Held at Gunpoint

Vincent/Lucrecia

Summary: I couldn't leave him…not for the company to find and end up torturing him like earlier. We needed solace—but where, when everyone on the entire planet is probably looking for us?

Prologue

The gleaming silver barrel was pointed right in between my eyes before I knew what had happened. Recovering slightly from the fainting spell upstairs, I was half-conscious and clearly confused for the most part.

"The young Turk had to be neutralized." Professor Hojo stated in a cold, remorseless voice.

I'd never seen him like this before. The doctor had never resorted to violence, and had always worked things out in the past without bloodshed—but why…why now?

Sprawled across the floor in his own blood, Vincent lay still. I prayed that I could save him somehow, if he was revivable. I got down on my knees, and held him in my arms. I pressed an ear to his chest.

A faint, but unmistakable heartbeat was still holding on.

"What did you do?" I asked furiously as I turned toward the doctor, still unsure if he would fire or not.

A sickly smile plastered onto his oily face as he twirled the gun skillfully through his fingers. He paced to the chemical cabinet, and opened it with a key as he explained.

"As I've observed, the Turk was getting in the way of our progress reaching the conclusion of the Jenova's Reunion theory…"

He shifted a few empty glass containers of Mako aside. It seemed he was rummaging about for something…

"Frankly, I'm tired of it. Half of our chemicals have gone missing, and so have the syringes. Our experiment has been delayed for five months now—we could've already found the answer within that time."

I couldn't believe my ears! The experiments we were concocting weren't due for another year! This was ridiculous…

The gun went off, creating a hole in the ceiling. The doctor wanted my intent attention.

"Lucrecia dear," his voiced dripped with sarcastic sweetness. "You are to prove your theory of Chaos. To see if it doesn't kill its host and can cope with inhabiting a human body."

Hojo placed chemicals on the operating table, along with a few alcohol swabs and found syringes. I refused to do this to Vincent…after all I'd done…Taking away his father, and going on with the project even though he pleaded me to stop for my health and well-being.

"You are to inject the Jenova cells into Valentine, and place him into the large tube with the essence of Mako. Am I clear?"

I nodded. Tears falling from my eyes and mixing with Vincent's blood, I carefully hoisted him onto the operating table, and began to prepare.

Elastic white gloves covered my hands, and a facial mask to prevent unwanted bacteria, covered my mouth and nose. I turned on the dim light and shined it on his body. My hands shaking with horror and anger picked up the needle and dunked it into the chemicals.

This was it.

I stared at the shiny silver point, my guilt welling up inside me like a balloon. Shoot me. I pleaded silently to myself. I didn't want to do this…I'd already caused Vincent enough pain.

Hojo's revolver barrel stuck into the back of my head. The cold steel sent shivers up my spine.

Even though it was a gruesome task that was forced upon me, I simply stuck the needle into one of Vincent's large arteries. If I even slipped or injected in a wrong site, the result could be fatal…

Sweat dripped from my forehead as the injections continued…before I knew it, an hour had slipped away. The chemicals raced through Vincent's veins, pulsating mixed colors of blue and green as they danced through his system.

There was one more vein to go.

Down to my last wipe, I swiftly cleaned the syringe and reloaded the toxic liquid. Thoughts raced through my head as my insides screamed not to carry out the deed.

I could hear Professor Hojo's intake of breath before I decided to end it. I quickly smashed the tiny container I was holding and shoved all the glass pieces onto the floor. Hojo became furious. He jumped out of his seat and shoved me to the ground.

"Why couldn't you do what I said? All of your pain could've been avoided…"

My arm went numb as I landed on it. I groaned, noticing that it was probably bruised badly. Hojo raised the gun once more and cocked it.

"I won't kill you, Lucrecia." Hojo said, playfully. "You've been too much of an asset to let go. Yet, it seems the cards for your Turk friend have been dealt. Since all of the Jenova cells aren't fully injected, no effect will happen, which is useless…"

"NO!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as the gun went off and smoke filled the air. I began to sob heavily…

Vincent was gone. I wouldn't be able to make up for the things I did to him…what was I going to do? Suddenly, I heard the professor choking.

Looking up through the bleary eyes, I saw him drop to the floor. His neck was severely out of proportion, and a few bones were sticking out through the skin. Trickles of blood began to seep through his flesh onto the floor.

I looked up to find Vincent standing a few feet in front of me. His beautiful crimson eyes were replaced with eerily glowing butterscotch ones that seemed to pierce directly into my soul. I froze, not knowing what to do.

So my theory was proved. Chaos could thrive in a human being without damaging its host. The only sign of aggression was when Hojo's neck snapped. It didn't matter if a full amount of cells were injected.

I stood up shakily, not knowing what to expect next. Would the inner demon in Vincent kill me as well? I became so absorbed in his eyes, that I didn't notice him staggering towards me.

After a sigh, he fell into my arms.

"Lucrecia…" he moaned.

Tears once again fell down my cheeks as I embraced Vincent tightly. "I'm sorry…" I whispered apologetically into his soft black hair. "I'm sorry…"

I don't know how long we stayed like that—embracing each other and not letting go. The moment was shattered when I realized he needed Mako to stop the skin from disintegration. I hoisted him up and supported him on my shoulder.

We walked to the next room where I quickly set him down in a chair and prepared a chamber. I led him into it, careful that he didn't fall.

"Will you be ok?" I asked gently, before pressing the switch.

Vincent nodded sleepily as he shut his eyes before the Mako went over his head. Now that Vincent was getting some rest, I began to type a file on the case of Hojo. Experiment malfunctions and deadly mutations came into mind as the file unfolded…

It's been awhile since I've updated...but yeah...I'm rewriting this! I looked at it one day and I was like "I can do a LOT better than that." For all of the readers who read the previous chapters, I hope you can see that the prologue is a bit similiar to them.

I also challenged myself. From now on, I'll attempt to make each chapter about a thousand words or more--sound good? Cool beans XD!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of these characters. They belong to the company of Square-Enix; the HUGE company in Japan that makes the popular video game franchise with giant swords and the spiky-haired, demon/gunslinging, summoning maiden heroes we all love.