Final Fantasy VII: Redemption Chapter 5
By Aujang Abadi
"I am not human. Not anymore. But once, it seems like eons ago, I was. My name, then, was Vincent Valentine. I was a Turk." Vincent kept his eyes fixated on the fire.
"A Turk? You?!" Yuffie exclaimed incredulously.
"Yes. But it was before Shinra was evil. Before Hojo came and poisoned the entire operation. I was an assassin, as all Turks are... but it wasn't like now. Not like Reno or Tseng... we had honor, codes. We didn't kill innocents, we rarely killed at all. We just kept the business clean, made sure no one was stealing from the whole. It may not be much justification, but it eased my conscience.
"But then... Hojo took over the scientific development department. That was when things began to change. Everything changed. Suddenly, I was on call every day of the week, hunting down people Hojo didn't like. He dishonored the Turks; he made us hired killers, and nothing more." Vincent hung his head, the memories flooding back all too clearly.
"So Hojo was the real enemy? Not Shinra?"
"Like I said... Shinra wasn't always evil. Even until the end, it had good, honest people in it. Hojo... he did this to them. To me.
"We began having frequent arguments. He was conducting Mako experiments... experiments that made the subjects into ghastly things. I refused to gather any more subjects... not even enemies of Shinra deserved that kind of fate. He constantly threatened that if I did not, he would strike against what I loved most dearly." Vincent closed his eyes. "I had a wife, then. Lucrecia. She was my world, my everything. My second half."
"Oh, Vincent... I'm so sorry." Yuffie remembered meeting Lucrecia, the mother of Sephiroth. She had been so melancholy, full of mourning for her lost son. "Hojo... did that to her?" Vincent shook his head.
"Hojo began convincing her that she was chosen for greater things. He had this way of speaking... he succeeded. His poison made its way to her. He struck against what I held dearest.
"She was pregnant at the time. He made her believe that our son wasn't of this world, but an emissary sent from heaven, to make the world a better place. He wanted to do, to our son, what he'd done to all those poor souls I'd captured. I was horrified. I forbid Lucrecia from speaking to him any longer, but even then, I couldn't protect her. I burst in on them one day, as he was trying to begin preliminary Mako injections. I split his nose in half for it." Vincent covered his face with his hands, his voice betraying his sadness. " It was the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life. He went to President Shinra, telling him I was 'impeding scientific development.' I was arrested the next day, and taken to Nibelheim. The head of the Turks, their most loyal member, and I was arrested."
"What happened then?" Yuffie reached out and squeezed his shoulder. Vincent looked up, and then rolled back one of his right sleeve, revealing mottled purple skin, lined with green, glowing veins. Marked very clearly, under the steel covered claw, was the number 1.
"I was the first of Hojo's controlled exposure experiments. The first to survive the injections with half a mind left. The cost is my shattered body. He took my humanity. Then he made me watch as he took my son, and stripped my child of his soul before he even had a chance to live with it." Vincent turned his head away, but the tears on his face were heard clearly in his voice. "My son's name was Sephiroth."
Yuffie gasped, covering her mouth. Vincent looked back to her, the tears wiped away, and removed the cloth hiding the lower part of his face. Under it were vicious scars, from his high cheekbones to the line of his jaw. But the face, the lips, and the nose, were identical to Sephiroth's.
"After that, I escaped the research facility. This... shell, of what I used to be. But it wasn't over yet. I began shifting, uncontrollably at first, until the right half of my body was permanently affected. I then began to feel the hunger. At first, I could not identify it... until I fell one day, and cut myself. I shifted immediately, and began hunting. That is why I leave, every now and then. I cannot survive in this active state, unless I feed. The energy found in every being, that part of the Lifestream, is my sustenance. I die unless I imbibe it on a regular basis. This is what Hojo has done to me. This is his victory. His masterpiece, as he put it.
"Inside, I knew I could not live my life feeding off of the innocent. I could not live as this monster. So I went back to Nibelheim, and sealed myself in the coffin. For the safety of others, or for my own sake, I do not know. And I slept, for thirty years. Until Cloud woke me." Vincent pulled the cloth back over his face, and unfurled his sleeve.
"Oh my God... Vincent, I had no idea..." Yuffie was absolutely speechless. She had no idea how to react. "Vincent..."
"I do not want pity. You know, now, why I am the way I am. The Mako has made me ageless, as far as I can tell. So I do not know how long I will remain on this planet. But if the Lifestream continues on its chaotic path, I will lose control again. And then, even this meager peace I have will disappear.
"The solution is in the Core."
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