Retrospective
by Kal
It was a rainy night in Nibelheim.The houses were empty now that the Shinra employees were gone. But cutted against the lightnings was a dark figure clad in a crimson cape.Leaping between the buildings so easily it would appear it flied.Pausing a moment on the roof of a house,a lightning illuminating his face for a brief moment.
Soldier
Turk
Avenger
Hero
He remembers:
The day he enlisted into the East Union army,getting ready to fight against the troops of the West continent.And how,in the middle of the battlefield,he feeled like he was really alive, enjoying the battle.The time passes and the West Alliance army is defeated;it will be a long time before they can give battle again.He is now disemployed,drinking his days away,trying to feel the power and confidence he had before.One day a man in a black suit sits with him to make him a proposal.The Shinra Arms Company is looking for people to conform a team of specialists to guard the company´s interests.They are interested in Vincent because his sharpshooting abilities and experience as a soldier with an impecable record.Vincent accepts.
The time passes and he is now in a place called Nibelheim,to guard a secret proyect of the company,codenamed "Jenova".He remembers how he feeled an almost natural repulsion for one scientist in particular,his name being Hojo.But if he feels repulsion for professor Hojo,he feels totally different about the professor´s companion,a woman named Lucrecia.Being in his eyes the most beautiful woman on the earth,he doesn´t understand why she is always so shy.After some months together,he comes to know her well,and after thinking about it,he confess his love to Lucrecia.
Sadly,Lucrecia´s heart belongs to Hojo.Vincent says to himself:"If she is happy...then I don´t care".
Time passes and now he is in Hojo´s lab at the mansion Shinra bought for the investigations.He is yelling to Hojo for endangering Lucrecia´s life and that of her child with an experiment.He sees Hojo take out a gun and shot him.He awakes,feeling inside him how horrible beasts try to get out of him,his body changed forever by Hojo.He realizes this is his fault,if he had aparted Lucrecia from Hojo,then she and her child would be alright,and that this body and this sensations are now his punishment for letting the person he loved face the worst.Dead would be a too sweet blessing for the sins he has committed,and decides to sleep forever,haunted by the memories of Lucrecia and Hojo.
Time passes again,and he is now inside a coffin,staring to the people who has disturbed his eternal sleep.A man with spiky blonde hair and a huge sword,a girl in a pink dress and a pilot who doesn´t stop cursing stare at him.They talk to him about how Lucrecia´s son,Sephiroth,is trying to destroy the world.He realizes that,to pay fully his sins,he has to correct the evils Hojo has made.He joins the group,the most strangest group of people he ever saw.A cat riding a Moggle tries to tell him his luck,a very atractive young woman stretches his hand and he can feel she is incredible strong,maybe more than him.A black man with a gun in his right hand pats his back and almost makes him fall.A strange beast greets him with courtesy,surprising him.And a strange girl with a giant shuriken walks to him and asks him:"Hey,are you a vampire?".A most strange group indeed,but they have the determination enough to take down Shinra and Sephiroth.
Weeks later,Vincent,does something he thought he would never do again in his life.
He cried.
After seeing how Sephiroth,stabbed with his sword the girl named Aeris,he feeled something wet in his cheek.It was a tear.Even after they left the City of the Ancients,the mere memory of Aeris made his eyes wet.
Time passes and now he is against a maddened Hojo,his body now reflecting his true self.After a hard batlle,assisted by the man named Cloud and Cid,the foul-mouthed pilot,he feeled an indescreptible pleasure when he shot Hojo right in the middle of his eyes,killing him,and thus avenging Lucrecia.Now with his goal fulfilled,he has no need to stay with them.But something stops his departure.In the time he has spent with them,he has begin to apreciate them as friends,(except,maybe,for the little brat that keeps calling him "vampire").He feels a certain simpathy to the man named Cid,whose dreams were shattered too,but at the end were realized.He remembers how radiant was Cid´s face when they went into the outer space.So he decides to stay with them to give Lucrecia´s son the peace in death he was negated in life by Hojo. Days later he is now in a the center of the Planet,trying to stop Sephiroth from killing everybody in the Planet.After a hard battle they succeed. The Planet is safe and he and his friends are called "heroes" by everyone.Seeing how he is all alone,Cid offers him a place in his house,where he could,in his own words:"Drink all the booze you want,eat all the pizza you want,and see the Dukes of Hazzard until you get blind". Vincent declines,telling him he needs time to think.That was three weeks ago.Now he is here wondering why he has not been able to go back to his eternal sleep.He now feels like he can now rest in peace,knowing his sins have been paid.As the sun rises over the roofs of Nibelheim,he realizes he now is in control of his destiny,his future has been returned to him after Hojo´s tinkerings took it away from him.Realizing he now is free to live his life,he does other thing he thought he would never do again.
He smiles.