Chapter Text
"(Name)..."
"(Name)..."
"(Name), wake up."
You groaned as you opened your eyes feeling someone shaking your shoulder. You didn't want to wake up, you were so tired and wanted to continue to dream about the fluffy puppies you were cuddling, surrounding you with fluffy adorableness.
"(Name)? Are you still breathing?"
You groaned and regretfully unplugged yourself from the wonderful dream, sitting up in your chair.
"Oh, you are awake."
You cracked open your eyes glaring sleepily at the person who woke you up. When your eyes adjusted you finally saw it was your friend Vincent Valentine. He was a Turk who was the bodyguard for your friend and partner Lucrecia.
"Why did you wake me up?" You grumbled rubbing your eyes.
"Would you rather Hojo?" The man asked with a slight smirk.
"Yeah no, but I was having a good dream a where i was surrounded by the most fluffiest puppies~" You squealed.
Vincent chuckled at you knowing you were half awake.
"I brought you some coffee, just how you like it." Vincent said holding the cup out for you.
You thanked him and eagerly took it taking a sip.
"Gah! Hot!" You gasped sticking your tongue out well waving your hand.
"Sorry, I...should've warned you it was hot." Vincent chuckled.
You reached for the water on your desk and stuck your tongue in the opening to help it cool. Water slipped past your tongue and you hacked up water. The door opened and Lucrecia stepped in, a confused look appearing on her face from the scene in front of her.
You were sitting on the chair coughing and hacking water all over the floor with Vincent patting your back.
"What did I miss?" She questioned.
"O-Oh, Lucrecia." Vincent stuttered placing his hands behind his back.
You turned back to your computer and let out a few much less violent coughs that sounded more like a cat throwing up a hairball than someone coughing up their skeleton.
"Are you alright (Name)?" Lucrecia asked holding back a laugh.
"Fine." You said giving her a thumbs up well continuing to cough.
"She swallowed some water the wrong way." Vincent explained.
"Oh. Alright then." Lucrecia said walking over.
She noticed the dark circles under your eyes and frowned, "Did you stay overnight again?"
"I had to, Hojo was eyeballing me yesterday and I'd rather not end up as one of his experiments." You sighed.
"He wont..." Lucrecia stopped herself.
That was true.
Hojo was known to have tortured and experimented on many scientists who worked on him either because they weren't "working hard enough" or just because he wanted to. You had never seen him experiment, but from the people who have, it's traumatizing to watch as he mercilessly tortured the poor soul: creature or human.
She sighed but put a smile on her face, "Anyways, lets continue on the experiment shall we?"
You nodded and turned to look back at your computer. Sometime during the night you probably fell asleep on the keyboard since a line of gibberish went down for almost a paragraph. You sighed and deleted the gibberish looking at your notes.
"So, your studying this Chaos thing?" Vincent said staring at the dark matter floating in the mako tank that was still moving.
"Yeah. It's interesting." You commented.
You looked to Lucrecia and saw she was deep in her work like she always was. You hadn't been here when you first began the experiment but whenever you asked she always tensed up and a look of guilt would cross her face.
When Vincent first came to protect her, she would be sad and guilty and tense but then slowly she began to soften to him. Now, you were sure she was in love with Vincent. It was clear as day the two were in love and meant to be.
You wouldn't blame her.
Vincent was tall, and lean, and god his deep voice could make any girl's heart pound against their ribcage. Not to mention his blood red eyes. Some may find his eyes scary but you personally found them gorgeous af.
You didn't want to get involved in the two's relationship and you knew you were no match against Lucrecia's beauty. Besides, you preferred to be friends with Vincent so you could have fun harmlessly flirting and jumping on his back.
You bit your lip in thought looking over the notes until Vincent excused himself. You heard a loud sigh and you noticed Lucrecia out of the corner of your eyes. She had her face in her hands shaking her head.
"Lucrecia? Is everything okay?" You asked walking over.
She shook her head, "I...Doctor Hojo asked me to marry him...I don't know..."
"But aren't you in love with Vincent?"
She tensed and raised her head up from her hands.
"Well...I am but...I can't, I just can't."
"What do you mean? He likes you back, you two are perfect for each other."
"I know but...I just can't okay!"
You stumbled back from her outburst surprised.
"I'm sorry..." She apologized returning her head in her hands.
"But to marry Hojo? I'd shoot myself if I had to even think about sharing a bed with him. If the scientist ever even sleeps." You muttered.
"I'm sorry...I have no choice."
She stood up and you watched confused as she walked off. You returned back to your computer and opened up a different window searching deep into the Shinra files for answers. You finally stumbled across something.
Grimoire Valentine.
Lucrecia's original partner of researching Omega and Chaos.
Judging by his profile picture he looked a lot like Vincent; possibly his father?
You looked deeper questioning why you suddenly had to take his place as answers were found to questions, but more questions continued to appear.
Then, you found out he had died saving Lucrecia.
"Hey do you know where-"
"Gah!" You fell out of your chair startled by the voice.
You looked around behind you and saw it was Vincent.
Oh...crap.
"Why...is there...?"
"Uh..."
"Where's Lucrecia?" He asked.
"Vincent..."
"Please..."
"She walked out of the room. I-I don't know where."
With that the man stormed out and you couldn't help but feel your the one to blame. You bit your lip glancing at the monitor before turning back to chase after Vincent. After some time you finally found him trying to talk to Lucrecia.
She was crying as she screamed she was sorry before running away past you. Your heart broke as you carefully stepped up to Vincent.
"Vincent....I'm sorry....I didn't know..."
"I didn't blame her...I just wanted to know what happened..." Vincent said, his red eyes staring at the floor.
"I'm sorry..."
You attempted to comfort him but he stepped out of your grasp. Rejected, you head back to your computer with a heavy heart and soul. A few hours later it was near midnight and you hadn't heard anything from either Lucrecia or Vincent.
You felt like the 5th wheel who also caused the chaos in the first place. You were typing on the computer but next thing you knew you had fallen asleep overnight again. However, this time Vincent came in looking for you when he spotted you sleeping at your computer again.
He sighed and walked over to you to where you were peacefully sleeping your back rising and falling slowly the only sign you were alive. Vincent frowned noticing the dark circles under your eyes you had from stressing your body out.
Even your hair and skin didn't look so good.
The Turk knew he couldn't just leave you here and already knew where you lived. He scooped you up and surprisingly you didn't wake at all as he carried you down to his car. The bodyguard was nice enough to even drive you to your apartment.
He took your keys in your lab pocket and opened the door letting himself in. You wouldn't mind since you two were close friends anyways and he'd taken you home and let inside many times. He set you down in your bed and took off your shoes and coat for you before tucking you in.
Vincent also made sure to leave a little note for you just letting you know it was him. He made sure to lock the door on his way out.
A couple days later nothing was the same. Lucrecia had distanced herself from Vincent and even married Hojo! It made you sick to your stomach just imagining her even thinking of kissing that crazy old man. You'd rather have your lips permanently stitched shut then kiss freaken Hojo.
Then later on you discovered she was pregnant!
Freaken pregnant!
With that insane scientist!!!
When Lucrecia told you the news she wasn't excited herself. But to make matters even worse they even were thinking of experimenting on the child. You knew Hojo came up with that idea, but you were hoping Lucrecia was just agreeing since she didn't have a back bone.
However with Lucrecia distancing herself from Vincent, you had grown closer to the man. You knew Vincent knew about what was happening and you had heard he confronted them about it asking if she was sure she wanted to.
Lucrecia told him she was sure.
Only weeks after her pregnancy you and Vincent had to constantly keep an eye on her since she was always fainting or having visions of their child Sephiroth, surrounded by flames, an evil look in his eyes.
"(Name), I'm sick of this." Vincent growled.
"Sick of what?" You asked taking a sip of coffee.
"Hojo! I...I just can't stand watching this anymore!"
He stormed off and you threw your coffee on the counter racing after him, "Vincent don't!"
You grabbed onto his arm stopping him. His blood red eyes were red with fury.
"Please Vincent! Please don't do this he's going to kill you..." You begged.
"(Name)...I'm sorry...I have to do something." He said taking his hand off.
You followed him nonetheless despite his wishes and stood outside the door listening to what was happening. Mostly shouting and then-BAM!
You jumped startled, and shoved open the door your blood running cold when you saw Vincent laying on the floor bleeding out and Hojo standing above him with a gun cackling.
"VINCENT!" You cried rushing forward.
Hojo aimed his gun at you and you froze.
"Stop right there girl!" Hojo snarled, "If you dare tell anyone about what happened you will become an experiment of mine."
You looked to Lucrecia who was just as in shock as you.
"Leave now!" Hojo demanded.
"Vincent..." You whispered before rushing out the door, the scientist's sick cackle echoing in your head.
You didn't know why you were still working for Hojo. Both you and Lucrecia had become sick with sorrow, but she wasn't as saddened as you. You forgot to eat or sleep and when you woke up at your desk there was no coffee or warm red eyes to greet you.
It sickened you to know that your friend, Vincent Valentine, was now a corpse Hojo was using for his own sick experimenting pleasure. A couple of times you were able to sneak into Hojo's lab and see what he'd do to Vincent's corpse.
It was covered in scars.
You would sit there and talk to him despite knowing that he was dead and there was no way he was coming back. But Lucrecia had other ideas. Hojo disposed of his body as a failed experiment so you and Lucrecia took him and kept him in a mako tank to stop the decaying process just a little while longer.
You and Lucrecia had finally decided to use Chaos to resurect him. Maybe it was out of your depressed and fatigue but you agreed to help. Eventually Hojo came in and scoffed at you saying he was just an experiment.
He wasn't.
He was your best friend you were trying to bring back.
Finally when the decaying process began to occur more quickly, you and her agreed it was now or never to use him as a vessel for Chaos.
Vincent's body was able to handle it due to the experimentation, but Chaos was out of control nearly breaking the tank.
"NO! This wasn't supposed to happen!" Lucrecia cried.
"Vincent!" You called rushing to stand in front of the tank. You looked deep into the creatures eyes but Vincent wasn't there.
"Please...stop." You pleaded.
Lucrecia fell to the ground sobbing and you pressed your hand to the glass staring at the demon with soft eyes. The demon somehow seemed to calm down. You smiled for a few short lived moments until it started to growl and expand it's wings.
You noticed something glowing out of the corner of your eye and spotted the Protomateria. You rushed over and grabbed it before holding the orb up to the creature. It let out an inhuman shriek as a white glow spread across the room.
Vincent was once again in the tank, but there was no sign of him being alive.
"That...stablizied the creature...the protomateria " Lucrecia gasped.
"He still shows no sign of life...but its at least something." You sighed optimistically.
Only a week after Lucrecica finally gave birth to her son, but before she even had a chance to hold him, Hojo had taken her away from him.
"Please! Please! Let me see him! JUST ONCE!" She cried.
This time you had finally grown a back bone and snapped. You couldn't take this anymore. The day after you saw Hojo doing his work and came up behind him with a gun well he was sitting at his computer.
"You seriously think you can kill me?" Hojo scoffed.
"Yes. Out of all the stuff you've done to innocent people and creatures." You growled.
He turned around a sly grin on his face.
"Do you even know how to operate a weapon?"
You fired near his head and the scientist yelped narrowly dodging the bullet.
"Yes I can." You growled.
You continously fired, aiming for him until you had him behind a lab table. When you rushed over to shoot him you felt a deep pain in your gut. You looked down to notice that your shirt was quickly being tainted by blood.
Before you could fall, you shot him in the shoulder and the scientest growled but was otherwise not in agony like you. He kicked your gut right where your wound was and you let out a harsh cry of pain.
"I will make sure you suffer." Hojo growled.
Decades later, here you were standing in front of the man who once was a Turk, now a demon, and he standing in front of a young woman who was once human, now a mutant.
No words were spoken as you stepped forwards and wrapped your arms around his waist. Vincent in return, held you closer.
"I missed you...for so long I thought you were dead." You muttered.
"I did as well."
"It seem's we both survived..."