Vincent Valentine

[Kenpachi Zaraki]

History

Pre-Omniverse Character History:

TL;DR Video

Vincent was born to Grimoire Valentine and his lover, Melia on October 13th 1950. Melia was a radical, head of a group of rag-tag individuals that would eventually become AVALANCHE. Vehemently opposed to the Shinra Electric Power Corporation and its planet-harming schemes, Melia's group took every measure to hamper Shinra's plans. It was in this effort that she crossed paths with Vincent's father. Grimoire worked as head researcher for Shinra Co., specifically tasked with gathering information on the planet and its response to the mass mako harvest that they had enacted. The two met and despite their obvious differences started a relationship. It would be just three short years later that Melia would vanish without a trace, presumably killed by Shinra in an act of political espionage. Throughout Vincent's childhood Grimoire would remain cold and distant from his son, focusing intensely on his work. Perhaps in an effort to become closer with his father, Vincent joined the security division of Shinra Co., known colloquially as the Turks.

Grimoire's research had led him to hypothesize about the existence of WEAPONs, beings created by the planet to combat the perceived threat of Shinra Co. Chief among his hypotheses was the existence of a final WEAPON, Omega, created by the planet in its dying moments in a final effort to protect the Lifestream within it and safeguard it to another world. This being, he reason, needed a squire to gather all life to a single location to merge with the Lifestream and travel with Omega. Grimoire located a Cetran tablet in a cave in the mountains near Mt. Nibel describing the being known as Chaos. Together with his assistant Lucrecia Crescent, he traveled to the cave described on the tablet, located closeby. The two discovered a stagnated, crystallized piece of materia, dubbed Protomateria and Chaos-infused mako. As the research continued, more hypotheses regarding the nature of Chaos and Omega were raised. Upon testing the Protomateria, in hopes of better understanding its possible role, the machine violently exploded, killing Grimoire as he protected Lucrecia from the blast. Lucrecia blamed herself for the incident, never forgiving herself.

Vincent progressed through the ranks of Shinra's security division, eventually being tasked with protecting Lucrecia. Still distraught at Grimoire's death, she tried to remain distanced from Vincent, not telling him of her role in his father's death. The two began to grow closer, falling for each other. One day, reporting to his usual assignment at Lucrecia's lab, he caught site of his father's file on her computer, cornering her about its presence. Lucrecia told him everything; unable to bear the sight of Vincent lest she be consumed by her own grief, she froze Vincent out, instead starting a relationship with Professor Hojo, head of Shinra's Science Research Division. She eventually became pregnant with his child. Vincent chose to let her go, believing it would make her happy.

Hojo's research into Jenova cells eventually lead him to pressure Lucrecia to allow their unborn child to take on Jenova cells under Jenova Project S. Upon hearing of this, Vincent confronted Hojo and Lucrecia; the two coldly rebuffed his concerns, choosing to continue the project. The further along the pregnancy went, the sicker Lucrecia became. Finally, Vincent confronted Hojo in the Shinra lab about his concerns for her health. He asserted that humans should not be involved in the experiment, least of all Lucrecia. In a fit of rage, Hojo shot Vincent in the chest. He would later experiment on his body in an attempt to increase human endurance and induce transformations. Though the experiments did improve his body's endurance, Vincent remained catatonic. Deemed a failure, Hojo abandoned the man. Lucrecia arrived shortly later, taking Vincent's dying body back to her lab. There, she infused his body with Chaos-tainted mako and and the Protomateria, desperate to save the man's life.

The operation saved Vincent's life, his body being strong enough to house Chaos, thanks in part to Hojo's experiments. At first feral and destructive, the activated Protomateria subdued Vincent. Now the vessel of Chaos, Vincent's abilities were massively increased. He awoke in the lab some time later in a transformed state, terrified by the monster he had become. Holding himself responsible for the birth of Sephiroth, he locked himself in a coffin in the Shinra mansion basement as punishment for his perceived sins. During this time, Hojo left Lucrecia following Sephiroth's birth and she attempted suicide. Due to the Jenova cells in her body, she survived and left for the cave that Chaos was found in, remaining comatose and encased in mako.

30 years later, Vincent was awoken by Cloud and his group of friends. Being told that he could get revenge on Hojo for what was done to him, Vincent went with Cloud's party and eventually assisted the ex-SOLDIER in defeating Sephiroth. In the years following, Vincent would become distant from his friends; collecting information and consulting when needed. During the ordeal with the Remnants of Sephiroth, Vincent aided the remaining Turks and assisted in the battle with Bahamut SIN.

A year later, Vincent was again called to action to fight the forces of an organization called Deepground. Due to the Protomateria inside of him, he was hunted by the organization (led by a computerized version of Professor Hojo), as they required Chaos to awaken the the WEAPON that his father theorized existed: Omega. Along the way, Vincent enlisted the help of a defeated technopathic Tsviet, Shelke Rui who eventually defected from the organization permanently. With her help, he was able to finally contain Chaos and defeat Hojo and Omega.

In the years following Omega's destruction, Vincent remained closer with his friends. Without the threat of planetary destruction looming overhead, Vincent had settled down, taking in Shelke as his ward. Still working part time for the newly rebuilt Shinra Corporation (now dedicated to rehabilitating the planet), he was soon called back to action to investigate strange seismological activity around Edge, near the ruins of Midgar.