Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ I Know What Lies Beneath the Snowfields ❯ Chapter 21 ( Chapter 21 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

"I Know What's Beneath the Snow Fields"
Chapter 21

"Ooohh boy..," sighed Vincent.

The elevator halted abruptly, then chimed as its metallic doors withdrew
on the 68th floor. He had reached famous ShinRa Laboratory. Vincent
stepped out very cautiously, like a cat unfamiliar with new territory. He
found himself, much to his confusion, drifting down a winding corridor in
search of some reception hall. A scientist pushing a cart of test tubes
nearly rammed into him, yet sped away as if not seeing him.

His feet wandered down the corridor until finally he discovered the wanted
reception hall. Several desks cluttered this vast room, with all sorts of
scientists bustling about in a hurry. Some bent over microscopes; others
raced around collecting or delivering papers, while the rest wrote
furiously about their observations. Nobody paid any attention to the lost
Turk.

Looks like a flea-market in here, Vincent reflected scornfullly.

After great effort and amazing patience, Vincent finally induced one of
the busy scientists to spare one minute of his precious time. He asked
politely for "Ms. Lucrecia", and was informed he could find her in the
Specimen Observatory further down the hall.

"Now go away! Shoo!" the huffy scientist dismissed.

So Vincent trotted down the hall, looking all around himself in wonder.
Two women scientists who were chattering away stopped as he passed them,
and followed him with their curious eyes. He obviously did not belong here.

Vincent turned around the endless corridor, when coming face to face with
two large, glazed doors. A plain sign reading "ShinRa Specimen Observatory"
had been neatly inscribed on top.

His searching eyes scanned the interior through the glass, hoping to find
Lucrecia without actually venturing inside. Unfortunately, she was no where
to be seen. Taking a deep breath, Vincent pushed his way into the ominous
observatory.

It was a small, square room squeezed into one corner ot the storey. Two
large specimen tables with over-hanging neon lights occupied the centre.
Endless rows of towering bookshelves ran all along the walls, crammed with
files, journals, and books. There were two elderly scientists mumbling
between themselves over a specimen, but stopped short on spotting the
intruder.

"My word!" exclaimed one of them to his colleague, "What's that Turk doing
here??"

Vincent nodded his head respectfully at the two, then wandered between the
rows of bookshelves in search of Lucrecia. He checked one row after
another, losing hope with every passing bookshelf. Until finally, he found
her. She was standing on a step-up ladder next to a shelf, completely
engrossed in reading a large file.

All her soft hair had been heaped into a charming, loose ponytail behind
her delicate neck. She wore no lab coat this time, thereby showing the
slimness of her body, especially her supple waist. Her shining eyes
devoured the pages of the file. She didn't even hear Vincent walk up to
her.

He forced out a cough, which immediately grabbed her attention. The minute
she noticed Vincent near her, Lucrecia stared blankly at his face,
obviously shocked to find him here. Her nervous hands slammed the file
shut, then hugged it against her chest. The two were silent for a minute.

"M..Mr. Valentine..," she faltered at last.

"..uh..Ms. Lucrecia," he interrupted, more nervous than her, "..forgive
me..but, last night when you..uh...ran off, you dropped this..,"

He fumbled at his breast pocket as Lucrecia hopped down from the ladder to
face him properly. He handed the two folded papers over to her, unable to
speak anymore. Lucrecia examined the papers after unfolding them, then shot
her eyes up to him in alarm.

"Sorry," he apologized softly, "I accidently stepped stepped on the sketch
and ruined it. Now it looks like an ugly woman with a turban."

He had, of course, braced himself for her worst reaction, maybe even
another slap on the face. Lucrecia stared at him as he finished, then
suddenly burst out laughing.

"But that's what it's *supposed* to be," she explained, "It is an ugly
woman with a turban!"

When he finally understood her, Vincent mumbled, "Oh..sorry..."

She looked up at him through her smart glasses, still retaining her kind
smile. Vincent fidgetted anxiously as a heavy silence weighed him down; he
felt he should say more to her. Unfortunately, his mind had blanked out the
minute he had opened his mouth.

So, his mission now completed, Vincent decided to leave.

"I apologize for bothering you, Ms. Lucrecia," he muttered, turning away
from her awkwardly, "Good day."

"Wait!!!"

Lucrecia instantly covered her mouth in embarrassment for being so loud,
but stepped infront of Vincent to block his way. After propping her
cumbersome file on one of the shelves, she looked up at him so as to say
something. However, everytime the poor woman tried to begin a sentence, her
tongue stumbled over the words nervously. Finally, she broke down in
annoyance.

"Listen," she sighed in defeat. She pulled off her glasses and looked
straight into his eyes, "I've been meaning to apologize for...for what I
did..the other day in the Reactor. That was NO way to show graditude for
saving my life."

Vincent did not answer.

"And I'm most, most ashamed that I slapped you, Mr. Valentine," Lucrecia
said with flushed cheeks, "I hope I didn't hurt you?"

"Oh no, not at all," he automatically lied. Vincent thought a minute, then
added, "Truth is, Ms. Lucrecia, I can't blame you for getting angry with
me. But it's not like I could've warned you beforehand that I was going to
shoot..uh..see,I..."

Words failed him again. Vincent ran his fingers through his black hair,
berating himself for speaking so inconsiderately to her. Luckily, Lucrecia
wasn't offended at all. In fact, she smiled more kindly than before.

"I understand," she replied, extending her hand, "And please, just call me
Lucrecia...er..sorry, I only caught your last name back there..,"

"Oh, my name's Vincent," he said as he shook her hand firmly.

"I tried finding you out so I could apologize..but I must confess,
Vincent, I got too embarrassed to actually walk up to you. I'm very sorry
for being such an ungrateful.."

"Hey, it's alright. What matters is we're both alive and well."

Lucrecia silently nodded her head in agreement. Her bashful eyes turned
away from him, seeming to hesitate about some important matter. Vincent, on
the other hand, had nothing more to say. He looked around himself once or
twice, then finally broke the silence.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you from your work any longer, Lucrecia. Good
bye."

With a most respectful bow, Vincent brushed past her towards the exit.
Lucrecia apprehensively watched him walk away until she finally called him
again. Vincent turned around in confusion as she trotted up to him. Her
beautiful face expressed intense nervousness.

"Um...Vincent," she faltered in a low voice, "I'm having my coffee break
now. Would you..would you care to join me?"

Vincent blinked in more confusion at the kind invitation, yet made no
reply.

"Unless of course, you're busy!" she argued, waving her two hands infront
of her, "I don't want to drag you with me if you don't.."

"Oh, no. I..I'd love to join you."

The two new friends spent a full hour in the ShinRa cafe, chatting
casually about themselves. Vincent dodged all personal questions aimed at
himself; he was, by nature, fiercely private, and preferred not to "blurt
it all out", even to someone as friendly as Lucrecia. Nor did Lucrecia
dream of intruding. When she had noticed Vincent's reluctance to answer any
personal questions, she cleverly steered away from the subject.

Instead, she began to timidly speak a bit about herself. Occasionally, she
hesitated, not wanting to bore Vincent with those frivolities, but he
always urged her to continue. Indeed, his eyes lit up with great interest
as she spoke.

He found her overly modest about her position, and quite respectful to all
her colleagues (especially her superiors). Nevertheless, Vincent could see
in her a rare insight and intelligence which most her esteemed colleagues
dismally lacked (males included). And her shy, humble nature only added to
her charm.

Lucrecia finally explained that after graduating from Junon City
University, she had applied to ShinRa. Inc in order to finish her
postgraduate work. Luckily, Professor Gast had accepted her as a
lab-assistant, and she had entered the company about a year ago.

"So, you're doing research now, are you?" Vincent asked, eyeing her
curiously over a cup of coffee.

"Y..yes," she stammered in a low voice, "To be a full-time scientist, I
need to present a research paper to the Midgar Institute of Biological
Engineering. Professor Gast has been quite kind and patient with me. He
even helps with my research paper sometimes."

Vincent did not interrupt her, but stared very keenly at her nervous face.

"I need to thank you again, Vincent," she said as she looked at him
directly, "Those two papers you returned to me were notes for my research
paper...I spent three days non-stop just trying to gather them."

"This research paper of yours must be hard work. What's it about?"

Lucrecia fidgetted in her seat, unsure whether he would understand all the
technicalities, but he gently encouraged her to tell him. She yielded.

"Actually, I'm working with a team of scientists on this new project
called the 'JENOVA Project'. It's hard work, naturally, but very exciting!
Especially working with all these famous scientists."

Vincent immediately recalled that strange name scribbled over her sketch.
He had thought "Jenova" was some woman's name.

"No, no," Lucrecia laughed, "JENOVA is a project funded by ShinRa Inc.
It's a living entity we named after Professor Gast's dead wife."

Vincent did not understand.

"Okay, look," she explained, dragging her chair closer to him, "A year
ago, Professor Gast and his research team picked up strange signals during
an archeological dig in the North. According to the readings they got, some
lifeform was burried under the rocks. When they excavated the site, they
found this..this living organism frozen in the snow."

"'A living organism frozen in the snow'?" he repeated, puzzled by her
meaning, "How could it survive such harsh climate?"

"That was the mystery! Primary analysis indicated this creature was
thousands of years old, yet still alive. It had different molecular and
cellular structure unlike anything else. It was, to be simple, an alien
lifeform."

"'An alien lifeform', eh?" he wondered. He suddenly remembered something,
"Say, is JENOVA that same discovery Professor Gast made some months ago? He
wrote in one of his journals that when he exposed living human tissue to
the cells of that..er...'lifeform', it altered the human tissue without
changing itself."

Lucrecia gaped in surprise as he finished, then exclaimed, "How..how did
you know that???"

"Oh..uh..," he faltered confusedly, "I..happened to read one of his
reports a couple of months ago. I...sorta..like reading about those kinds
of things..."

The conversation inevitably turned to science. Vincent explained that he
spent most his free time in the library, reading anything he came across.
Lucrecia was fascinated to know he had read several publications on "that
alien lifeform", even though parts had been "too scientific" for him to
fully understand. Nevertheless, he had thought the discovery quite
intriguing, especially the part about tissue exposure.

"Of course, YOU know much more about this," Vincent smiled amicably,
"Whatever I understood from it, I thought interesting. It must be great
doing actual research on such a fascinating discovery."

"Y'know, you're amazing," Lucrecia blurted out, staring right into his
face with a smile, "I mean, here I am, chatting with you, a Turk, about the
project, when some scientists in the lab haven't even read one report! Are
you sure you're a Turk and not a scientist in disguise?"

Vincent assured her he had "no head for science", but merely enjoyed
reading about it. They chatted some more about the discovery and the lab,
until Lucrecia stopped short.

"Oh..oh my God!" she muttered, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.

"What?"

She sprang to her feet instantly, then pulled him up by the arm, crying
excitedly, "C'mon! I want to show you something! C'mon!"

She pulled him out of the cafe, her heart fluttering with excitement.

Vincent let himself be led along endless corridors and up the staircase.
He wondered what "something" Lucrecia was so eager to show him, yet did not
ask any questions. She took him through a metallic doorway down the hall,
into a small, dim room. Before he realized where he was, Vincent found
himself infront of a preservatory tank.

This huge, round tank dominated at least two-thirds of the room, with
three stiff pipes boring straight into its top. Countless buttons, levers,
and rubber tubes adorned its bulky structure. One square window marked the
centre of this impressive tank. A dazzling purple light illuminated from
the inside of this impressive tank, yet the fog on the window obscured the
interior.

Lucrecia dragged Vincent infront of the square window. Wiping the mist off
the glass with her sleeve, she beckonned for him to come closer.

"Go on," she encouraged in a whisper, "Look inside."

Vincent glanced suspiciouly at her excited face, then peered through the
glass. His eyes widened in shock: it was that "ugly woman with the turban".

"That's JENOVA, the alien lifeform," she whispered, still excited.

JENOVA looked like the bust of a woman wearing a drapped headdress. Her
round, waxen face and empty eye sockets aroused strange disgust in Vincent,
intensified by those awkward tubings protruding under her grey body. One of
her breasts bore a circular, dark blue marking, while her body hung over a
thick rope of wires. Two heavy wings sprouted out of her back, filling the
entire tank. Vincent had never seen such a hideous creature.

He turned back to Lucrecia.

"They actually brought JENOVA to Midgar two months ago," she explained,
"We haven't stopped analysing her ever since she came."

"She's hideous," Vincent commented when his voice returned.


"Heh heh..yeah, I thought so too," she smiled happily, "But if you look at
her everyday like I do, you get used to it."

Vincent wanted to ask her something, when suddenly a raging voice shouting
"LUCRECIA!!" startled the two from behind. The poor woman immediately
turned around in alarm.

"Oh!!" she exclaimed nervously, "..P..Professor Hojo!!"

Professor Hojo, a bony young man in a loose lab coat, stormed from the
doorway up to the two intruders. His lean, drawn face expressed immense
fury, further emphasized by his incredibly high forehead. All his black,
sleek hair had been pulled back into a tiny ponytail, yet three starnds
dangled infront of his rat-like face. He wore a pair of black glasses over
his long nose.

The man brushed past Vincent most rudely, and stood directly infront of
the trembling Lucrecia.

"I..I'm very sorry, Professor Hojo," the poor woman apologized humbly, "I
was only..."

Hojo folded his thin arms across his chest, loudly berating Lucrecia for
"tresspassing into the preservatory". Lucrecia apologized meekly for every
rebuke she received. She hung her head as Hojo shook his long finger in her
face to scold her "stupidity and carelessness".

Vincent, thinking this insolent man had gone too far, decided to
interfere.

"It was my fault, Sir," Vincent interrupted him in the middle of the
reproof, "I asked her to show me the preservatory tank."

Lucrecia looked at him in alarm on hearing the lie. Hojo, who hadn't
noticed Vincent up to now, looked up and down at his tall figure, then
turned to face him. He twisted his thin lips into a scornful grimace, his
arms still folded. Vincent kept his clenched fists down by his side, and
stared challengingly back at the Professor.

"You're a Turk, eh?" Hojo asked. His mocking eyes scanned Vincent again.

"Yes, Sir. I am," he replied sternly, as if to actually say, "you got a
problem with that?"

"State your business, then. What, pray tell, do want with a preservatory
tank?"

The question was perfectly legitimate. Vincent fumbled for a reasonable
excuse, yet failed to find any. Hojo tapped his arm in certain impatience;
he obviously didn't find this Turk's presence very pleasant. Fortunately,
Lucrecia intervened in time.

"He..he's a friend of mine, Professor," she explained hurriedly, "I just
wanted to show him the preservatory tank before.."

"This isn't a public house for idle chit-chat, woman!!!" Hojo thundered,
stamping his foot angirly, "You take your friend out of here this instant
and report back here!! We still haven't finished all the tests!!"

"Ah..y..yes..Professor. Right away!"

Before Vincent knew it, Lucrecia dragged him out the preservatory room and
down the corridor. He glanced behind just as they turned around a corner:
no mistake; he had distinctly seen glaring straight back at him.

"Who was that?" he asked as they descended the staircase towards the
elevators.

"That was...Professor Hojo," she explained in embarrassment, "He's a
scientist on the 'JENOVA Project' too...one of the leading ones, in fact."

"He has no right to yell at you like that."

"Actually, he does. It was my fault. I..I forgot he had ordered all
un-authorized personnels off the tank premises."

"And I still say he was rude."

"Well, Professor Hojo can be a hot-head sometimes," she smiled, trying to
soothe his anger, "Thanks for sticking up for me, by the way."

"Oh..uh..no problem."

Neither spoke another word until they reached the elevators. Vincent
reluctantly pressed the button, then turned to face Lucrecia again. She
fidgetted a bit, still embarrassed with the last scene, but finally managed
to look up at him.

"Anyway, Vincent," she concluded by extending her hand to him, "I
apologize again for the other day, and thank you so much for retuning my
two papers. They're very important to me."

He shook her hand again, but this time kept a hold on it.

"Lucrecia," he asked in a low voice, "Can I see you again?"

She started at the question, then faltered slowly, "Of
course..V..Vincent..if you want to.."

"How about tomorrow?"

"I'm sorry..I can't. I have to work with Professor Hojo all day tomorrow
in the lab."

"Then the day after?"

"You're very persistent, aren't you," she smiled bashfully, "Okay, I'll be
free in the afternoon."

Vincent, quite pleased with another chance at meeting her, boarded the
elevator when it arrived at last. He turned around to bid her a final
farewell.

"Say, Vincent?" Lucrecia called before the doors shut.

"Yes?"

"I..I'm very happy we're friends now."

He only managed to smile back at her. The elevator doors quickly closed on
him again.