Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Now a Monster ❯ Tracks ( Chapter 6 )

Now a Monster

Chapter 6: Tracks

“I am at peace.” Tseng watched as Elena and Yuffie raced up the main street of Icicle dragging snowboards behind them. “I am calm.” He told himself, trying to ignore the fact that Reno had called five minutes ago telling him that he had found Valentine's trail in Junon, complete with some of Vincent's hair that had been caught on a post that he leaned against while waiting for his companion to disembark. “I am at one with the world.” He repeated his mantra trying to ignore the fact that he'd just found Valentine's hair on a pillowcase and he had found the remnants of the red cloak in a trash bin in the back of the village inn. “I am…”

Elena flung herself down the snowboard run with a shriek of laughter.

“All is going as it should.” Tseng chanted, ignoring Yuffie's battle cry as she launched herself off the top of the ramp. “I am centered and in control.”

It wasn't working. Nothing was working.

He trusted Reno's opinion that he had found Valentine's hair in Junon. The information that Reno had gathered supported the information he had found himself about Valentine searching for a boat to Junon. The cooberating hair strands, complete with Valentine's unique chemical signature when they had been run through a WRO lab, placed him firmly in Junon.

He also trusted his own findings, again backed up by DNA and chemical evidence from the local lab, which proved that Valentine had been undoubtedly in Icicle, sleeping at the inn. The locals had even given supporting evidence of two men, one wounded, the other matching Valentine's unique description, coming into town and checking into the inn.

“I am in charge of my destiny.” He mumbled, only half aware of stumbling into a quaint coffee shop called BooBearie, ordering himself a pot of green tea, and sitting down at a table by the window next to a tall wooden bear that some enterprising soul had carved out of a tree trunk with a chainsaw.

A waitress dressed in a red plaid dress and a starchy white apron set his tea in front of him and hastily retreated to whisper worriedly behind the counter with her coworkers about the odd Wutaian man . He'd gulped down two cups of tea while contemplating just how he was going to explain this to Rufus.

“Rufus, I have positive proof that Vincent Valentine was in Icicle and Junon at the same time. I have DNA and chemical evidence, and witnesses.” No, that wouldn't work.

“Rufus, Vincent Valentine can be in two places simultaneously…” Not that either.

“Rufus, we should rehire Vincent Valentine. I have said in the past that I needed to be in two places at the same time. He figured out how to do it. By the way, I'm heading back to Wutai to become a monk. Take care. Don't jump off any more buildings. Please forward my paycheck to the monastery.” More pleasing emotionally, but still shy of a good report.

Tseng spent a few luxurious moments imagining the peace of being a monk. Perhaps he'd become one of those aesthetics who lived in high mountain caves with no sound other than the wind blowing past the mouth of the cave they meditated in. It would be lovely to be able to look out from the mouth of his lonely cave and meditate on the transient beauty of the mists covering the mountain tops. He could sip tea, contemplate the joy of silence, occasionally eat a sparse plain meal while thinking about the simple complexity of life, and then at night he could sleep on a straw mat. The only time he would be interrupted would be when people came to bring him food and request simple blessings.

His cell phone's ring brought him back to reality. He set his teacup down, glanced at the caller ID, and sighed.

“Yes, sir. This is Tseng.” He made his voice sound alive and professional.

“Have you found anything Tseng?” Rufus sounded calmly urbane, as if he was sitting at a poolside discussing hibiscus pruning.

“I have some contradictory evidence, sir that I will need to look into.” Tseng glanced out the window and rubbed one finger over the bridge of his nose as he spotted a snow covered Elena trudge her way back to the top of the snowboard run. “Valentine seems to be both in Junon and in Icicle. I have chemical samples, DNA, and witness testimony placing him in both locations at once.”

Silence.

“I am having Reno look into the Junon evidence. I am still in Icicle and will look around here.” Tseng continued.

Silence.

“Sir?”

“Tseng…when you find him, ask him how he did that.” Rufus sounded a bit wistful. “That is a great trick. I'd like two of me.”

Tseng's world became a dark, dark place as his mind trotted out a vision of two Rufus Shinras running masochistically through the most dangerous situations imaginable while mouthing off to silver haired sociopaths. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Rufus hung up.

Tseng contemplated tossing his phone down the snowboard run and following after it, head first, without a board. Instead, he sipped more tea and tried to figure out what had happened.

They had definitely seen Valentine standing behind them in the caverns after Barret had shot someone dressed in Valentine's cape. Valentine had seemed significantly angry that that someone had been shot. Angry enough to rip off Barret's artificial arm and snarl a death threat before running into the caverns. This seemed to indicate that first, Valentine had been indeed in the City of the Ancients as Hojo had predicted. It also seemed to indicate that Valentine hadn't been a helpless prisoner, but had been there of his own free will with the other person since he had made no attempt to flee and hadn't been constrained in any fashion. It also indicated that whoever that person was, was a friend of Valentine's.

Tseng pondered who it could be. Avalanche was all accounted for. Lucrecia? Hardly likely that she'd be running about in Valentine's cape in the City of the Ancients, and the running person had been a man. He'd seen enough to recognize the gender of the figure that had lured them through the City of the Ancients. Hojo? Again, that wasn't likely. The man would want Valentine back in a lab to experiment…

Hmmm…

If the diary was true he'd want to protect Valentine. The evidence that he had found in Hojo's house would also support that Hojo was the other person. The only problem with that was the person running ahead of them in the cape had a lot of stamina and had seemed young. Last time he'd seen Hojo the man had been slipping past middle age and heading straight into his more mature years and had been barely able to hobble around his lab. Could Hojo have gotten someone to…

Hmm…

If the diary was true, just what had Gast and Lucrecia done to Hojo? He'd been experimented on, but had anyone really looked into what they had done to him? Just what modifications had they made? Just how many more secrets did Hojo have? If Valentine was now nearly immortal, could that also have been transferred to Hojo? Could Hojo have been the young man that had run ahead of them? That would have explained Valentine's presence in Hojo's house and his reappearance in the Ancient's city. Hojo had done as he had said he should have done years ago and brought Valentine to the safest place he could.

Tseng sipped his tea and nodded to himself, making a few notes on his PHS to research Hojo's health records and look deeper into Gast's experiments. That would keep Elena busy and keep her from picking up any more irritating habits from her newest best friend, Yuffie.

The Planet hated him, Tseng knew it.

Picking up his train of thought, Tseng sipped his tea thoughtfully. Assuming it was Hojo for the moment, they had to have disturbed them at some point in time, causing Hojo to want to make them believe Vincent was leaving the city. Why? To keep them away from finding something? Or was it simply to keep them from waking Valentine from his sleep?

Hmmm.

Valentine had looked like someone who'd woken up, rumpled and a bit shaggy. Valentine had also reacted with fury at Barret shooting Hojo. Those few brief moments seeing Valentine's face, clear of its concealing cloak and headband, and absolutely furious had made him suddenly remember that Valentine had been the Turk's leader, a Turk Leader with a nasty reputation too. His take-over from his predecessor Jin had been a brutal, cold-blooded war that was still mostly classified since no one in Shinra wanted to give the Turks any ideas of repeating it.

If Valentine had voluntarily been in the city with Hojo then it might stand to reason that Hojo had wanted to lure them away from Valentine, to protect Valentine from being woken up. But Valentine had woken up and he'd followed them into the caverns. He'd seen Barret shoot Hojo and had reacted with anger. If Valentine knew who had been impersonating him, which had been supported in his later actions, and if that person was Hojo, then Valentine no longer considered Hojo the enemy. Considering the level of pure fury in Valentine's face, it was quite possible that Hojo's diary had been true, that Valentine had once been Hojo's lover, and he'd gotten that part of his memory back.

Valentine's sudden race through the tunnels and caverns of the city to reach the fallen impersonator, and the gentleness he'd handled the injured figure would support the fact that whoever it had been was someone he cared about. The only people who he was romantically linked to were Lucrecia, who was definitely female, and Hojo.

If it was Hojo, it would also explain why Valentine hadn't shown up at the meeting point. If it had been a member of Avalanche, Valentine would have met them and handed them over for medical care. If it had been someone from Bone Village, again, he would have gotten them immediately to medical attention. Instead, he'd disappeared. The only clue they'd picked up was some drops of blood in the Silent Forest. Either Valentine was feeling distrusting, and after seeing Barret's actions it wasn't entirely out of the question, or he had something to conceal. He hadn't been shy about revealing himself in the caverns, so he could have been trying to hide the imposter. If the imposter was Hojo, Valentine would have good reasons for keeping him away from everyone, especially Shinra and Avalanche.

That all led to the present problem. After the forest, Valentine and whoever it had been with him had disappeared. A trail had led them to the docks where a couple of people remembered someone matching Valentine's description looking for a boat. The man at the counter of the store had said that Valentine had bought a chocobo lure. Since wild chocobo couldn't travel over water that meant that Valentine had either caught a boat after not being able to get a chocobo, which didn't fit in the short amount of time he'd had to work with, or he'd tried to get a boat then quickly changed his mind and decided to travel by chocobo.

The evidence pointed to the impossible fact that he'd done both.

Damn, Valentine was good.

Tseng sipped his tea feeling a small spark of pride. Even today, Valentine was a great Turk. He hoped that he'd be able to convince Valentine to come back to work for them sometime. When it really came down to it, only Reno, Rude, and he were left of the Turks. While Elena had potential, she really shouldn't have been promoted to being an active operative. She needed at least two more years of training. Reno and Rude were being run into the ground. They hadn't seen a day off, or even an afternoon off since Sephiroth decimated the Turks. He barely had time to train one Turk, Elena, much less recruit and train anyone else. They needed every Turk they could get. That Valentine was the best of the best only made him more desirable.

Tseng sipped his tea, pulling his mind back on track.

Valentine had disappeared. The last known place he'd been in had been the City of the Ancients. He'd seen the man at the foot of the cliff tending to the fallen impersonator. When he'd checked back, Valentine and the other had already disappeared. He'd gone back, bundled up Barret, who had been in shock from having his arm ripped off, and had gone to meet Valentine in front of the city. He'd never shown up. After waiting, he'd sent Elena and Yuffie to Bone Village with Barret, and he'd scouted the area. The most he'd found was Valentine's footprints running towards the back of the caverns and leading out to the snowfields. He'd found the place that the imposter had lain and a few tracks leading away to a rock gulch. The trail had ended there. On his way back, he'd spotted some tracks and blood near the area where the malldancers lurked. He could assume that Valentine had taken his companion to the village, so had gone in that direction. The few sources he'd found had pointed him to the docks and the chocobo fields.

There the clear trail ended, so that was where he had to return. He had to have missed something. How could the people in Icicle and Junon spot Valentine? How could there be hair samples in both places? There was no way. But could he take the chance of abandoning the trails to go investigate the back-trail? They would grow cold, giving Valentine more time to lose himself. If even one of those trails was the true trail, they had no time to waste. However, if Valentine had set up both of the trails as decoys, they were wasting time following them.

But how could he set them up with the limited amount of time that he'd had? At most, he'd been a half hour to an hour ahead of them.

Tseng wanted to tear his hair out. It all circled around in a never ending loop. He had to investigate the back-trail. He had to investigate the trails in Junon and Icicle and he only had enough manpower to deal with two trails. If Valentine got any more creative, he'd end up with multitudes of trails leading him to other multitudes, which would branch out infinitely until the only thing he could do is calmly state that Valentine wasn't presently in the room, to the best of his knowledge.

Damn the man and damn the man that had trained him to be such a great Turk.

Tseng stood up, tossed some money down on the table, and went to collect Elena. He'd have Reno and Rude investigate the trail in Junon. He'd have to go back to Bone Village and the City of the Ancients and chance that the trail he was following would grow cold. He'd investigate thoroughly in both those locations then return to Icicle if no other avenues presented themselves.

Yuffie was screaming joyously down the run, weaving, darting, and zipping through the obstacles. Tseng looked around for Elena, but didn't seen her. Guessing that she was walking back, he waited at the top of the run, shuffling his feet to keep warm.

“Hey, you want to try?” Yuffie scampered up to him offering her snowboard, with Elena at her heels.

“No, thank you.” Tseng motioned for Elena to follow him. “We need to get back to work.”

Yuffie snickered, “Good luck. If Vinnie doesn't want to be found, you aren't going to find him.”

Tseng bowed politly and stalked off. “We are going back to Bone Village and see if we can figure out where Valentine went.”

“Yes, sir.” Elena trotted after him, still wearing her snowboarding gear and juggling her board.

Reeve

The last of the refugees stepped up onto the running board of the truck and got settled. WRO personnel raced around doing last minute checks and closing the transport's doors before yelling an all-set to the drivers who put their trucks into gear and drove off.

“That's everyone from The Gold Saucer and Corel, sir.” A young lieutenant saluted Reeve.

Reeve nodded back. “Very good. Make sure our people in Kalm know when to expect them.”

“Yes, sir.” The man saluted. “I'll do that now, sir.”

Reeve nodded again and the man rushed off.

“Ya wish ya had tha' much energy, don't ya.” Cait Sith stood at his side waving his tail.

“I wish I had that much sleep.” Reeve turned and headed back to his car with his faithful friend following after him.

Contrary to what Barret had said, the people of Corel had been lined up and eager to go once they had been informed of the situation. It had been the informing that had been the problem. Apparently, the people in Corel had believed that the attacks on Costa del Sol, Gongaga, and Nibelhiem had been minor skirmishes with local monsters that had done nothing more than some slight property damage. When they'd found out nearly the entire populace of those towns had died, they'd been more than willing to evacuate with the people from The Gold Saucer.

“What was Barret thinking?” Reeve slumped into the car and let the driver close the door after him. “Why? In all that is Holy? Why?”

“He migh' not ha' wanted ta tell `em.” Cait settled himself next to his creator. “Ya know how `e is.”

Reeve sighed. Yes, he knew how Barret was. If he didn't before this morning, he'd learned when he'd gotten a call from Tseng explaining Barret's latest outing and requesting someone to come collect the man. He was still trying to figure out how to tell the other members of Avalanche that Barret had tried to kill Vincent. They wouldn't take it well.

Before the present troubles, many in Avalanche, himself included, had often gone to Vincent with their worries and troubles. He, to his horror, had dragged the silent man into the nightmare of Deepground after asking for help in what had seemed a small problem. Cloud, when feeling more lost or confused, would often seek out Vincent, if for no other reason than Vincent was a good listener. Yuffie would run to Vincent when her life got too complicated and just needed someone to accept her, not as the crown princess or as one of the Planet's saviors, but just as Yuffie, who liked to talk a bit too much and brag a bit too often, and just needed someone to like her for herself. Cid liked to spend lazy afternoons with Vincent drinking, tinkering with planes, and trying to work through the chaos of working, being the town mayor, and being married. Tifa went to Vincent when she felt her world start spinning out of control from Cloud's moodiness, the children's demands, the consistent headache of running the bar, and having complete strangers demand her time because, after all, she was a hero. Even Nanaki would politely seek Vincent for advice on the best ways to keep Cosmo Canyon safe and how to deal with the sometimes not so ideal conditions of being in charge of the defenses of a relatively peaceful people.

Only Barret had shunned Vincent and now he'd tried to kill him. The tensions that had been directed at him for acting cautiously about the demon attacks would now focus on Barret. He didn't envy the man. If they had been nearly ready to disown him for a bit of well placed caution, he didn't like to think what they would do to Barret. He could say from his own point of view that he, privately, in the non-WRO commissioner part of his mind, wanted to tie the man up and toss him to the nearest Midgar Zolom.

“What did Vincent ever do to him?” Reeve slumped further in his seat feeling as if the entire Planet was pressing down on him.

Cait leaned toward him. “Ya feelin' okay there lad? Yer lookin' a might pale.”

“I'm fine. Fine.” Reeve straightened and carefully took a deep breath hiding the wince of pain that shot through him at the movement. “I'm just tired.”

“Ya better ta' care o' yer self.” Cait continued to look at him worriedly. “Ge' some sleep.”

“Tonight. I promise.” Reeve patted his creation. “I'll even eat a whole meal.”

“Now, don' go overboard there, laddie. Too much change `ll fry m' circuits.” The toy cat snuggled closer to him.

“Then I won't tell you about sleeping in till seven tomorrow, or my plan to eat something for breakfast instead of just having coffee.” Reeve mused with a smile.

“Ah…too much… feelin' a bit woozie…” Cait laughed against his side.

The car slipped into his parking spot at WRO and the driver got out and opened the door. Reeve scooped up Cait as he slipped out of the vehicle. The security guard at the elevator entrance nodded politely to him then returned back to his security monitors.

Tifa was waiting for him when the elevator doors opened. She looked like a vengeful fury. “We heard.”

The we became obvious as Tifa grabbed him and dragged him bodily into a nearby conference room where Cloud, silent and edgy, Cid, smoking and growling, and Nanaki, prowling and snarling were gathered.

“What happened?” Tifa let him go and turned to glare at him.

Reeve sighed feeling a bit winded from his sudden trip into the room. “Barret tried to kill Vincent. Vincent had apparently been up in The City of the Ancients and Barret tried to shoot him. There seems to be a bit of confusion, because someone had been impersonating Vincent, so when Barret tried to kill Vincent, he shot the impersonator.”

“Vince is fine then?” Cid smashed out his cigarette.

“Tseng says that Vincent was completely unhurt. Barret did try to attack the real Vincent, but Vincent broke off Barret's gun arm when he tried.” Reeve settled into a chair, rubbing his chest. “Vincent then ran to check on the impersonator, who had, Tseng believes, been seriously hurt.”

Nanaki nodded. “Vincent would not like another to be harmed in his place.”

“Vincent and the impersonator disappeared after that, and Tseng is looking for them.” Reeve looked around hoping for a glass of water.

“Any ideas about where they went and disappeared to?” Cid lit another cigarette.

“None.”

Cloud stepped closer, “And Barret?”

“He's on his way back.” Reeve got up, spying a carafe sitting next to a small stack of paper cups. “He should be here in a few hours.” The carafe had cold coffee in it, probably a left over from a morning meeting, but Reeve gratefully took a cup.

Cloud stalked back and forth between the conference table and the window. “Are you sure Vincent was unharmed?”

“Yes.” Reeve sunk into the chair again, sipping coffee, relieved that the pressure in his chest was receding. “Tseng says he was furious that Barret had shot the impersonator, but as far as he could tell, Vincent was fine.”

“Well, that's good news.” Tifa sat down in another chair.

“We will have to deal with Barret.” Nanaki shook his head, making his beads chime together.

“Yeah.” Cid puffed angrily. “Shooting Vince, even if it wasn't Vince, isn't something to blow off.”

“We can put him into a holding cell for awhile.” Reeve sipped more cold coffee. “Let's deal with one emergency at a time.”

“Agreed.” Nanaki sighed. “With Sephiroth returned and Dr. Crescent terrorizing the Planet, we have enough to deal with.”

Reeve tiredly climbed to his feet. “I'll arrange the holding cell then.” He headed for the door. “Yuffie is with Tseng, helping him locate Vincent. I'll tell Gordo where she is and do what I can to help them locate him.”

“Sounds good.” Cid got up. “I've gotta help Shera out with the folks from Rocket Town, then I'll head up there to help out.”

“If you need anything, let me know.” Reeve was almost to the door when the pain in his chest came back with a vengeance. His legs buckled as he stumbled, his chest feeling as if someone was crushing him.

“Reeve!”

Hands caught him as he fell.

“Reeve, are you…”

The world seemed glassy and everything echoed strangely. His world narrowed to the crushing pain and the worried, half focused faces of his friends as they scrambled around him.

“Fuck. Gimme the… Get a med team to…where the hell are we…”

“Take it easy, Reeve, we've got you.”

“…conference room two oh three, and hurry the fuck up, Reeve's having a heart attack.”

“Stay calm, my friend. Stay calm and try to breath.”

Veld

“You ever wonder if the Planet has a sense of humor?” Veld set down a jack and pegged two places on the cribbage board.

“No.” Davies placed a three down and pegged two spaces.

Veld scooped up his cards and frowned. “Hmmm. You always were a bit too practical.”

“I just like to keep life simple.” Davies picked up his cards and frowned too.

“How are you two doing?” Bettina bustled by with a casserole on her way to put it in the oven.

Veld and Davies looked up and nodded in unison. “We're fine.”

As soon as she left, they returned to frowning at their cards. They were sitting in the living room of the small apartment behind the gift shop. Vincent and Hojo were asleep, curled together on a makeshift cot in the corner and they had been ordered to stop hovering. Bettina had even handed them the deck of cards and the cribbage board to keep them busy.

Not that that was a huge issue. Veld, Davies, and many of the people in Bone Village had been quite busy preparing for Tseng's anticipated, return visit.

“I think it has a sense of humor.” Veld tossed his cards down shaking his head.

Davies snorted and tossed his cards down too. “Well, if it doesn't, let's hope Tseng does.”

“No. He doesn't.” Veld gathered up the cards and began shuffling. “He's one of those people that were born without one. Terrible, really, terrible.”

“He's going to need one.” Davies smiled grimly. “If he thought Junon and Icicle were frustrating, the boy's going to explode over this.”

Veld shrugged as he dealt the cards. “He'll get over it…in time.”

“You don't have any mercy, do you?” Davies picked up his cards.

“Sure, I do.” Veld picked up his cards and hummed a second. “I like to think of this as…training.”

“You now have Vincent appearing in Edge, Mideel, the Chocobo Sage's, Fort Condor, Kalm, and even the chocobo farm, plus you have what looks to be like a cabin that he's been staying in over by the foothills.” Davies tossed down a six. “And each of those runs off into five other directions, which run off into three directions.”

“I'm providing him with a challenge.” Veld set down a nine and pegged his spaces. “It's good for him.”

“One might think you hate the boy.”

Veld looked piously up, “I swear, I love him like my own son.”

“Poor kid.”