Vincent Valentine

'''This is not FF7 canon. Well, some of it is. Most of it is not. This is mostly me trying to keep my notes straight. Spoilers abound.'''

Born October 13, 1940

Turk

Sniper

Lab Rat

Headmate

Good Guy

Early Life
Vincent was born in Gongaga to Grimoire and Isabella Valentine. Four years later, he be came a big brother to the Valentine's second son Geoffrey. The family moved to Midgar when Vincent was nine. His mother died when he was seventeen. Already of age, Vincent chose to join the Turks- the SOLDIER of their day- rather than pursue higher education.

Shinra
Tall and lanky, Vincent had never known what to do with his gangly body until he joined the Turks. There his size was an advantage and not something to be embarrassed about. He passed all of the physical requirements without issue, and proved to be good at other aspects of corporate espionage. Unlike many of his classmates, he had no trouble keeping his mouth shut and learned to use silence as a weapon as well.

Although Vincent fit in well with the other Turks, his father would have preferred that he pursue a more academic line of work. Geoffrey would go on to become an MD, his schooling funded partially by Vincent's income. Vincent and his father never argued outright over his choice of vocation, but Vincent always got the feeling that he disapproved. Despite this, they remained close and often saw one another in passing while on the clock and kept up with each other when off duty.During basic training he met and became best friends with Veld Verdot. Their friendship would last well into adulthood. The two of them were roommates as cadets, and later shared an apartment after graduation. Vincent was even the best man at Veld's wedding. Both of them became experts in their field and were both considered as candidates to succeed the current department head. Bizarrely, the final test came in the form of how each of them handled grief. Veld lost his wife and daughter as well as his left arm in the Kalm Incident, and Vincent lost his father, the tragedies occurring within months of each other. Veld's personal situation was deemed worse, and his ability to cope with such crushing personal loss while still remaining professional was judged superior to Vincent's. Ultimately, the promotion went to Veld. Vincent truly didn't mind being passed over, and was happy to become second-in-command to his best friend.

Vincent met Lucrecia Crescent through his father. She was one of several students who were hoping to be chosen as assistants to the more senior researchers. Shy and socially awkward, Vincent initially had trouble getting a word out when she was around. Lucrecia, however, saved him the trouble of beginning the conversation and went first. She became part of his small circle of friends which included Veld, Palmer, and later Scarlet.

When his father died under mysterious circumstances while on expedition, it hit Vincent hard. Although he was able to continue to go through the motions of day-to-day life, he completely shut down inside to the point where he physically could not speak. Scarlet- his partner at the time- recognized his silence for what it really was and dragged him to Veld who promptly yanked him off duty. Both of them stayed with Vincent for a few days until he could recover his voice. Vincent had been worried about Lucrecia as well, and had wanted to talk to her, but by the time he was able to speak again she had already gone home to her parents in Junon to recover herself. Feeling that Dr. Valentine's death was her fault, she avoided Vincent, afraid that he would be angry with her. Rather than face him, she signed on to the Jenova project and left to serve as an assistant to Professor Gast in the mountains of Nibelheim. Not about to see two of his best friends broken up over a miscommunication, Veld- now head of the Turks- assigned Vincent as part of the security detail for the Jenova Project, hoping that Vincent and Lucrecia would be able to figure things out once they'd had some peace and quiet.

Nibelheim I
It's Complicated.

So Complicated.

Lucrecia continued to avoid Vincent, burying herself in work. However, Nibelheim is a small town and there really wasn't a way to keep from running into each other. Eventually they began talking again. They were just beginning to make some progress when Something Happened. Lucrecia never told him exactly what happened, but he found out later that she was pregnant. Not only that, the unborn child would be the subject for a risky experiment. Vincent did his best to talk to her- not necessarily to talk her out of it, but to try to gauge where Lucrecia was mentally and emotionally; whether she was truly on board with this or if she'd had her arm twisted. He came away from the conversation feeling it was the latter. Although he suggested she stand up for herself, offered to be there when she did, Lucrecia just broke down in tears. Figuring it was cruel to put so much pressure on a woman already in an awkward situation (ie: expecting and unmarried- the experiment was probably as much to cover for her indiscretion as well as to put an unplanned pregnancy to good use), Vincent decided to talk to Gast himself.

It didn't go well.

Only Hojo was in the office at the time. The two of them had never been more than casual acquaintances; Hojo seeing Vincent as a humorless killer, and Vincent taking Hojo for little more than a book-loving know-it-all. Assuming Vincent was going to let his fists do the talking, Hojo drew his own weapon. The gun went off- either by accident or intent- and caught Vincent point-blank in the shoulder. It shattered his left humerus, ricocheted off his scapula, broke several ribs, and nicked his spine before exiting out his lower back, causing massive internal damage in the process. Horrified, both Hojo and Lucrecia did their best to save Vincent's life. In the end the only way to keep him alive was to implant a summon materia directly into his severely damaged heart. Even still, they were unable to save his left arm, and Vincent spent weeks recovering inside a mako tank.

Lab Rat
These were a fun fifteen years.

Vincent was not locked in the basement in Nibelheim right away. Instead, he spent the next few years alternating between a cell and a mako tank as Hojo continued to tinker with his body. At first, it was nothing personal. Things just kept happening. Every time he tried to revive Vincent, a Limit Break triggered, the lab would get trashed, they'd have to subdue Vincent, often hurting him in the process, and the whole thing would start over again. Vincent "died" at least four times only to revive thanks to the mako and his four headmates: the Gallian Beast, Death Gigas, Hell Mask, and the demon Chaos.

Nibelheim II
Vincent spent ten years in the crypt beneath the Shinra mansion deep in mako stasis. By turns he was "awake" and aware of where he was and what happened, but spent more time "asleep", experiencing "nightmares" belonging to himself and those of his headmates. His first meeting with his rescuers did not go well. He wound up accidentally provoking Sephiroth into attacking him, resulting in a battle with all four of his limit breaks. Sephiroth prevailed, however, and rather than killing Vincent or locking him in the coffin again, he took him with him. Vincent's last concrete memories are from late 1966 (it was a bad year). Getting thrown into the tail end of the 20th century has made for an acute case of culture shock. Everyone he knew as a young man has either grown old, or died. Happily, he has a few remaining friends who are glad to have him back.

Looking after Sephiroth has become his mission for the foreseeable future. He feels he owes it to Lucrecia to keep her son safe. Yes, he's nearly 30, but it never hurts to have someone around to watch your back.