Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch1 - Tales From The Past

30 Years Prior

It was simply brilliant. The cells divided and multiplied into millions in just mere seconds. The test subject was a small rat. The lancet kept slicing on its skin which was being repaired on its own as if some force kept applying glue over it.

Of course, it was no glue. It was skin secreting some sort of essence that urged the damaged cells around the wound to start multiplying faster than anything she'd ever seen. Her pink lips curved into a smile. Her eyes excitedly observed behind her glasses.

She carefully took a sample of that essence and she set off immediately to examine it on the electric microscope she had on her bench. Jocasta heard a knock on the door of her little lab. She didn't really have a room. She'd traded her bed away for a bench and a microscope. Along with a few other tools. Fluorescent dyes, lancets, imaging machines, and lots of lots of medical science books.

A handkerchief rested to the side that she used constantly to clean the lenses of her glasses. She hadn't realized how many times a day she kept doing that. It was a habit that helped her keep her mind focused on the task at hand. Scrubbing again and again whatever dirt laid on the lenses. She couldn't work if they weren't crystal clear.

The knock on her door repeated its rhythm for the second time. Jocasta hadn't realized that she hadn't answered the first. It was weird of how easily she was getting absorbed into her work.

"Come in," She called out. She placed the sample of the peculiar essence between two slide cover-slippers before she placed them on the microscope and she started examining it. Its light reflected perfectly on her doe-brown eyes that stared behind her glasses.

Whoever it was, walked in. Jocasta took a look from the corner of her eye and she saw a familiar form. Of course.

"Dr. Ernchester," she heard that deep voice of the not-much-older Turk that was supposed to look after her and Lucrecia.

"How may I help, Vincent?" Jocasta asked, never once taking her gaze from the microscope.

"You're requested for an urgent heart surgery in Midgar's Sector 4 Upper Level's Hospital," The Turk said.

Jocasta sighed in exasperation "What's with people having heart attacks every time I'm about to discover something?" she asked, but it was mostly like a rhetorical question. She made lots of them to herself every so often.

Vincent parted his lips in a small awkward attempt to answer the question "Uhh..."

Jocasta closed the microscope and she got up. She took off her glasses and she let them hung from their rope that was always wrapped around her neck. Her black skirt reached right below her knees. A white lab coat rested on top of her white shirt. A pocket rested on the left side of the coat where she always had a blue pen fitted in.

Vincent Valentine's eyes shyly found hers. They always had that magnificent crimson color in them that she'd never get tired staring at. His pitch-black hair fell both messily and tidily on his face. His black formal attire gave out his profession. He was young but a Turk with a great reputation amongst Shinra's Investigation of General Affairs Department. He was doing his job strictly professional. All Turks did.

"A helicopter's waiting for you," He added, "Shall we get going?"

"Alright," She nodded. She took off her plastic blue gloves and tossed them over her table. The Turk waited for her to exit the room first before he followed behind.

It was Saturday morning. Lucrecia saw them walking outside the house. Lucrecia's parents had adopted her. They grew up like sisters, and they'd been together ever since. Of course, Vincent must have filled her in with the urgency of the situation. Dr. Crescent had taken a break from the lab for the weekend and she was sitting by the couch reading another book concerned on the Cetra Civilization. Ever since Shinra excavated that 2000-year-old lifeform, Dr. Gast's team, part of which were Jocasta and Lucrecia, had been leading an investigation on it. Dr. Faremis had a strong hunch that the lifeform was actually a Cetra.