Author's Note: This is not a Cloud-bashing fic. I like Cloud and I would never want to see this happen. This is simply something that came to me and, while an unlikely scenario, doesn't seem completely impossible.
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. It all belongs to Square Enix.
Lying on the ground at the edge of the lake, Vincent stared at the thin rivulets of blood on his gauntlet. At the very least, it gave him a direction in which to avert his eyes from Tifa, back to and knee deep in murky lake water. Her white tank top was sodden with crimson and she was hunched as though in pain. Vincent knew that the physical toll that last battle had taken on her was nothing compared the emotional one. The green Restore Materia glowed once again as Tifa held it over the unmoving body of Cloud, which was face down in the water. Vincent didn't know why she bothered; the air bubbles had stopped rising a long time ago.
The lake's surface was as grey as the mood that pervaded, reflecting the ominously clouded sky. The grey was streaked and tainted with a sickening shade of pinkish red.
Vincent couldn't look at that either.
Having been completely berserk and at Chaos' mercy, Vincent could barely recall the battle. Judging by his physical state, beaten and bleeding from too many places to identify, it had been an uphill struggle from the time he'd realized he had to transform up until the hoard of angry monsters had been killed.
But Chaos remained unsatisfied.
Cloud had been hurt in the fray and Tifa was tending to him. The love Tifa had for Cloud sickened Vincent; he would admit to that. Cloud's heart still remained firmly with Aeris and yet Tifa continued to fawn over the blond like he was the last man standing.
Now that he thought of it, he'd never liked Cloud. It was Cloud who had awoken him, thrust him back into the world to have to face his sins without coma's protective shell. It was Cloud who had thrown him into these new depths of anguish as he had to sit idly by and watch as Tifa practically threw her life away for the idiot, watch as she suffered by Cloud's side. She was so loyal to him and all he could think about was the flower girl, who had to be little more than a pile of decay by now.
Perhaps it disgusted him so much because Tifa's behaviour reminded him so much his past self. All he'd wanted was to love Lucrecia, but she'd rather suffer by the side of a mad scientist.
Chaos had fed off those thoughts and right now, Vincent would give anything to stop the demon's self satisfied laughter in his head.
I never wanted it to come to this.
Your subconscious told me otherwise.
Apparently, Vincent hadn't known just how deeply and truly he despised Cloud.
Finally, he forced himself to look at Tifa. She was positively agonizing over the ex-SOLDIER.
He closed his eyes. Chaos had made him a hypocrite; he'd loathed Cloud for hurting Tifa and now that sin stained his own hands.