Title: Cock It Back
Summary: One of my takes on how finding Vincent could have gone...
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. ...Except disturbing thoughts that I might make into a non-selling book one day.
Warnings: Oh, God... Uhh... Very disturbing imagery, swears, gore, blood, death... Obviously, this does not follow canon. Brace yourselves if you plan on reading this. Seriously. Squeamish people should turn back.
If there was one thing Cid Highwind had never compared his life to, it would have to be a horror movie. He lived a simple life with a complicated career, numbers and mechanics always swirling in his mind while he spend his quiet, swear-laded days in a sunny town. He had followed the spiky-haired kid over the mountains to some depressing shithole where everyone seemed to be in a trace. And, sure, going into the dilapidated mansion was probably a stupid move that any horror-flick follower would have known better than to do. But damn, there was no way that he could have known that they were expecting to find a room full of coffins in the fucking basement.
It was just too damn absurd to even think about. It was even more ridiculous with the kid whose hair looked like a chocobo's ass walked right over and knocked on one of the coffins as if a corpse was pop right out. "Hello? Are you awake?" the soft-spoken blonde asked, making the pilot wonder if he had been dropped on his head as an infant. Coffins are inanimate objects and didn't sleep. Now, if the kid were fucking talking to a goddamn corpse in the fucking box of death, that would be a whole different story...because he would surely not be traveling around with fucking crazies that like to speak to corpses.
"Go away," a dark voice hissed from the coffin, making the pilot tighten his grip on his spear.
Great, the leader of this insane group of strangers on an insane quest to stop an insane man from killing everyone was talking to a corpse in a coffin...in a basement...of a rundown mansion...and the corpse was talking back. What the fuck had he gotten himself into?
"I brought a friend," the blonde leader said, his tone wavering between a suggestion and a statement.
"...Go away," the voice replied again and if Cid were any other man he would have shivered at the dark and deep tone of the corpse.
"The fuck is goin' on, kid?" Cid snapped as his bright blue eyes looked around the dark room. There was nothing that he could set his eyes on to help calm his nerves; everything was damned depressing in a room full of corpses and the little punk that tried to steal his plane was apparently trying to pull one of the corpses from a goddamn coffin. Could his day get any weirder?
"...Vincent won't come out..." the other blonde replied while the rest of the group of crazy warriors waited outside of the room. The reply made the pilot pause as he could practically hear a voice in his head say "Don't you mean he won't come out of the closet?" He could practically swear that this was some sort of hazing ritual and that the fucking moogle was going to pop out of the coffin with a goddamn flourish or glitter and a shout of "Got ya!" Instead, the top of the coffin rattled ominously before slowly lifting off of the base. Dust that had not been moved in a long time shifted with the movement of the lid of the coffin, lazily falling to the floor and making the pilot wonder if there was still time for him to run out of the goddamn mansion with his sanity intact. Two red orbs stared out from the darkness and Cid Highwind could have sworn that if he were any less of a man he would have shat his pants before running out of the room while screaming girlishly.
"...Who are you?" the deep voice hissed, sounding much darker with the lid cracked open. Although he could not seen anything but the glowing eyes that glared at him from inside the dark coffin, Cid was already preferring the lid shut so he could not see the twin red orbs staring in his direction. He wondered if it would be tasteless to lift his leg and stomp the lid shut. The blonde kid standing next to him would probably just blink stupidly and wonder what to do next. The talking corpse, however, was a different thing all together.
Long, golden talons peeked out from underneath the heavy lid of the coffin before curling around the edge and digging into the wood as the lid lifted higher. Whatever the fuck had happened to this guy made the pilot wince. It was not every day that someone was found in a goddamn coffin room with red eyes and golden fucking claws for hands. How the fuck was the spiky-haired kid finding these whack-jobs? The lid suddenly clattered to the ground and Cid clutched his spear to his chest like he was a teenage girl trying to protect her virginity from a lecher. Red eyes stared into the pilots as the figure awkwardly rose to his feet, bone cracking in the stuffy silence as the corpse rose to his full height.
Goddamn, the fucker sure was tall...and looked like a downright mess.
From what Cid could make out in the darkness, the guy was dressed like a fucking vampire superhero of sorts...if superheroes suddenly turned into depressing looking goddamn weirdoes, that is. The guy was showing about as much skin as the young, ninja, pain in the ass actually bothered to cover up.
"What do you want?" the tall corpse said as he continued to stare at the blonde pilot in the room, completely ignoring the others in the room.
For a moment, Cid could not think of anything to say in response. What did he want? To get the fuck out of there, to stop ShinRa from stealing all of his goddamn planes, to know what the hell happened to that wackadoodle, to go back to Rocket Town and build something, to light a goddamn smoke without worrying that the fucking building would go up in smoke...
"Ain't want nothin' ya can give me," the blonde replied as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, wanting nothing more than for the creepy corpse to turn his spooky fucking eyes somewhere else. A deep chuckle echoed throughout the room before a metallic click reached Cid's ears. The pilot could tell that there was something off with the lanky man when he heard the tell-tale sound of leather creaking. Narrowing his eyes, the pilot tried to see through the darkness to determine that the guy had not just done what he thought he did. The click sounded a lot like what he remembered back when he was in training with ShinRa; while he tried to work on his schematics for his rockets, some little punk cadet thought that it would be hilarious to pull an unloaded gun on him and pretend that he was going to blow his brains all over his work. The kid ended up in the infirmary and the pilot had been reprimanded for it, but he was certain that while he would never forget the sound of a gun being cocked back, the kid would never forget what it was like to fly down two flights of stairs and tumble down another three.
"You are very different from the others," the deep voice resounded through the room as he kept his glowing eyes focused on the blonde man. Cid was certain that the crazed fruit loop was pointing a gun at him. He could not see it, but he knew that there was one aimed at him. And the corpse had to be the one holding it. "Pure, untainted..." The pilot froze as he heard metal clack against the ground while the eyes shifted through the darkness.
"Vincent," Cloud said calmly as he pulled out his large sword. "Put down the gun."
"Your reason for fighting ShinRa and Sephiroth is different than the others," the coffin-dweller continued as if Cloud had not even spoken.
"I just want my baby back," the pilot said as he pointed his lance in the direction of the glowing orbs. "They ain't takin' any more of my designs and airships."
A deep hum came from the gun-wielding lunatic as the eyes moved closer to the blonde pilot, making him wonder if the guy was going to fucking put down the damned gun of or they were going to have a go in the dark. "You are better than this," Vincent said as he continued to step even closer to the blonde, letting the man see him more clearly. His leather outfits and red cloak were free of dust and aging, making Cid wonder just how long he had been lying in a goddamn coffin. His hair was matted in a tangled mess that ran past his shoulders, giving the pilot the impression that the corpse simply did not care about how he came across to others. "You cannot hope to defeat Sephiroth when your leader is not sure of whom he is. He is tainted..."
"So fuckin' join us," Cid offered, not feeling like he was facing death. All right, there was a chance that the crazy guy was going to put one in his face but it did not leave him feeling panicky now that he knew what the guy looked like. "Ya could help out instead of sitting underground an' waitin' for the world to come crashin' 'round yer head."
"Goodbye, friend of Cloud," the dark man said as he stepped even closer, pressing the muzzle of his gun against the blonde's head. "Your companions will not succeed in their quest to stop Lucrecia's child and it would be much better for you not to deal with the horrors that will plague this world..."
"VINCENT!" Cloud screamed as an explosion sounded in Cid's ears before everything quickly faded away from him, his body crumpling to the ground in a lifeless heap.
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