FFVII/Vincent Valentine: Sunday
Title: Sunday Album: Heretic, David Bowie Claim: Vincent Valentine Characters: Vincent, Gast, a bit of Veld Rating: PG-13 Summary: An experiment does not go as planned. For Vincent, this will be the first of several that do so.
The first shot wasn't so bad. It made me vomit until I shook, but no big deal. Lucrecia held my hair while I was sick, and took the sample for my father.
The second and third samples were in the mail before we heard back. That week, I went in with Dad's orders to try to get Gast to talk about what he was doing.
"So what is this supposed to do to us, sir?" I asked him, trying to sound as casual as I could. I knew I was pretty good at charming, but Gast Faremiss was a scientist and scientists seem to be immune to charm. It was just one of many skills I'd only realized I had in my six months in Midgar.
"Do? And call me Gast, I'm not that old." He's efficient in the lab, moving swiftly from one thing to another. I hadn't seen the Turk before me leave, but he wasn't here. Last week we'd all ended up in the waiting room together, puking our guts out. The place itself seemed empty aside from the two of us.
"Gast, then. I'm Vincent." It was cold too, uncomfortably so. Was it this cold last time? I couldn't remember. I wondered if the company wasn't funding him well enough. No assistants, no heat?
"Pleasure to get to know you, Vincent. Looking forward to making history?"
"I'd be more excited if I knew what we were doing. As it is, I'm just following orders, sir."
He frowned at that. "No 'sir'. I already told you to call me Gast. And you Turks do seem good at following orders. This is highly technical work, I don't think you'd be interested."
"With all due respect, following orders is what we're paid to do." I waited a beat to see his reaction. He smiled a bit, even relaxed. He really wasn't used to Turks, was he?
I pushed the advantage. "I'm not stupid, William. I'd really like to know what you're putting in me, what it's supposed to do. If nothing else, I'd be in a better place to give you details on the results." In general, I didn't trust people in authority who wanted to be called by their first names. It usually means they don't actually want their authority, and that they don't know how to use it properly.
For a Turk, that could get you killed. For a scientist, especially one who seemed to be working all by himself for Shinra, maybe it was acceptable. I waited to see if he would give me what I wanted.
He sized me up again before he answered, and prepped the needle in silence.
I waited, with my best harmless look on.
He grabbed my arm and slid the needle in so fast I tried to pull away reflexively. I forced myself to stay still.
"We figured that if the SOLDIER program had such good results with simple raw mako exposure, surely we could get even better results with materia that had been shifted back to its liquid state. Ideally, we'll produce SOLDIERs that carry all the characteristics of the materia without actually needing to equip the stones." He said all this in a perfectly conversational tone as he administered the shot and applied a bandage.
I stared stupidly at him. He was injecting me with materia? What the fuck. And the thought that my dad would be thrilled that I'd found this out didn't make me feel any better. He must have thought my silence meant I didn't understand him, because he just clucked his tongue at me.
"I told you it was complicated." He pointed toward the opposite side of the room. "Can you walk?" I'd begun shaking without realizing it. I tried to stand, but the room spun and I pitched forward, almost on top of Gast. He let me lean on him and walked me over to the doors into the next room.
There were six beds in the dim light, enough for my entire unit, with five of them already occupied. The room smelled like barbecue, and when my eyes adjusted, I could see why. One of the beds held a body that looked lightly charred. He was one of my fellow Turks, of course.
I let go of the scientist and took one step toward him before I fell forward again. This time I hit the floor.
"Fire materia," Gast said as I started throwing up. Dad told me the vomiting was the result of the body trying to purge the unnatural materials, it was a symptom of early mako poisoning too. I told myself it was just that and not the body, because I was a fucking Turk and Turks don't throw up at bodies. Just doesn't happen.
The room was spinning as I pulled myself up and tried to focus on Gast. He was still talking, pointing at each of my fellow Turks. Well, pointing at their corpses.
"Ice. Lightning. Poison. Gravity."
He looked straight at me and I fought to stay conscious, waiting for him to tell me what he'd given me, hoping I would at least know what killed me.
Before he said anything else, the room went dark.
Dad,
This will be the last report on Gast's little project. He managed to kill most of an entire unit of Turks, and it didn't sound like anyone was very happy with him. My boss, Tally, yelled at him and he didn't even flinch, just turned around and justified to the President that he'd learned a lot, and hey, there was one successful specimen.
You know, me. At least, I think he meant me. I was pretty busy trying not to throw up on the President. Judging by the look on her face, Tally was too, for entirely different reasons.
I attached my summary of what he said he was doing, and Lu'll include my last sample when she sends this to you.
Vincent
PS - Don't tell Mom. I feel fine now.
Everything had changed. The world looked and felt different. My eyes were sensitive and I don't think I used to be so twitchy. I should have asked what that last materia was.
I stayed away from work for a few days on Tally's orders, spending most of my days in the university library on the student ID I'd liberated from Seiichirou's wallet.
Finally, the reply came from my father. My hands shook a little as I read it.
Vincent,
There's just not enough data. You should have gotten more information out of Gast. No matter, I can reverse engineer it. It may not work with the spell materia, but we'll branch out into other varieties.
Send another sample.
G.V.
I put on my suit and went to work without replying to it. I decided to let it sit a week or two, let Dad stew a little. It's good for him, I told myself.
"I told you to take some time off," Tally said when I came in.
I shrugged. "I took three days off."
"You sure?"
"Nothing better to do," I told her, and I meant it. I wanted to do something violent, something to make me stop thinking, to shut my brain up.
She nodded and took a quick glance at the files on her desk. "I'll give you Veld, then. I'm restructuring the department. Partners instead of units. It's more streamlined that way."
I might have heard "harder to take out" in that, but I wasn't sure. She handed me the file and called for my new partner over the intercom. He was short, unusual for a Turk, with brown hair in his face. I wondered how he could see to shoot.
"Valentine," I introduced myself.
"Veld," he replied. "Looks like I drew the short straw."
"Looks like you are the short straw," I snapped back. I could see the top of his head clearly. I wasn't that tall.
He punched me in the arm. I punched him back reflexively.
"Not in the office," Tally snapped. "You've got a mission. Get to it." I nodded to her, then Veld and I headed for the elevator. I checked my gun and smiled to myself.