Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ I Know What Lies Beneath the Snowfields ❯ Chapter 47 ( Chapter 47 )

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

"I Know What's Beneath the Snow Fields"
Chapter 47

A ghostly silence haunted the eerie battlefield. It floated through the
darkness, brushing past frozen tree branches or rolling over the brittle
undergrowths. The bullet-ridden trees morned the cruel disfigurement of
their beautiful trunks. The cold corpses lay wherever they had fallen,
life having parted the flesh long, long ago. Nothing moved; night
oppressed all.

At last, the sole survivor of the bloodbath stirred. The mercenary
slowly re-opened his bleary eyes. He found himself lying face down in
the frozen stone ground, his arm twisted by his side.

No sooner did he he attempt to move than a fierce pain tore at his
bloddy arm. Instantly, a thousand curses and angry oaths exploded
against the wound. The man writhed around onto his back as he groped
this battered limb. His eyes happened to glance up.

He froze solid on finally noticing a tall, black figure towering over
him, with a keen pair of ruby-red eyes set fixedly on his face.

The wounded man stared back a moment in blank shock, still dizzy and
quite confused. However, frantic fear instantly seized him when he
recognized Vincent ("the freak with the claw"). The man feebly edged
away by beating his two feet back, yet the effort crumbled to a painful
grunt. Obviously, it hurt him to even move. So, he curled up on his side
in quiet, nervous anticipation.

In return, Vincent gazed down at the frightened man in ominous silence.
His face, haggard and filthy, bore an incredibly stoic expression. Not a
twinge of emotion marked his calm face, not even the mildest
despleasure.

On returning to the park, Vincent had found the wanted mercenary
sprawled unconsciously along the side of the gravel road. His less
fortunate comrades, the two other mercenaries, lay dead some distance
away.

Soon, the wounded man had begun to wake up, whereby Vincent decided to
start the interrogation. Therefore, he had stood patiently over the
mercenary until at last noticed.

For a long time, neither man spoke.

Vincent coolly looked over the cowering mercenary: the man appeared
around his mid-thirties. A hideous scar ran clear across the bridge of
his crooked nose. He had light flaxen hair closely shorn, and wore one
bandoleer across his broad chest. A thick trail of blood streamed down
his dirty face, marking where the gun had struck.

The mercenary curled further under such cold inspection. He peeked up
at Vincent from the corner of his eye, clutching his wounded arm in a
protective grip. He dared not open his mouth.

Vincent deliberately drew out his black gun, and aimed it straight at
the hapless mercenary. The man stared wide-eyed at the muzzle. Sweat
broke out.

"Where has he taken her?" demanded Vincent in a cool, toneless voice.

The mercenary blinked in total confusion, as though he hadn't
understood the simple question. He tried to grunt out some muddled
reply.

"Where has he taken her?" Vincent repeated.

"I..I don't k-know..," fumbled out the frightened man at last.

Vincent only narrowed his cold eyes at the unsatisfactory answer. The
gun remained fixed on its deadly mark.

"..I..I don't know nothing, man! I don't!!" insisted the frantic
mercenary again, "If y'mean where Davoren took that little girl, I swear
I don't know!!"

"You're lying."

"Like shit, I am!! I ain't lying!! I don't know nothing!!"

Vincent did not reply, but instead listened stoically to the incensed
mercenary rant over the same claim. The man grew increasingly violent as
he struggled to sit up. His thick brows knit through the sweat. Hatred
raged in his fearful expression.

"I tell ya, you freak-assed bastard! I know nothing! Nothing!!" he spat
in hot scorn, "I know nothing!! Not about Davoren, that girly, or..."

Suddenly, a loud gunshot turned the man's angry insistence to a shrill
scream of agony. He crashed back against the ground, howling like a
madman while clutching his thigh. Dark blood spurted through his
fingers; the bullet had hit quite deep.

Rather than argue, Vincent had simply shot the man's thigh point blank.

At least three whole minutes passed before the mercenary managed to
reduce his wild screams to angry groans. He lay slouched on his side,
one leg drawn up while his weak hands blocked the bloodflow. Both eyes
were squeezed shut.

"Where has he taken her?" reiterated Vincent in the same flat tone.

"..argh...Goddamn shit...I.. ugh..," spluttered the wounded man. He
grit his teeth, then writhed flat onto his back with another curse.

Vincent waited another moment. When his question passed by unanswered
again, he aimed the gun at the man's other thigh. Luckily, the mercenary
acted just in time.

"Alright!! Alright!! Shit!!!" he screamed, waving one hand out to
signal his surrender. Pain and terror shook his body. He was breathing
hard.

At last, Vincent lowered the weapon, and waited in silence. His
stone-hard gaze fixed down on the moaning victim. His face remained
devoid of any emotion.

After another disgruntled curse, the wounded mercenary began in a shaky
voice, "..look...it's..it's this run-down hideout...some junky old lab
facility...w-way over in that ghost sector...s-sector 7."

No comment; only the same dispassionate gaze.

"..it's...(ugh! Shit!)....," he grunted through heavy gasps, "The lab
facility is hidden under some demolished, old house. You wouldn't think
it at first, but the lab's actually under the house... under all the
damn rubble 'n junk."

Vincent weighed down each word, but said nothing to interrupt.

The mercenary gulped some air. Sweat mixed into his blood. A sickly
paleness discoloured his anxious face.

"S-some days ago...about a week ago, Davoren sauntered into our
hang-out," he writhed out weakly, "..said he had this special job for
us.. some kinda 'kill and retrieve' mission. He wanted men... lotsa men
for the job!"

Vincent did not speak.

"Well, I never heard of him before, and sure as Hell, none of the other
boys did. So I wasn't too ready to strike a quick deal with him. But
then, the guy said he'd pay us real nice if we took up the job
immediately....he said he needed the men now....offered us a friggin'
five million gil!!!"

The mercenary squeezed out another horrible oath as the pain stung his
limb again. He rattled on with a nervous chuckle in his tremulous voice,
"You can imagine, we all laughed in his face! I mean, shit! Five million
gil?!! Sure, we get expensive missions once in a while, but FIVE
MILLION?!! No one ever offers **THAT** much money!!!
We all thought he was bullshitting us!!"

He glanced at his silent captor, then gasped out, "..but then, the
bastard pulls out his fancy cheque book, and damn! he actually writes
down 'five million gil'!!! He wasn't screwing around!! He goes flashing
the paper around for everyone to see, saying he'll give it to whoever
kills you first. So of course, I jumped at the job!! Hell, we all did!!
We just figured he was some hired hitman who needed back-up... or mebbe
a wealthy business man on a vendetta. I didn't care! I just wanted all
that money!!!"

Vincent listened to the story, growing all the more thoughtful: he
agreed Davoren could pass for a rich business man or an assassin. And to
be sure, the payment had sounded far too good to be ignored, yet if only
true. The clever gunman had merely tricked these fools for his own
purposes. Not only had he known Vincent would kill them all, he never
had such money from the begining.

"Davoren...he then led us all over to that damn run-down old lab
house...and ordered us to stay there for a while. He said he'd tell us
when to attack. We just needed to wait for the right time. I dunno...he
seemed to be getting his orders from some 'Professor' or something like
that, but that wasn't any of our business. We just waited like he said,"
here the mercenary stiffled a violent grunt, then hurriedly added,
"..tonight, Davoren finally signalled the go-ahead. He gave me the
orders, and we all moved out."

The mercenary paused a moment as his hard gasps overpowered his hoarse
voice. He squeezed out at length, "..but if you go to that lab house
now, you won't find anyone there. They...they all m-moved out. Davoren
and his Professor-boss...t-there was this other mercenary group
too....they weren't with us and we didn't know them....they also moved
out with Davoren. Everyone left."

"Where?" demanded Vincent calmly.

"I haven't a shit-ass clue!! I dunno where the Hell they went or why!
They just moved out! Gone!!!"

He looked up at Vincent to check his reaction, and shivered on feeling
those horrible crimson eyes burn into his face.

"That's all I know!! I swear to God, man!!" exclaimed the frantic
mercenary in pain, "I know nothing more! Shit, if Davoren even finds out
I told you all this, he'll friggin'..."

"You were the leader of your group, correct?" commented Vincent very
meaningfully. He assumed so based on the fact that Davoren had given him
the orders.

"Ah?! Uh..y-yeah..I...," the man stumbled in bewilderment.

"Tell me where has he taken her."

"I just told you! I don't know where they went!! They all left that
damn lab house!!"

"You're not answering my question," warned Vincent with such unnatural
coolness.

"I am, dammit!! I tell ya!! I don't know!! I don't!!!"

"You say you were leader of your group."

"Yes!!! But..."

"Then you'd obviously know a bit more than you otherwise claim"

"I..ugh...I d-don't..."

Vincent did not wait to hear the rest. He aimed the gun at the man's
forhead, and prepared to fire.

Wild, almost insane, terror contorted the mercenary's face as he
cringed away on the ground. His bloodshot eyes were wide with fear.

"S-SOME SHINRA LAB!!! A LAB!!!!" he instantly shouted at the top of his
lungs, "A SECRET SHINRA LAB HERE IN MIDGAR!!!! THAT'S WHERE THEY ALL
WENT!!! SHE'S THERE!!!!!"

"...another lab?" asked Vincent. He still kept the gun aimed.

"I don't know!! Shit!! Shit!! I don't know!!" raved the distraught man,
confused by his own violent outburst, " I heard this f-f-from the other
mercenary group...they mentioned some secret lab..with all the
state-of-the-art science technology and equipment... it used to belong
to ShinRa...it's still somewhere a-around Midgar, even after the company
went down. It's the secret lab! That's probably where Davoren took
her!!"

Vincent said nothing, but instead cast one long, dubious look at the
sweaty man.

"I *swear* I don't know where this lab is!!" bellowed the man against
the cold scrutiny, "Our mission was only to kill you!! we weren't told
anything more!! I just happened to overhear this!!
I swear! Dammit, I swear!!!"

A prolonged silence followed this intense cross-examination. The
mercenary broke off into a heavy bout of gasping, moaning whenever stung
by pain. Vincent stood tall over him with the gun still pointed.

So far, the interrogation hadn't been too sucessful. When he had
discarded all the useless information, Vincent found he hadn't much, at
least not enough to answer his simple question. He reviewed his
interrogation of Davoren. He scanned through every word spoken in hopes
of somehow stumbling across some hint or clue. Unfortunately, Davoren
hadn't revealed anything.

"...who is 'the boy'?" inquired Vincent all of a sudden.

The mercenary blinked stupidly back up at his captor.

"Wha?!..b...boy??!" he re-echoed, bewildered by the question.

Indeed, while recalling that last interrogation, Vincent had remembered
Davoren mention some "boy".

"What...what boy?!" cried the mercenary again in wild alarm.

"A boy on...a 'brain scanner'."

"What the Hell?! I...I don't know no boy!!"

"And yet, Davoren mentioned one," interjected Vincent rather sternly,
"Who is he?"

"B-boy? I...," the man fumbled like a madman, evidently wracking his
brains to answer the riddle, "I tell ya, I never...ah!! He...he
p-probably meant that loony Rufus kid!!!"

"...'loony Rufus kid'?" muttered Vincent under his breath.
His ruby-red eyes narrowed down so sharply on the man below.

"Y-yeah! He's an absolute crack-head of a bastard! Totally nuts!!"
spluttered the mercenary, "he goes into all these weird spasms.... just
way outta control! I dunno, he's always garbling out this shit about
burning up or getting blown apart."

Though Vincent made no comment, his eyes gleamed in deep interest.

"NO ONE can hold that stupid kid once he starts talking crazy like
that. He gets too violent and won't listen to anyone! But for some
reason, D-Davoren....he's the only one who can calm the kid down again.
He just knows how to handle him..."

Another heavy silence followed.Vincent asked no more questions.

The mercenary lay sprawled on his side, exhausted and completely
crushed. He lifted his weary eyes one last time to Vincent, as if
raising them up to the merciful heavens.

"T-that's all I know," he whimpered out in such a pathetic moan, "I
swear, man...I told you everything.....p-please..don't..don't kill
me..."

Vincent hardly fliched a muscle. The gun remained fixed on the man's
forehead. His cold eyes lingered on the mercenary's pleading anxious
face.

He believed him now. Vincent had squeezed all information out until
nothing more remained. Yet in the end, he hadn't found any answers, only
more questions. This whole "experiment" remained enshrouded deep in
mystery. But more importantly, Aeris had disapeared, with only a scrap
of information of her possible whereabouts: a ShinRa lab in Midgar.

Slowly, Vincent lowered his gun down to his side, then turned to walk
away. The cross-examination had ended; he would spare this man's life
after all.

Vincent limped away with his entire back turned towards the mercenary.
In return, the humble man huddled his head down in silent thanks, all
the while watching his merciful captor stagger away.

However, his frantic fear soon returned to scornful hatred. The
treacherous mercenary tactfully reached for something hidden along the
side of his bandoleer. In an instant, he yanked out a small revolver,
and aimed it straight at Vincent.

He wasn't fast enough. Before the mercenary could even reach for the
trigger, Vincent suddenly swung around again and shot him point blank,
straight through the skull. He had forseen this treacherous stupidity.

Vincent coldly flipped the gun back into its holster. He did not bother
inspecting the dead corpse, not even a contemptuous glance. He resumed
his slow journey down the winding road.

Bluntly speaking, he did not where to go now.

His heavy feet dragged across the ground. His whole face darkened to
morose gloominess, almost bleak despair. Soon, Vincent strayed into an
entangled web of deep thought and musings. They all clashed against each
other for some answer.

A ShinRa lab in Midgar...but *where*? The city was far too huge for a
simple search. And this lab, if indeed it be top secret, would be quite
impossible to find. Then what to do? The desperate question instantly
crashed into a dead-end. In truth, he did not know.

During his unfruitful meditation, Vincent stumbled across that name
"Rufus" again. He found himself revolving that particular name over and
over in his mind. It sounded quite familiar, as though he had somehow
crossed that name several times before. Yet for a long moment, memory
failed him.

At last, the answer came in the form of a huge, rather impressive red
banner. On it read the words "New Age President of ShinRa", followed by
the bold, confident signature of "Rufus".

Of course. Rufus ShinRa, the President's only son.

Vincent lingered in complete surprise: he distinctly remembered hearing
that Rufus had died just over a year ago. One of those dangerous
WEAPONS, while attacking Midgar, had in fact blasted the ShinRa
Headquarters, with President Rufus at its very centre. The young man
*should* have perished.

But then, had Professor Hojo somehow.....

Vincent's mind seemed to drift in the same mad circles:
the "boy", according to the treacherous mercenary, usually raved about
"burning up or getting blown apart". Was this the same explosion that
had supposedly killed Rufus? Could this be the very same Rufus ShinRa,
only the second worst enemy of Avalanche?

And even if it was, what possible connection had *Rufus* to any of this
madness? As far as Vincent could guess, the young man couldn't have any
part in the mystery, so why should the Professor drag him in? Aeris,
Davoren, Hojo, himself, and this new surprise, where was the connection?
Nothing seemed to have any logic or meaning!

It all ultimately led up to the "experiment". Davoren had described it
as a complicated jigsaw puzzle, which in the end formed a whole picture.

But for the last time, what was it?

Vincent's thoughts returned to this mysterious lab again. It seemed the
only place to lay all his suspicions and vexatious questions to rest.

Yet he still hadn't the vaguest idea where this secret lab might be
found. Vincent had broken off his affiliation to the company thirty-one
years ago. To be sure, ShinRa Inc. had changed dramatically during that
long time. Its technology had reached the very pinnacle of achievement.
Services, facilities, all fields of modern scinece and industry had been
incredibly developed.

Therefore, it wouldn't be too improbable that within the long space of
time he was gone, some "secret laboratory" had evolved somewhere. The
question repeated: where?

He obviously needed someone who had had a more recent involvement with
ShinRa Inc. than himself.

In desperation, Vincent turned for help. Cloud first popped into his
mind: the man had been in ShinRa's service for a few years, perhaps he
had heard of such a "secret lab".

But Vincent instantly abandonned the idea. Cloud had only been a mere
trooper. Such information would have been strictly confidential, *well*
beyond his reach. Besides, Vincent did not want to involve any of his
friends in this danger, not while they could remain safe from harm and
out of his way.

Then who, for God's sake? He needed someone who would have easier
access to ShinRa's classified information, data, and facility locations.
Any whisperings amongst the higher hierarchy of the company's important
executives, this person would have heard it. Any business conducted,
this person would know of it. But who?


Suddenly, Vincent knew exactly who to ask. It would be neither
pleasurable nor easy. It would take many, many inquiries and diligent
searches. Yet if he wanted a final answer to this ominous "experiment",
he would take this last chance.

His thoughts returned to Aeris. If he ever wanted to pull her out of
that turtuous nightmare.....to shelter her again in warmth and safety,
then he would take this last chance.