Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch28 - The Path to Destruction

“My most valuable experiment… make sure she’s tied… with these…

…’cause if she isn’t, she’ll be able to escape! And I wouldn’t want that to happen again!” Hojo’s voice came ringing back in her mind and for a second, she thought that it was just another illusion of her nightmares.

But no. His voice was there even when she gained her senses. Even when she opened her eyes and felt metal around her wrists. Piercing harshly her skin. The more she tried to set her hands free, the more pressure these metallic cuffs gave her. She realized she was standing on her knees, with her feet tied together by the same kind of cuffs.

Jocasta blinked a few times to clear her sight and she realized she was in a cave. A cavern filled with green and blue Mako crystals that brought enough light to see. She turned around at the sound of that laughter. That laughter that had been haunting her for thirty years continuously. And then she saw him. The man who’d brought all that torment to her. All these endless years of a miserable life. A life that she would never be able to get rid of.

“Hojo,” she snarled. Her hands tried to move. To break the hard metal of her cuffs and slit his throat with her daggers that were still in her sleeves and her Sais that were still around her belt. She wanted to feel the heat of his blood as it’d roll down her porcelain-white skin.

Hojo looked older than she remembered. He must’ve been in his sixties now, and he hadn’t aged quite well. His circular glasses were placed neatly on top of the bridge of his nose. He looked down at her with that smirk that made her want to grab her daggers and tear it off of that face of his. He was wearing a blue shirt and black pants beneath that white lab-coat he always seemed to wear.

“Awake, aren’t we? Earlier than your companion, of course,” Hojo said.

He ceased his laugher as he turned at the laptop that he had settled on a rock in the cave. He chuckled as he typed, and typed and typed. There were a bunch of Shinra’s SOLDIER cadets standing around the cave. One of them, in red armor, was talking with what looked like Shinra’s new President. The other two she recognized them well. Scarlet and Heidegger.

Other companions? She snapped her attention beside her, trying to catch glimpse of the others, but there was no one else there except Vincent, lying unconscious on the soil beside her, with his hands and feet tied up like hers.

She crawled towards him. Her tied hands immediately reached for his, testing the beat on his wrist. She let out a breath of relief as she felt a small pulse that indicated a normal heartbeat. Then she turned her head again at Hojo’s laughing.

“Oh, how touching…” Hojo turned his attention away from the laptop and settled the glasses further up his nose. “…is that your new- No… wait a minute,” He leaned down, taking a better look on the mysterious man in the red cloak. His eyes widened for a mere second, before his lips curled up in another smirk “Vincent Valentine,” he laughed “Never thought he’d survive after what I did to him…” his hand found his chin “…or maybe he did survive because of what I did to him…Yes! That’s how you survived!” he turned at Jocasta.

Jocasta could only grit her teeth and stare hatefully at the man who had ruined so many people’s lives. She stood between Vincent and Hojo, trying to keep Vincent out of Hojo’s sight in an attempt to protect him from the madman.

Hojo laughed at her “Do not worry, my dear. I got what I wanted!” Hojo turned at the SOLDIER cadets that had just entered the cavern.