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Vincent sat slumped under the starlight on top of the water-tower. It was freezing at night in the unremarkable mountain settlement of Nibelheim. Unremarkable in the present maybe; almost forgotten now were the town's prior claims to fame. Not only was the town once the home and exclusive domain of the Shinra family, but the treacherous slopes of the nearby Mount Nibel still played host to the very first Mako reactor. Time had moved on however; now there were Mako reactors everywhere and the family was busily beginning the construction of their mega-city across the sea. The little town that they once ruled was now little more than the last sign of civilisation for those who insisted on trailing through the treacherous mountains towards the distant land of Wutai.
He was stuck here for the foreseeable future; pained and tormented by his own hand. There was no way out. Crossing the mountains at his back was tantamount to suicide; the paths were infested with monsters and the terrain itself had claimed many an unwary traveller. Trekking back down the badly maintained mountain road held no appeal either. It was miles to the nearest settlement, and while nowhere near as bad as the peak, the road was still notorious for monster attacks. He may be a Turk, but he wasn't brash enough to think he could possibly take on as many creatures as he estimated would be necessary to make it safely down in one piece. He couldn't stay here though. Didn't want to stay here. Not now, not after tonight. He had to get out of this town. But how?
His mission had been simple, almost routine, dull; keep an eye on a trio of scientists the company had seen fit to dispatch to one of the most remote and inaccessible places in the world. Vincent would never deny it had sounded like the least interesting assignment he had ever received, and he was near certain he would go mad cut off from the rest of the world like that. At least until he met Lucrecia Crescent. His heart clenched painfully as he thought of her once again; young, dazzlingly beautiful, dedicated and intelligent. He'd fallen for her the moment he laid eyes on her, the desire to treat this job purely professionally evaporating. He was interested in her; almost obsessively so. Suddenly being cut off from the rest of the Planet felt an acceptable price for the proximity it afforded him.
He'd barely paid attention to the other two, a quick glance revealing that he had little to worry about in terms of competition from them. The older one was called Gast or something like it; the younger and decidedly creepier one would only answer to 'Hojo'. Gast never looked entirely comfortable with his assignment to the town, and on several occasions got into heated arguments with Hojo before eventually vanishing into the night. Vincent had barely cared at the time, barely making the effort to get a signal and report that little item back to command. Now he wished he'd investigated even a little; he wanted to know which way the professor had gone. And more critically if he'd made it out.
But he hadn't been exactly thinking with his brain at the time. Lucrecia had been waiting for him; they'd taken to having lunch together and strolling around the town centre in breaks and down-time as procedures were left to run for an extended duration. Unlike Hojo who seemed desperate to work constantly and shunned the light of day, Lucrecia adored the open air and seemed perfectly happy to be in his company.
That was of course until he made his fatal mistake; never for a second thinking events would unravel as they had. He'd confessed to her and made clear his desire for her after months of hiding his feelings. It was almost a slip of the tongue; he'd never meant to admit it quite how he did, quite so out of the blue. But he'd felt relieved once he'd spoken; no more pretending everything was just platonic between them, no more lying in bed at night just thinking of her. Now they could advance.
He'd never seen it coming; Lucrecia balked at his words and took off at a sprint, away from him and away from the town. He panicked as she started off along the mountain path, mollified only slightly as she paused at the first turn in the road, huddling into the cliff-side, glancing warily back at him. He could scarcely believe her reaction; not once had any girl reacted quite so badly to his affections.
Worse was to come however. Vincent had lurked by the town gates, waiting for Lucrecia to come back, to demand, no, ask for an explanation. After the first hour, he realised that she was staying away from him and frustrated he wandered back into the town square and perched on the water tower, waiting. Not ten minutes later the scientist trudged back into town, not even glancing at him and stalked straight to the inn. And that was the end of anything above a purely professional relationship with his ward. His lunch-time dates with Lucrecia halted, the scientist now waving any invitation away with claims of critical moments in her work, and she was increasingly reluctant to take even the briefest break.
If Hojo was to be believed, there were on the verge of a new era of human evolution, an era of biological enhancements the like had never been seen or even theorised before. Vincent barely heard the words; the terminology was beyond him, it all sounded like crackpot theories and high fantasy. None of it mattered anymore. She had rejected him. She had rejected him and unless his eyes deceived him, she was interested in Hojo. It was nothing overt, not at first anyway. There were just little touches of fingers when passing objects between them, a tendency to work closer together than strictly necessary; previous they had maintained their own distant sections of the labs.
He didn't understand it. He couldn't understand it. Hojo gave him and everyone else in the village the creeps; so what made Lucrecia like him? How could she even tolerate him? He wasn't sure if he wanted to know. He sat watching them both day after day, watching them get closer and more intimate even as they pursued something new, something powerful. And he really could do nothing but watch. He toyed with the idea of requesting a transfer out, or just halting his guard duties. Nibelheim was still in the middle of nowhere. Practically no one knew the scientist team was even here, and far fewer had any idea about the subterranean laboratory.
But if he left, then he knew his mind would never be able to let go of her future. He would sit and worry about how her relationship with Hojo had evolved, how far it had gotten, what the two of them had done together. He would be unable to shake mental images of them kissing, embracing, making love- No. If he wasn't around there would be no stopping or disrupting their relationship. Far better he be here in case of any development.
What a naive thought. In the darkness of the night-time, Vincent cursed himself for wanting to know, not wanting to let his imagination define a relationship abhorrent to him. He'd watched little more then half an hour before as a laughing Lucrecia had walked hand in hand with the smirking Hojo back to the inn. And with a sinking heart he watched as only the light in Lucrecia's room turned on briefly, and then in a hideous confirmation of his worst fears go off. The light in Hojo's room never came on the entire night.