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Chapter 7
The Nature of Galian

For all the things Vincent Valentine knows about Galian, there are about a hundred things he doesn't know. Ever since the beast was born in his heart, through cells and nerve endings and half-transformations, he had resented it, somehow blocked it with his mind. There was almost a half mad technique to it - first you imagined the bricks, and then you built a wall. Then you mentally placed that wall between you and your challenger. Vincent had become a pro at this over the years.

It angered Galian that he had to share this body with another. It angered Galian that, most of the time, there was an insane amount of distance between he and who he called VINCENT UNIT. A distance that was peppered with brick walls and barriers.

But Galian is anything but stupid. He knows that bricks have cracks. And if you find the right cracks, you can bust on through the wall like it was paper. He did this over and over again, and in a way became just as practiced at busting through mental barriers as Vincent was at creating them.

For Vincent, being overtaken by Galian was a lot like being possessed. There was this feeling of BEING CONTROLLED, of a voice not just in the back of his mind but echoing throughout his entire being.

For Galian, the taking over of VINCENT UNIT was a little bit like slipping on a pair of gloves that did not fit - (why does he not like us, why can't he use me he has these ugly pale white limbs, they aren't very strong like mine!) - but it was still an act of freedom, because for once he could BREATHE and SEE and FEEL.

Being a beast, Galian had to sleep sometimes. He did an inordinate amount of sleeping when VINCENT UNIT insisted on pushing him back. He had no choice. But sometimes, when the time was right, when VINCENT UNIT had let the brick barriers erode without knowing it, he could leap forward and be free.

But there is one thing VINCENT UNIT does not know about Galian and it is this:

Galian is, intrinsically, a terrified child.
Terrified children don't have long, black six-inch claws on the ends of their fingers. But Galian did, and it was this fact which made him most dangerous.

The terror began when the black stuff began crawling up his back (we are dying, we are dying and he's doing nothing to stop it)
But after a time, terror does something strange to a locked-up beast. It makes him crazy. Now when he broke free of the barriers, a whiteness overtook his consciousness and a cold, calculated hate for his captor, for VINCENT UNIT was incrypted into his soul. It had much to do with being contaminated, but mostly it was a feral, dark instinct, one that Galian could not control. One that this sickness had unlocked from deep within him.

In a strange way he had a crippled, ugly love for his biological body, but at the same time there was this insane undercurrent of pure, untethered rage that needed an outlet.
In a way, Galian always wanted what Vincent did, because without one there could not be the other.
They were joined at the the mind, yet disjointed from each other.
VINCENT UNIT hated the both of them, sometimes with an absolute horrifying strength that confused Galian.

PUNISH HE WANTS TO PUNISH US

And it was this insane, half-formed thought that ran most through his mind.

VINCENT UNIT wanted to die.
GALIAN UNIT would help him.

Regardless of whether or not Galian actually wanted it, by this time his mind was so much not his own that he could not differentiate between GALIAN MIND and VINCENT MIND.

What Vincent-Mind wanted was just as befuddling as what Galian-Mind wanted. For now, the two were together and they clashed horribly, almost as cymbals will do.

But he tried, he tried and he didn't succeed at dying because there was Cid, and Cid took their hand and looked into their eyes and they didn't feel like a monster after that, they felt like what VINCENT UNIT called a HUMAN BEING and for the first time ever, Galian/Vincent didn't want blood or killing, or death.
What Cid did for them was somehow seperate the clashing dual nature. He cleared it up. He set it free.
(He took our hand.)

LOVE was the word VINCENT UNIT used for this feeling. Vincent didn't know this either, but Galian was terrified of it, because it made him feel sick.
(Are we dying because we love him, Vincent? - Galian thought in his strange disjointed way)

He didn't know that LOVE was instrinsically good. LOVE conquers all, even savage beasts like Galian. LOVE can make us feel weak and scared and most of all, sweet, like music is playing right through our hearts. Yes, it scared him. And like all terrified children, Galian fought back against this feeling, not understanding what it was, only knowing it was strong.

Galian was scared, so Galian curled up in the back of Vincent's tired mind and curled his tail around him and crossed his big gigantic claws over his chest, and wondered about this newly discovered LOVE FEELING.

For the first time in a long while, the dual nature of the VINCENT GALIAN MIND was split apart.

Overwhelmed with it all, Galian slept.

Vincent Valentine opened his eyes.