Turning
"I can sympathize with how Reeve felt," muttered Yuffie. She set down her pen and rubbed her eyes. She squinted at a clock, unable to tell whether it was ten or eighteen o'clock. She was starting to realize that there was no eighteen o'clock when a voice sounded.
"I know what you mean."
She looked across the desk, her heart pounding until Cristofer came into focus. "Oh. It's you." She paused. "How long have you been here?"
He shrugged. "An hour, give or take."
She closed her eyes and tilted back her head. She vaguely remembered something about him coming in a while ago...
"Oh!" She sprang up. "I'm so sorry! You asked me to go somewhere. I completely forgot. I'm sorry. I forgot." She paused as she realized she had already said that. She lifted a hand to her brow. "Ugh. I'm sorry, I'm just so tired. I can hardly think straight."
He chuckled and shook his head. "It's all right. Come on. You need something to eat."
As they entered the cafeteria, Yuffie realized that it was practically deserted. "What time is it?"
"It's three P.M. Why?"
Yuffie shook her head slowly. "It's nothing."
He took her to a side room where a private table was laid out. She sat down as he went out to order some food, and was nodding off slightly as he returned.
"Talk," she said. "I want to keep awake until my food arrives. How did you join Shinra?"
He closed his eyes to ponder for a moment. "Hm. Well, I joined Soldier at a fairly young age. You know, the typical story, I was perfect for the job and bad for anything else. I was orphaned, you see, and orphans on the streets of Midgar have two choices: join Shinra or starve to death."
A man came in bearing a tray laden with food, and Yuffie's stomach growled. She started eating once he left, then looked at Cristofer. With his massive frame, she could understand why he was good in Soldier.
"I never rose above the ranks of second class, though. Sephiroth was always there, always encouraging we of the lower ranks. It was terrible when the Nibelheim incident happened."
"Uh," said Yuffie agreeably, listening with half an ear.
"Then, my friends and I were on patrol in the slums. We came upon a small resistance group. Unfortunately, there were more of them then there were us, and my friends died. I almost did too. I was lucky, though, and survived."
"So what made you turn against Shinra?" Yuffie paused in her eating. She was beginning to feel a bit faint from not eating for so long, then stuffing herself. She breathed in deeply.
"That's...a bit complicated." Cristofer clasped his hands together over his stomach. "You see, I never really turned against them. When it became apparent that Shinra was going down - that is, when Rufus, Scarlet, Heidegger and Hojo were all dead - I sort of...crossed sides. I simply bided my time against those who had killed my friends. After all, it isn't easy to take on the people who 'saved' the planet, Avalanche."
It took a moment for this to register. Yuffie leaped up, and she felt even more lightheaded than before. She reached for her shuriken, but it wasn't there. Her legs gave out, and she fell back into her chair. She dropped into unconsciousness.
Cristofer chuckled. "My dear ninja, you should know that the enemy no one sees coming comes by way of friendship," he said. Then he threw away the poisoned food and tried to construct a façade of a worried employee for his sick employer.
The hall of rough stone gave way to whitewashed hallways as Vincent and Elena walked along. Vincent stared at the area surrounding him. This was why Lucrecia was in the cave?
Vincent stopped and looked at the branching halls, the slowly shook his head. "Elena, we really need to split up," he said, an almost pleading note in his voice. "We're almost there, but we don't have much time. We need to go quickly."
She paused. "What if we run into guards?"
"We're both strong enough to handle them."
Elena hesitated, then shrugged. "Whatever. You're the employer. Um, do you have a PHS?"
Vincent nodded, then recited the number to his cell phone. She did the same for hers, and he repeated it to himself until he was confident it was memorized. They split up.
It was only several minutes before he heard a soft sobbing. His first thought was that it was Marlene, but it wasn't a small child's wailing. His curiosity increased as he peeked around the corner from where he heard the crying.
"L...Lucrecia?" he faltered. "I thought you had...left..."
The beautiful woman to whom Vincent was so devoted stood up from her sitting on the floor. "Well, I didn't, did I?" she asked. A sneer was in her voice.
"Lucrecia?" Vincent asked. "It's me, Vincent." She can't possibly be angry at me...
She snorted. "I know it's you. What, do you think you're still of use to me?"
"What?"
"Can't comprehend it, huh, Vincent? Let me spell it out for you: I used you. Yes, I used you like the tool you were, like the tool you begged to be, my little darling, my lovestricken fool, my little Valentine. I used you. To me you were just like the axle that helps the wheel to turn, no more than the test tubes that held your cells. I never loved you. You were a tool, Valentine."
"No...No! You're not Lucrecia-" He was interrupted by a gunshot, and pain lanced through his shoulder. He fell onto the ground, pain drawing his face.
A guard stood there, his gun drawn and ready to fire another shot. "Are you all right, Ms. Gast?" he asked.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine. But you did a fine thing. He was...annoying." Lucrecia stopped to nudge him with her toe. "I'm as much Lucrecia as you are a monster, Valentine. Completely." She scowled, then walked away.
"Vincent Valentine, please report to the President's office."
Vincent stopped in mid-sentence and looked apologetically at his friends. "Sorry. Third time this week. I'm afraid ol' Shinra takes the 'Turks as his personal servants' thing a bit far."
The people he was talking to, Dorin, the aging head of Urban Development, and Leinia, another Turk, waved him on with smiles. "Oh, it's been like this for, what, six years now?" Leinia said cynically. "Shinra seems to think you're his slave, even though you hold more real power than him."
"Oh, no, no," said Dorin. "It's been like this for all twenty years since young Shinra started the company in his garage. I agreed to advise him if he ever got successful."
"Well, the whip cracks, and I must attend," said Vincent with a melodramatic sigh. He left the room, then began to climb all fifteen flights of stairs to the presidential office. He was glad to see several people beginning the work of putting in elevators.
"Ah, Valentine," Shinra greeted jovially as he passed the top step. "It's about time you got here!"
"I'm sorry, sir," said Vincent, rolling his eyes as he turned away for a moment. "The elevators will help."
"Indeed, indeed. Well, I would like to introduce you to someone. Meet Lucrecia Gast."
From behind the great desk that the president sat at stepped a beautiful woman. Vincent bowed his head at her.
"Good morning," he said. "Lucrecia Gast...are you related to Professor Gast, the scientist who works here?"
"I am," she said. Vincent was taken by the sweet quality of her voice.
"Oh. ...Are you married?"
She laughed merrily. "Oh, no, no! We're brother and sister. He's a good man, though, my brother."
Vincent was slightly relieved by this, though he didn't know why.
"Well, Valentine, you've been here long enough to know the building well enough. It has been six years," President Shinra added. "I was hoping you could show Miss Gast around. She's come to work in the science department."
"Very well, Miss Gast. Follow me, if you will. I'll introduce you to some people around, as well..."
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