Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch62 - Friends with the President?

Whatever was saved of the Corporate Archives, was moved back to Healen and stored there, in small libraries. There weren't much saved, considering the Shinra HQ collapsed with whatever the Weapon had thrown at it. Rude led Jocasta between the mazes of corridors of the huge building that now served as the President's residence and convalescence.

There was the faint smell of dust in the air. The corridors were dark. Rude's hands reached for the switches on the walls, opening the lights. They finally reached a room that Jocasta assumed was the one they'd been searching for. There were multiple boxes, stored in metallic shelves, containing papers and old folders and books. There were labels attached onto them and Jocasta made her way, limply, towards them.

Her fingers traced the labels as she searched for Hojo's handwriting. A penmanship that she knew well.

"I'll be waiting here," Rude announced her as he stood beside the door, with his hands grabbing on top of each other in front of him.

"Thank you, Rude,"

Jocasta turned her attention back at the old boxes. They must have gathered whatever they could find through the rubble. The Corporate Archives were critical. They kept information about the company and it's past. It was weird to think of how the past could hold some wisdom for the future. Maybe that was why Rufus had the Turks and whatever remained of their SOLDIER's to go out for searching and retrieving them. Jocasta's fingers slipped over another label of a box. There were two more stored beside it.

JENOVA Project Project S Project G

Jocasta pursed her lips. She knew all about these Projects. She was there when Hojo initiated them. She grabbed the JENOVA Project box and she pulled it out. Jocasta knelt down with a little bit of effort, and a wince. She rested her cane flat on the floor and she took out a couple of folders that she recognized all too well. She fumbled through the pages of test results, and research notes. It was critical that lab technicians kept notes of every single step of what was happening in the labs.

But since Hojo worked on JENOVA on his own, then that meant, that he was the one who was supposed to keep these notes. She only hoped she could find them. She found a notebook. 'Omega' written on the label on the front. It sounded like the things in Lucrecia's Thesis. The entities that she had been studying. One of them was Chaos. Vincent's demon.

Vincent. She had tried so much to keep him out of her mind. And it worked. Her work helped. Alcohol helped. She felt that need to drink, but she knew she couldn't have that now. Don't think about him. She reminded herself and she turned her attention back on the notebook in her hands. She opened it and she started reading. Hojo's letters weren't the easiest to read. She doubted anybody in Shinra could decipher what the old man had to say. But she had learned his handwriting those years that she'd worked with him.

December 19th, 1988

Dr. Crescent's Thesis

"Soul wrought of terra corrupt,
Quelling impurity,
Purging the stream
To beckon forth an ultimate fate
Behold mighty Chaos
Omega's squire to the lofty heavens."

So, it seems, Chaos is real. Specimen H108 is alive. Body undissolved. The Mako Energy of Chaos courses in his body. The decaying stopped successfully. I shall pursue tests on the genome.

Unleashing CH568 on the Hypothalamus. Purpose: endurance in cold and hot temperatures.Today the specimen endured a voltage of 280W

This went on for a few pages. He had written down in detail everything he'd done to Vincent. Jocasta felt her stomach clench when she tried to imagine the pain that he must've gone through. He was alive when Hojo did all these things to him. Jocasta felt her nose stinging and tears gathering in her eyes.