What if things had happened differently?
What if Vincent wasn't shot?
What if the one locked in the basement was Hojo?
Vincent dropped his weapon, stepping back pressing himself against the wall behind him.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
He just wanted to talk.
He should have left the weapon behind...
But then he might have been the one who was dying on the floor, Hojo pulled a weapon first; it was just self defense... Wasn't it?
He'd killed before. Plenty of times during missions. That wasn't the problem.
This wasn't going to look good, a body guard shooting one of the principles he was assigned to protect. He'd be hunted down and killed by his own team.
A female shriek pulled him out of his shock induced train of thought.
Lucrecia!
She'd heard the gun shot.
Lucrecia ran over to the fallen man, kneeling beside him she checked for a pulse.
There was none, no pulse, no breath, no life.
Pooled blood from the floor soaked into the hem blue skirt she wore.
"Help me! Help me get him into the lab!" it wasn't a request, it was an order. Now was not a good time to question.
Working together they successfully carried the limp remains of the now ex-scientist into the research faculty and deposited him on one of the examination tables usually reserved for dissecting specimens.
Lucrecia thoroughly scrubbed her hands then put on some latex gloves before turning on the light above the small table.
Now wasn't a good time to ask questions, but Vincent would be damned if he wasn't curious to know why she seemed to be planning to operate on a corpse... She was a scientist, but her field was in archaeology.
"What are you doing?" The question broke the semi-silence that was being punctuated by the slight clattering of tools and the occasional dripping of blood
"Removing the bullet." She spoke as if this was the most normal thing in the world seemingly recovered from her panic, before Vincent could open his mouth to ask why she answered "I remembered a theory from when I was skimming over his notes" she grunted slightly as she began to extract the piece of metal "It might just save him. If it works it will be a great advance in medicine. If it doesn't... Well he's already dead, what's the worst I could do?" She giggled slightly seeming a tad happier than someone who's husband was lying dead on a table in font of her.
Vincent stepped forward gently grabbing her trembling shoulders "What's wrong?" a worrying tone slipped into his voice
"Nothing. I might be a bit out of it; I took a shot of something to calm me down a little... Okay. I'm fine" She dropped slightly, caught by the Turk before she collapsed completely "I'm just a bit light headed, I'll be fine. Let me finish this."
Vincent let her go to stand on her own, almost immediately she dropped to her knees.
"You need to lie down."
"I don't have much time to do this, there's not much left to do."
"Let me help. Tell me what to do."
"Fine!" Lucrecia submitted to being propped up against the wall nearby
"There isn't much to do just place him in the specimen chamber over there" She indicated the intended vaguely with her hand
"Move me over to the control panel; I need to do this myself." Sighing slightly in defeat at trying to get the woman to rest he followed her instructions. After placing her delicately in the chair in front of the control panel he remained standing behind her to catch her if her balance failed again. Observing as she rapidly typed in commands at a seemingly inhuman rate. As the computer screen filled with command sequence, likewise the tank behind them filled with a substance bearing the tell tale tinted glow of mako. Surrounding the dead man making his skin glow a faint blue green, reminiscent of the Ancient being kept else where in the faculty.
"It's done." The girl stood up in triumph, only to pass out immediately into Vincent's arms. Like the gentle man he was he carried her back to her quarters to rest. Trying to kill the part of his mind that secretly hopped Hojo stayed dead.
'As long as she's happy'
'Screw it, she wasn't happy. She was suffering from that experiment and that bastard didn't even care'
'What she wants is all that matters.'
'That attitude is going to screw you over'
'I thought so'
A/N: Any opinions and/or suggestion for this will be greatly appreciated. Any ideas on what genre this is will also be helpful… Damn I'm such a bloody newb.
I apologize for any poor grammar, spelling, and OOC-ness that may show up.
I blame insomnia, pocky, and Hojo porn. (stop looking at me like that)
...You know, flames make excellent fires for burning Cloud merchandise.
I need feedback if this steaming pile of chocobo crap is to get better.