Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Predetermined ❯ Day 11 ( Chapter 11 )

It has been yet another drab day. Nothing seems to matter. I know I'm taking out my irritated frustration on Reno, as if I'm venting, but every little thing seems to get to me. There's nothing I can do. As far as I know Vincent is still in the lab, protecting Lucrecia and Hojo in their experiments. Everything has gone by in an endless blur. President ShinRa spoke to me himself about how out of it I have been, but all I could do, under his scrutinizing eye, was apologize and tell him I would do better. Later Rude caught me in the hallway.

 

“What?” I snapped, not in the mood to talk to anyone.

 

“……Hojo has informed me that he wants that diary you haven't returned to him. He needs it right away.” Rude nodded, catching Reno, who happened to be coming from his office where I had just been chewing him out, before the redhead could dig his grave. He snickered.

 

“Diary. I can imagine,” Reno laughed, coughing as I glared at him.

 

I nodded my acknowledgement to Rude as he dragged Reno off. I hadn't forgotten the Rex incident Reno. So this time I would actually have a real excuse to go back to the lab. I was trying my best to forget it, so I was apprehensive, but I also wanted to know why they wanted this diary. I was plotting to use the absentmindedness to forget the journal just to go and see what was up, but that ploy wouldn't work if Vincent was there. If he was, I'd mostly likely have to be sulky, not iron-hearted, to forget why I came all the way to the lab. I departed a few hours later, towards the setting of the sun in the early evening. The helicopter didn't take long to arrive outside of Nibelheim. Trekking through the small town a scruffy looking dog ran with several kids, barking at their heels. Through the mansion's gate, back into the ornate building, my feet took their steps, one ahead of the other. I was back in that dark tunnel, passing the first wooden door. Outside the door leading to the laboratory I heard arguing.

 

“You can't! I'm hired to protect and oversee this project! I will <i>not</i> allow you to!” Vincent angrily growled.

 

“It's<i> my</i> body!” Lucrecia shrieked. “And I'm going to do as I please! You don't <i>know</i> what the Jenova cells will do to the fetus but we can't wait any longer Vincent.”

 

“What about your dreams?” Vincent countered. “The ones about your own child and the havoc it wreaked?”

 

“They were only dreams Vincent.”

 

“Vincent, we tried to be reasonable, but if you continue to refuse our proposition I will be forced to silence you. I don't care what that silly President said or didn't say; his words are not going to stop a man of science in this huge revelation. It's a pity Ghast stopped as soon as he did, but I will carry this project on in his name as well. Pity he seemed squeamish about using Lucrecia's unborn child for the Jenova project.”

 

“NO!” Vincent shouted, footsteps were heard. There was a struggle and then a shot was heard. Shocked that someone had been shot and that it hadn't just been a shot for silence, I cracked the door open, easing it to avoid squeaking. Vincent was laying limp, wounded and knocked unconscious. He wasn't dead, but it was serious that a scientist would be crazed enough to do something as far as shooting the person that was trying to protect him, especially if the project went rampant.

 

I wasn't asked to back the project or the safety of the people in the project up, but I couldn't let my comrades go down either, unless my life was seriously threatened as well. Hojo was pulling Vincent up on the steel table in the middle of the room, a needle in one hand. He was muttering, something about Jenova's cells. Lucrecia appeared, startled but not too perturbed.

 

“You did what you had to do,” Lucrecia said softly, voice a little shaky. Hojo only looked at her, continuing to inject some faint green liquid into Vincent's body. I was rooted to the spot, not overly emotional but I didn't feel as if I cared so much. Was this falling out of love?

 

“Help remove his clothes and we'll allow him to incubate. Vincent was stripped down to his pants were he was then awkwardly shuffled towards a large tube, which Hojo opened as Lucrecia propped up his upper torso. They deposited him in the tube and as Hojo began some work at a computer, apparently setting something up for that large capsule, Lucrecia hooked up tubes and wires to him. Vincent looked as if he'd belong in a hospital. Lucrecia left him long enough to fill another syringe with something.

 

“G Substance?” Hojo asked, a faint smile on his lips.

 

“He owes me,” the brunette muttered. “This shouldn't hurt him, but maybe he'll feel what my child will go through. Then maybe he will understand, but no, he'll never be equal. With a lower graded form of mako, G Substance, he doesn't hope to match this new Cetra.” Lucrecia was firm in her word and belief, much more haughty in her pride than I had thought before, going so far as this kind of revenge.

 

The bullet wound was stark against his porcelain skin, but was superficial enough and has stopped bleeding. I was guessing Vincent had gone down more out of shock and maybe pain than by the wound itself. Lucrecia closed the panel and the capsule filled with some suspending liquid. The tubes hooking to his mouth and nose allowed him to breathe, bubbles evacuating the mask when he exhaled. He twitched, brows furrowing and conscious somewhere in the back of his mind but unable to regain a wakeful state.

 

“Hmmm…..” Hojo pondered. “I want to try several different strains of cells with different variations of mako infusions on him. I think it would beneficial for the stabilization of the Cetra in case something unexpected occurs. Yes that would be best for you.” I took my leave, appalled and unsure of what I had seen. They were doing something to Vincent. They had shot him, and all I did was stand there. I couldn't forgive myself. Holy only knows what they were doing to a pregnant woman and a now unconscious man, injecting him with who knows what. This wasn't my business, and it would be easier if I just forgot about the whole thing.

 

By the time I finish writing this journal, I will have a nice small fire going. Hopefully, the pages will burn better when soaked in kerosene.

 

******

AN Ok little eeny weeny mess up…… Lucrecia wasn't supposed to discover Vincent until after Vincent was shot but….. yeah……. Also I'm assuming these scenes or similar ones appear in Dirge of Cerberus *man I need to play that game… want to <333 * but again I haven't played it x.x so this is based off of like… everything wikipedia gave me, and trying to get it in chronological order wasn't easy. Also if anyone's confused, Gast did leave, which I was going to mention and will put in there now. Gast left after Lucrecia was subjected to Jenova's cells. I know my time frame is probably off but yeah….