Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch82 - Letting You Go

"Is it true?" Vincent asked as calmly as he could manage.

"Is what true?" Hojo asked raising an eyebrow turning his attention at the young Turk.

"That Lucrecia..." Vincent tried to say, before he corrected himself "...that Dr Crescent is to take part to this project?"

Before Hojo had the chance to speak, Lucrecia turned around and faced him "It's true," she said, her voice cold as she approached the table where her husband made his research on.

Vincent's furious expression turned into a confused one. His fists unclenched. Lucrecia stood beside her husband, that cold expression painted on her face as she stood her ground.

"Why are you so surprised?" She asked.

Vincent had lost his words. He'd never think she was capable of doing something so insane. "But using your own child... for an experiment?" Vincent said incredulously, his crimson eyes stared at her, trying to believe it.

Hojo let out a laugh "We're both scientists! We know what we're doing!"

"No! You've no idea what you're doing!" Jocasta burst out "That's why you're making this experiment, to see what happens! You've no idea what would that mean for Lucrecia. How the foreign cells, for which we know nothing about, are gonna affect her body. A body that has not been Mako infused and you can't expect it to be strong enough for-"

"Enough! You two are the last people that have any word in this! Leave us at once!" Hojo cried out at Jocasta and Vincent who were standing side by side across the table.

Vincent let out a sigh as he locked his gaze on the floor for a second, before he raised it back at Lucrecia "But..."

"But what?!" Lucrecia snapped "If you have something to say, say it!"

Vincent hesitated, gritted his teeth for a second, realizing that the woman he'd once fallen for was no longer there. No longer existed. "Are you... are you sure this is what you really want?"

She remained silent for a second as she bit her lip and miserly looked over the floor, before she snapped "Am I sure? Am I sure?! If this only concerns me, then yes! I'm sure!" she shouted.

"Oh..." Vincent remained silent for a second. His head bent over, eyes closed in sadness and disbelief "I just..." he pursed his lips when he realized there was nothing else he could say to change her mind.

"All I did was watch. I didn't even try to stop her.

And then... then..."

He remembered her collapsing down. Clutching on her abdomen and crying out in pain. Experience visions. Visions of the future. Jocasta had told him. When he had dragged her back in his car, on their way out of the Shinra Manor, he had asked what the possible effects would be.

"Vincent, I have no idea what else might happen to her!" Jocasta finally burst out "I- it's... a whole new being. We know nothing about it. Four years of research are not enough. This needs decades to be studied. Heck! For all I know she might even be able to see the future if she actually gets these cells inside of her!"

"That was my sin... and this..."

Vincent remembered the first time he'd transformed. The first time he'd looked down at himself. The first thing that he saw was his hands. Hands that he no longer recognized. Claws and skin that weren't his. He remembered screaming. He remembered watching himself at the mirror and wanting to claw out his own skin. The skin of a monster. He had become a monster and he couldn't admit it. At least, it took him long to admit it, because he knew he deserved it. He had brought his beloved's demise.