it may have been an elevator shaft at one time the elevator fallen probably after the crash. I picked up a rock near one of my feet and through it down the hole to test and see how deep it was. The rock echoed its contact with the floor a few minutes later as it hit the seeming black holes bottom. I looked down the shaft carefully not really wanting to descend down into it knowing I would more than likely have a hell of a time getting back up, but at the same time the sound of the machines enticing me to see what was in that unknown darkness all the same. I stuck my head through the hole looking for maybe a rope or an old cord to lower myself down to the floor. Bingo! I saw one hanging a few feet from me on the opposite wall and reached out for it jumping through the hole and grabbing onto it with my good hand not wanting to shred it with my claw. "The things I get myself into" I thought almost comically as I lowered myself into the darkness my vision momentarily failing me before my eyes adjusted and my vision was just as good as ever. I remembered how I had went along with Cloud that one day and now that I look back on that I now wish I hadn't. Sure I felt pleasure in knowing that I had done something Lucrecia would have done but…I sometimes wondered of Sephiroth was my… My thoughts ended as my boot clad feet hit the top of the fallen elevator with a soft thud. I didn't bother cutting through the elevator's ceiling then the door I just cut through the wall courtesy of Hojo. Sometimes the claw did come in handy but… The other part that came with it was the part that tormented me every night in my dreams and every day as I tried to live my life.

I ended up in what looked like a rather large lab that didn't even look as if a major explosion had occurred just above it destroying everything. The tables were still chrome and though they weren't running the computers looked good as new. The floor was clean and delicate Casks and folders lay on the chrome tables looking untouched. "This is Hojo's lab more than likely…" I realized knowing that only the crazed Professor could pull of something as getting a lab this NICE. I followed the whirring noise around a corner running into a door. I opened it cautiously to view something that shocked me beyond belief though now that I look back I know it shouldn't have. The room wasn't that big with its white tile floors and white wash walls. A chrome table clean empty of contents sat in front of a holding tank he realized seeing a person inside it. "Hojo you bastard" Vincent thought seeing the person in the tank and realizing it was a women. She looked to be in her early twenties maybe a little older than Yuffie. She looked rather skinny and pale but I guess that was to be expected seeing as she probably had been down here for a while. She had long White hair not silver like Sephiroth's but white, white like the fresh snow you would see in winter. In fell behind her giving her a cushion to say on as she slumbered awaiting or already been through Hojo's…test. Hojo had stripped the poor girl leaving her bare in the tank not that it seemed to out of character to him though. Vincent looked at the slumbering girl and pondered whether to shoot her or… "Wait what am I think she is an experiment and from the looks of it one of Sephiroth's sisters" I thought pulling out my death penalty putting it against the glass where the temple of her head was. I continued to look at this girl she looked so damn innocent not an animal… like Sephiroth… or me. I looked around the room not wanting to decide her fate just yet. Sharp instruments lay on a tray in a neat line awaiting Hojo. I wondered what he had actually done to the girl and wondered of she wanted to be awoken or not. Vincent discovered the whirring noise to be coming from some sort of filtering machine filtering fresh Mako into her holding tank and probably other various liquids he had experimented with on her. I looked back at the life he was about to take. She had her hands folded over her stomach and her face was serene… it was like she was actually at peace despite what would or already happened to her. I vaguely though of my lost love and knew without a doubt that she would've given this girl a chance on life…She never was one to judge.

"Damn it" Vincent whispered bringing his gun down from the glass rubbing his temples with his fingers. "God damn it have I gone soft?" I thought the gun hanging limply at my side. "Cloud is going to kick my ass for this" I thought sighing as I brought the gun back up sending a shot above the girls sleeping body shattering the glass sending it and the Mako spilling all over the floor. The girl lay there for a few seconds as if nothing happened and I thought maybe shooting the glass wasn't the best idea. Those thoughts were dismissed as the girl began to convulse, coughing up the Mako in her lungs. It choking her as air tried to replace the liquid, suffocating her. Without really thinking I went over to her and held her, my arms around her stomach, turning her over so she wouldn't smother from the fluids working their way out of her lungs and holding her up above the glass and fluids. I held her back against my chest as she convulsed weakly coughing up the mako and blood I noticed seeing the unmistakable red twinge of the fluid. I felt her breathing slow and her heart rate slow considerably as her body began to fully awake. I let her go as she leaned her head back to look up at me with Red eyes… no not crimson like my own but hers a soft pink almost making you think of a sunrise. They were full of surprise and unmistakable terror at the same time. I stepped away from her as she sat up her wet hair falling around her nude body. "Who are you?" she asked her voice raspy as she coughed trying to speak.

Her small body shivered from the cold and fear as she bent forward, glass falling from her crinkling on the floor and her hair shadowing the side of her face, holding her forearms covering her chest. "My name is Vincent," I said calmly trying not to spook her anymore than she was. I watched as her pink eyes traveled from my crimson eyes down towards my hand and stopping at the mutation I had been so graciously given, and the gun still resting loosely in my normal human hand. I saw her eyes widen slightly in fear as she saw the sharp object and gun held in my hand." I'm not here to hurt you or experiment on you in any way…your free" I said holstering the gun and taking off my cloak offering to her. She looked at me her body still frozen to the spot her eyes looking at me warily as I held the crimson material out to her. "What do you mean free?" she asked her voice squeaking as she tried again to speak. "Midgar is no more and… Hojo is dead," I said still holding the cloak out to her hoping she would take it. She looked back at me cautiously before taking the dry cape pulling it around her, her hair getting caught under the clothing as she pulled it around her shivering form. She started to pull her knees to her chest when she jumped glass shredding her calves and heels as she pulled them through the glass I had shattered. I watched the crimson stripes travel down her white legs like a tattoo almost falling in small drops pooling on the glass and table. I automatically walked through the glass it crunching under my boot clad feet and picked her up cradling her in my arms. My one arm rested on the back of her shoulders holding her and the other clawed hand holding me under my knees the bleeding appendages dripping their tainted liquid to the wet and treacherous floor. "Are you alright?" I asked her looking at the cuts and pieces if glass stuck in her legs. She nodded slightly against my chest her body tense and her pulse again quickening showing her nervousness. "Relax," I said trying to sooth her not wanting her to go into shock or anything. She did loosen up slightly as I talked softly to her, her head resting tiredly against my chest as she began to drift off to sleep and her hands resting numbly in her lap. " I need to look at your calves," I said walking towards the main room of the large lab full of Hojo's toys. I felt her tense again her hands coming up to grasp in terror at the shirt on my chest as we entered the room. "Not again" the girl whimpered her eyes looking like she was about to cry in despair. "Hojo has obviously done things to this girl I can't even imagine" I realized watching her almost breakdown at the sight of this room. "It's alright I just need to make sure your cuts aren't to deep and get the glass out" I said feeling like I was holding a small child and not a young woman the way she cowered. She still clutched at my chest in pure terror as I laid her on her stomach forcing her to let go. "Just give me a second" I said looking at the incisions on her calves and heels. He legs were very small and looked as if they would break if she tried to stand up, her muscles looking undeveloped from misuse as well. 'They are gone' I realized watching as the wounds healed at an amazing speed the glass falling out of them as they healed. "How did you do that?" I asked her amazed as I wiped the blood off her leg to discover the gash gone now a small scar. "Hojo" she replied solemnly at the man's name. I pulled the cloak back down to cover her legs noticing just how short she actually was. Her arms were at her sides and her face lay on its cheek on the hard cold metal. I looked at her from under my unruly hair at the girl and almost wished I had killed her seeing how bad off she was. "Come on" I said reaching back under her to pick up her frail looking and feeling body. She didn't even so much as tense when I picked her up this time and I looked down to see her passed out cold. She is still weak from being asleep… that momentary use of powers didn't help the matter either. I thought as I carried her gently her hair brushing the ground as I walked back towards the elevator shaft I had come down. "How the hell am I going to get back up there?" I thought realizing that I couldn't possibly keep hold of her and climb at the same time. I tried to shift her onto my back without waking her but failing as she tensed and grabbed on my chest "What are you doing?" she asked her eyes wide and her voice scared as well. "I need you to get on my back" I said gently setting her down steadying her to make sure she could stand on her own. Her hair fell down around her again sending water in little specks towards the floor. I turned my back to her and felt her put her arms around my neck crossing them in the front to hold on as I picked her legs up off the ground. "Can you do this?" I heard her asked as she looked up the elevator shaft her head resting softly on my right shoulder. "I don't really have much of a choice do I?" I asked walking through the hole I had created and standing on the roof of the elevator looking up. "You can make it back up by yourself can't you?" she asked her voice beginning to sound normal it deepening and smoothing out. "I woke you up and I am going to take responsibility for you" I answered her letting go of her right leg and grabbing the cord with my good hand. I still held her other leg afraid she would fall if I didn't. "I wont fall off" she said tightening her hold around my neck and wrapping her legs around my waist. I realized that if we weren't in the current situation we were in this would be take wrong in so many different ways. I could feel every curve her small body had as I scaled the wall, it a lot easier when you could use both hands. I mentally smacked myself several times for thinking thoughts like that those thoughts reminding me that yes I still had some human left in me. We reached the top of the shaft and I maneuvered us both through the hole through that metal door. I felt her drop off my back her arms shaking as well as her legs from exhaustion. " I got you" I said catching her before she fell her body immediately slipping back into unconsciousness making her seem almost as if a sleeping angle with her hair being the flawless white it was.

"Master you have awaken?…."