Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Endless Crisis ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Endless Crisis: Chapter 4

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Last Time:

"He looks like Vinnie!!!" Yuffie gasped.

Vincent took a closer at the projection, and true enough she was right. The man looked like him, but back when he had been in the Turks... before the experiments. But that was where the similarities ended.

"For Christ's sake! It's about fucking time you people got here!!!!" he cried out at the shocked group.

~~~

Everyone stood and stared at the flickering image after his outburst. Never in the years since they had known Vincent had they ever heard him talk like that. And it was even odder to hear a younger looking Vincent talk like it came naturally to him.

"And you!" the projection called out as he pointed down at the robot. "Where the hell have you been?!" Biggie snorted, or something that sounded like a snort, and chirped as he walked away from the wall and began tapping the computer. "Awww...." He replied in an all knowing tone. The image calmed a great deal as the robot did his best to explain what had been going on the last few days. "How many times did I tell you to stay away from the building? I mean after what happened with those First Class Soldiers last time..."

"Excuse me...?"

The image turned and looked at the group, his eyebrow raised in mild irritation before he realized why the group was there to begin with. "Oh... right... you guys must be really confused right now... but lucky for you I'm here to answer your questions and all that shiznit..."

There was an uncomfortable silence following the image's proclamation, like they were unsure if it was telling the truth or not. "What... exactly is this place...?" Cloud asked carefully.

"Yeah! And who are you supposed to be?! A freaky mad scientist version of Vinnie!~?" Yuffie cried out, the long stretch of quiet too much for her own hyper activeness. The man stood still at Yuffie's loud question and stared for a moment, a strange look on his face as if the computer didn't know how to answer the question.

And then he laughed.

Not just any laugh, but the kind that fills the room and infects others with the giggles. The shimmer of a man was bent over in half as he laughed to his heart's content. "Man," he breathed out as he caught his breathe, "of all the questions I thought I was going to get when you guys got here, that was not one of them." Straightening up he continued, "But you had questions. My name is Daniel Valentine; I was an inventor long before any of you were born or your fathers and so on. This image and the data saved on this computer are all that I have left of me..."

"Are you... my ancestor?" Vincent asked, shocked by the turn of events.

"No, more likely you and your family came from my little brother Michael. I was never able to have children, what with the world ending and..." Daniel stopped, the pain on his face all too real as he moved the subject. "but Michael, he was still a kid when everything started happening, so my money's on him. And before anyone asks, I picked the swearing up from a woman that swore like a sailor on shore leave. It's her fault, so that's that." The look on his face said that there wouldn't be any more questions on that subject, so no one asked about the woman.

"Now, to answer Spiky here; this is the once great city of New York. More importantly, this is the C.E.N.T.R.A. headquarters."

"Centra, you mean this was one of the ancient’s cities?" Reeve jumped.

"No... over the two thousand years since the calamity and the final battle humanity has forgotten much of what we once were, if not all of it," the flicker answered sadly. "Centra was the name of the group of scientists and engineers that were trying to hold the world together while we attempted to fight the monster that was destroying everything we knew."

"But what does it mean?"

Again he made a face in disgust, "Well... apparently a real centra is a major part of the backbone... So, when they were coming up with names the scientists thought it would be a good name for the team supporting those that were fighting.... Hence the name Centra. Once the fighting finished those that were left kept the name as the name of the original people of the planet."

"Y-your joking... right?" Cloud asked, an equally disturbed look on his face as the one tell them.

"God, do I wish. But that's what happens when you get a bunch of science geeks together in one room..." Daniel sighed. "Anyway, you must have more questions than that... "

Red stepped forward and gazed up at Daniel's flickering image. "As those before me I have sat as a silent guardian to the planet. I have preformed the ceremony that my ancestors have to appease the planet and my mate spent three years praying for the planet." Here Red paused and took a breath while Dan looked on, an odd look crossing his face as he waited. "Tell me, now that the Weapons have awoken and Omega has flown the sky... is time for She That Sleeps to return?"

For a moment Dan didn't say anything. Slowly a smile crept across his face, "Now that's a question..." Daniel spun around and began making motions with his hands, sending the computer commands as he spoke to himself. "You know, after two thousand years I thought your people would forget that little speech... Good thing I'm dead... otherwise I'd owe someone money..."

Lights blinked as Biggie moved from his spot next to the wall, his tips clinking on the floor as he walked over to the group. Biggie nudged Cloud as small pieces of the floor began to give away, everyone back away slowly as they watched the floor opened up before them.

"Two thousand years of sleeping, a crisis spanning two worlds, watching the world heal it's self..." Daniel turned and looked as a cylinder rose through the floor. "Sephiroth, Meteor, Geostigma, Deepground and Omega. All of this directly or in-directly caused by Jenova [and to a lesser extent the professor Hojo, but we're not going there...]." Dan turned as the frost covered tube finished pushing up through the floor. Cloud moved forward, trying to get a look at what lay frozen in the glass. "Understand that when I say this I'm not joking..."

The room flashed suddenly, blinding everyone in the room for a few moments. When they looked back the tube was no longer frozen. The liquid was crystal clear, so as they gazed into the glass they couldn't help but stare at the figure that was suspended in the center. It was a woman, her body folded around herself as she slept. She was wearing tattered clothes, but if Red had been telling the truth then there was a reason why. She had a peaceful look on her face as her waist length chestnut hair moved around her, but what really caught their eye was the shocking white stripe of hair hanging over her face.

"Without her, you'll never be able to stop Jenova."

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Please forgive the fact that the updates are taking forever... I'm in college now and things are a bit busy.

Reviews:

Matrineal: Thanks on the kudos for the shirt, I wish I had one that said that since I'm in college and it just seems like something I should wear [it's the lack of sleep]. I've only been to New York twice myself, once like ten years ago and another trip three years ago. Both times I flew in or bused in, so I didn't see the sign.

EmileeElectro: Thanks!