~Vincent's POV~
Today I'm back in the Forgotten Capitol. It feels so dead, so quiet. Strange. If Aeris was here, she'd be saying that that Planet is screaming out in pain. The trees are glowing dimmer, the lake smells stagnant, there's an annoying ringing in my ears. Something is up, and I'm not going to stand around and wait to see what it is. Psh, I never end up being the last to see what it is. Just ask Tifa, I'm usually the first. I'm not stupid, I was in the Turks after all, almost the top of the science career that Shinra provides.
I walk through the ancient woods, which have always given off a creepy vibe to anyone that hasn't sought solitude, like I once did. Still do sometimes. It casts a spooky, cool blue glow across my face, quite calming if you're practically possessed with a demon that won't ever leave. Aka, it's extremely nice to me, provably wouldn't be to you. But seriously, what is that ringing? A small snap sends a warning signal to my brain, my fingertips already wrapping themselves around the handle of my hand gun. No more sounds follow, but something is tense behind me, the stress of their muscles radiating off them. I close my eyes, my other senses becoming stronger to make up for the loss of sight. Only, you could say I have a sixth sense. It's called Chaos, and it can feel body warmth, hear the strain of muscles and creak of bones, blood flowing through veins and sound waves bouncing off the air that they breathe. The ultimate sense.
My gun clicks as I spin around, aiming at a tall person behind me. A thick black hood shields their face, a matching cloak covering their clothing. I remain steady in my stance, ready for any movement or attempt to kill he might make. Instead he steps forward, slowly and confidently.
"Will you knock the dramatic crap off and just tell me who you are already?" I sigh, frustrated.
"I thought you might've already guessed," their deep, dark voice taunts, the head tipping up just enough for me to see a pair of glowing green blue eyes. My finger squeezes the trigger a millisecond before he expects it, the bullet barely grazing his side. Then he slams me backwards into a tree, his thin katana pressed to my throat and his foul breath filling my nostrils as he puffs a strand of hair from his face.
"Your fighting rusty already, Valentine?"
"You wish," I snarl, shooting him through the knee and leaping up into the branches of the tree above me. Not a preferred shot, the but the best I have after doing nothing but wandering around Gaia for two years. He grimaces and ignores the pain in his joint.
"I told you I would be back. All you humans are such idiots," he shakes his head.
"You're human too," I frown, shooting at him. "Just Mako enhanced."
"Oh, you mean that fantasy birth of yours that uses your beloved Lucrecia?" he sneers. I don't respond, only fight harder at the mention of the young woman's name. She should be living a normal life, planning to retire in a couple years and not having not deal with the pain of her son's actions. But instead she's trapped inside a Mako crystal to live forever, to punish herself for letting Hojo experiment on their unborn child and for letting me down.
"Still got a soft spot for that scientist, eh Valentine?"
"Still got a soft spot for your Mother, eh Sephiroth?" I mock, and he growls, stabbing at me. He just barely misses my throat, instead pinning my shoulder to the tree. Why is it always the gosh darned shoulder?!?! My hand automatically drops my gun and my other semi discreetly fumbles through my pocket for my PHS. My thumb finds the red orange button that calls all of Avalanche and sends an emergency SOS.
"Don't you can ever disrespect Mother!" he roars, slashing at my face, causing a deep cut in my cheek. I groan, forcing myself to use my injured arm to hold my weapon.
"I'll disrespect that alien if I want to," I wince, shooting at him with poor aim, my arm won't stop wobbling. Slick blood drips off my jaw and I swipe it away with the back of my hand, only for more to come back down. He yells out in anger and attacks me again, almost giving me no time to roll out of the way of his next swing, causing his blade to get stuck in the tree trunk.
"Like I said, you're stupid," he sneers, kicking my bleeding shoulder wound. I suck I a sharp breath, attempting to get back up. I twisted my ankle really badly when I feel. Did he poison that thing? I'm dizzy and it burns like fire. "I should just finish you off right now."
"Then why don't you?" I glare up at him.
"Because you could be useful later on."
"For what?"
"A martyr. An example. The pure bliss of torturing you."
"Haven't changed one bit, have you?"
"Did you expect me to?" He smirks. "Now get your weapon and fight like a man, not like a two year old that doesn't know how to hold a weapon yet." Somehow, I get the feeling he's talking about Michael and Kara.
Slightly frustrated and so done with this guy, I switch to my left hand, which is usually not a good idea, but my right is sort of disabled at the moment. Tilting it upward to shoot him, I focus on one point that will certainly end his life. But again, he moves just before I can shoot him and somehow gets a good slash at my leg. Like, to the bone bad. What is that bone called, a femur? I spend too much time around Yuffie... Hey, seeing her about twice a week is way too much, okay? Forget this, I'm firing at random. Pew pew! Oh geeze, what has his stupid poison stuff done to my mind?
"Look at you, the great Vincent Valentine, ready to give up already." Nope, just waiting for backup. Any minute now, guys!
"Yup. So giving up," in reply sarcastically. Dude, what happened to big meanie Sephiroth that wanted to kill me right away? Taking an interest in Mid-evil torture I see.
"I take it you don't know where the black materia is anyway," he shrugs, placing his sword on my throat. Crap... "What do you say, should I go slow and painful or just chop your head off. If I did that then maybe I could hang it in your room for that bartender...."
"I say slow and painful," I say quickly. Hurry up... My PHS buzzes but I ignore it. You wanna chat, we can wait until you get here and save my sorry behind. And it's not like I have any... Materia! I shoot a glance toward my wrist. Yep, the summon is still there. I quickly yell the creature's name and Sephiroth looks at me weird.
"What? I thought I should introduce you to a friend," I say innocently. "His name is Ifrit."
"As in the god?" he raises an eyebrow.
"May..."
A loud, thunderous roar cuts me off and an ogre like beast comes up out of the ground, dirt flying everywhere. I hope he fixes that later, Cloud won't be too happy about that. This is pretty much Aeris's burial site. Back to the ogre god thing. He floats up above the ground maybe five feet, the blue glow of the forest being replaced with the orange light of flames. The monster puffs out a small breath of fire, smoke leaving his large nostrils and then he shoots a huge blast of fire toward Sephy. Should I just call him that from now on?
"Have you forgotten my most important tool?" he holds up that stupid teleportation disc.
"Oh, you mean the trick where you run and hide until you gather the guts to fight us again?" I taunt. "I guess you're taking after the Turks, huh Sephy?"
"Don't call me that, Vinnie," he shoots back, Ifrit disappearing back into the ground, all the burns and rubble gone with him. Gosh darn it, why didn't we level this materia more?!
"Quit yo name callin and get up, Vin!" I hear a voice behind me. Barret! Finally!
"I kinda can't," I cringe down at my leg and swollen ankle, the bone just barely poking out of my skin at an odd angle.
"Then shoot or somethin, I don' know!" he says, firing at Sephiroth.
"Where the heck is my gun?" I wonder out loud.
"Here," The silver haired jerk says, smacking me on the forehead with the butt of the weapon.
"Ow!" I protest, snatching it from his hands. What the heck is going on? It feels like we're a bunch of middle schoolers fighting over nothing.
"Oh that looks pleasant," someone says sarcastically.
"Oh hey, it's a doctor," I tease dryly. This is really painful, so if we could just do the disappearing act already and get on with the show, that'd be great, Sephy. Haha, it never gets old!
"Shut up, moron," Yuffie rolls her eyes. "Here, just take this." She shoves a small object into my hands. I open my closed palm and frown. Some tacky brown pill... Uh...
"What the heck is this?"
"Just swallow it," she scowls at me. I shrug, and against my better judgment, swallow the medication or what ever the heck this is. Aaaaand I'm out like a light. Click!
~|~|~|~|~|~
"Wake up, moron," someone shoves my shoulder.
"Huh?" I sit up, no longer on the forest floor but on a uncomfortable table thing. This is like Hojo's lab all over again.
"I said wake up," Yuffie rolls her eyes. Tifa glares at her and then looks at me with a concerned look in her eyes.
"You okay?"
"Sore," I shrug, glancing down at my bandaged thigh, and once again shoulder, and.... Casted ankle?! What?! Miss little ninja girl seems to read my thoughts.
"Oh yeah, you also snapped your ankle."
"Did you at least fix it before you crammed my foot in there?" I frown.
"No Vince, I just let your bone stuck out if your skin and get infected while I covered it in stuff that you have to open with a saw," she scoffs. "Of course I fixed it!"
"Okay, geeze. Where are we?"
"Under the house," she shrugs.
"What house?"
"My house."
"You have a basement?" I raise an eyebrow.
"Kinda," she shrugs. "This where I took Denzel when he broke his arm last year and the year before when Cloud came home with a gash down the whole front of his body. That was disturbing," she shudders.
"I'm stuck in a freaking cast," I groan, flopping backwards.
"Yup," she smirks at me. "And you have wonderful crutches. Now you look just like Cloud did when he got away from Sephiroth last time!"
"Don't," I roll my eyes. "I look nothing like your retarded husband."
"I heard that!" Cloud calls, jogging down a set of stairs I didn't see before. "Wow Vince. I thought we were besties," he teases.
"Yeah well, I'm grouchy," I say flatly, hobbling around the dirt floor. Why is this floor made of dirt? Yes. And that is why.
"Well let's get you home then," Tifa sighs, ruffling my hair.
"Wait," Cloud stops me.
"What?"
"He wants to know what happened back in the Forgotten City," Yuffie rolls her eyes.
"I was attacked by Sephiroth," I shrug as if it wasn't a big deal. Cue the man tantrum.
"I told you!" He looks at Yuffie. She rolls her eyes.
"Oh boy."
"We've gotta get the kids somewhere where he won't get them and make sure that the hiding place for the staff is sealed and..."
"Cloud," I groan. "You're not migrating your children to the middle of nowhere and the staff is safe. Chillax. This is why nobody tells you things."
"So wait, does this mean we get stuck on the Highwind again?"
"No," Yuffie shakes her head. "I saw that poor thing today. Bunch of rusty metal. Cid didn't try hard enough to save the old rust bomb."
"Where are we supposed to live then?" Cloud whines. He's such a girl sometimes.
"On the ground like normal people," Tifa raises her eyebrows.
"But... But..."
"No. And stop acting like a five year old pageant girl," His wife scolds, her thin arms crossed.
"I'm not!" he stomps his foot.
"Um..."
"Shut up," he grumbles, turning around and going upstairs.
"It's getting kinda late. You two can stay in the guest room upstairs," Yuffie offers.
"I'm fine..." I start, but Tifa cuts me off.
"That would be wonderful, thanks so much Yuffie."
"Eh, I don't care," she shrugs. "As long as you don't expect me to make you breakfast in the morning."
"I don't expect you to nor do I want you to," I state and Tifa hits my arm. What?! She sucks!
"Thank goodness," she gives a sigh if relief and begins climbing the stairs. Hen she pauses an turns around.
"But... Since we are your amazing hosts, why doesn't Mr. Chef Dude make us breakfast tomorrow morning?"
"Mr. Chef Dude?" I raise an eyebrow.
"Yep, I'm volunteering him," Tifa nods, walking past me.
"Hey! You can't do that!" I protest, following slowly.
"I just did."
"You suck," I mutter, having to figure out my own way of crawling up the stairs and then go up another staircase before I make it to the guest room.
"Oh sorry, I forgot about you," Tifa laughs, taking my crutches and setting hem against the wall. Wow, I really feel the love, Teef.
"So..."
"Have any idea why Barret is sleeping on their couch?"
"Didn't see him."
"Hmm," she hums, sitting next to me on the edge of the bed. "So he's really back, huh?"
"Mhmm."
"Sucks. I guess we begin the wild goose chase tomorrow then."
"You know Yuffie won't give up her job until it's absolutely necessary," I roll my eyes, laying onto my back tiredly. My shoulder aches so badly right now.
"But about the whole airship thing..."
"There's always the Shera."
"I know but..."
"What is with you people and buts?"
"Um..."
"Not that kind of butt, retard," I scoff at her giggles.
"What? I can't read your mind, okay? I'm sorry."
"How dare you not be able to read my mind! I'm ashamed of you!" I tease, mock shock on my face.
"Shh! Denzel is right next door trying to sleep!" She covers my mouth. I lick her palm and she pulls away, wiping her hand on my shirt.
"What do you wanna do?" I ask, bored out of my mind.
"Sleep."
"But I just slept for a really long time," I complain, eyeing the clock that tells me that it's eleven. How?! Why do the days fly by so quickly?!
"But I didn't," she yawns, laying on top of my chest sleepily. I randomly push the shorter strands of her hair from her eyes.
"Did anybody ever tell you that you're beautiful?"
"Many," she grins, leaning into my hand.
"Oh, so it's not so special anymore?" I pout.
"Of course it is, especially when it comes from you."
"Aw, you're so sweet!" I tease, giving her a huge grin that hurts my chapped lips. Stupid lip cuts...
"I know," she smirks, kissing my cheek. "Your face is so soft, it's not fair."
"Your hair is so long, it's just special."
"Wow. That was amazing."
"I know, right?"
"You're awful," she laughs, pecking my lips before beginning to stand.
"Come back here!" I pull her back down. "You can't get away with that!"
"Away with what?" She asks innocently and I push the back of her head forward, our lips locking.
"Someone's gonna walk in," she mumbles.
"Shh," I hush her.
"Vince..."
"Mm."
"Can you two please... Oh." Denzel freezes in our open doorway. Ugh! What the... How?! Who what when where why?!?!?!
"Ha! I told you!" Tifa jumps up and points a finger in my face. "I can tell the future! I can tell the future!"
"Fine. What'll happen in the next hour?" I yawn.
"Hmm..."
And that's when fire begins to fall from the sky and the whole house begins to rumble.
WE'RE SLOWLY LEAVING THE BORING LOVE LIFE OF THE STRIFES! YAY! UNLESS YOU DON'T THINK IT'S BORING, IN WHICH CASE I LOVE YOU, AND IF YOU DO, THAT'S ALRIGHT. I LOVE YOU TOO. 1.2K ON HE FIRST BOOK?!?! YAY!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW!!!
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