Fairy Tales
Chapter Twelve: A Hero
Veld woke up with a start. He'd had a normal dream this time, something from when he was younger. A memory, maybe, but mostly... he needed to talk to Vincent. He'd tried to numb himself from what he saw... but being there, so up close to the situation... It was no wonder he'd become what he saw now. He'd want to kill the parts of himself that had clouded his judgment too.
For even if Iffy had gone off and married someone else, he didn't regret a single minute with her. Or anyone that had mattered. A kid like him didn't have much for family, but he'd gotten one anyway. Dysfunctional as hell.
He wanted... Veld wanted Vincent to know he hadn't meant it. Because kids were stupid and sometimes said things they didn't mean. And if he still hated him anyway? At least he'd said it.
Too many skeletons in closets. He couldn't go chasing fireflies with that in his mind.
Funny Veld should think about closets. The door swung open slowly. Two eyes glowed softly out at him, though the figure looked pale at the shoulders, the hands were dark… black, as though the person had on gloves with black blades on the back.
He'd only seen one person using those as of late. Well, Veld should have expected it.
Silent, though Tseng never had made a sound. Reno used to yelp and leap in the air when the Wutain snuck up on him. "You left…" Tseng said, barely above a whisper.
"It was my time, kid." Firearm under pillow? Check. Distance between where he stood and the pillow? Negligible.
"No, you left us for her", Tseng hissed. "You loved her more than us… Reno turned against me, Lucrecia told me, told me everyone would leave…" He swayed a bit as he talked, the strange long fingered hands waving before his body.
Veld narrowed his eyes. "You do realize it was her experiment that killed me, right? What sort of bullshit have you been listening to?" He'd gotten a little closer to the gun. Now it was a very negligible distance. He still wanted to maybe talk him out of it... but he had to remind himself it was simply a puppet of Tseng. Tseng himself was dead. And he hadn't gotten a second chance.
"We were supposed to all go together…" Tseng smiled then, white teeth showing up in the darkness. "That's why she sent me to collect them. You were supposed to wait for us." He narrowed his mako- no heartless eyes. "But no, you followed the monster and that crazy woman."
He was looking distinctly less human. "You have to make your own way in life, kid. Then people will follow you. You can't make them." Failure, failure, failure.
"But did you?" For a second it was Tseng again, in that question. The look of someone that followed him politely on missions, asking questions. "You can make people do anything… you can, you just have to know how. Lucrecia taught me that."
"Do you know even half of the things she--" well screw this. He quickly grabbed the gun and made to run out of the room. Not Tseng. Survive, Veld, survive.
Tseng was fast damn fast. He collided with Veld at the door, it came open with a loud sound and the two rolled on the floor. Grabbing at the other man's hands, Veld realized that Tseng wasn't wearing black gloves any longer… his hands were black.
And he was strong. Veld's arms shook with the effort of pushing Tseng up, trying to pitch him off. Then there was a flash of gold. Tseng yelped loudly and was gone, red fluttered across Veld's face. Looking up, he saw Vincent. The other man had kicked Tseng, blackish blood pooled at the tip of one of his gold boots. He stood over Veld for a moment before moving foreword.
Vincent rocked back and forth, like a large cat, the gold claw fanned out.
"Missing your light, monster?" Tseng asked.
Vincent froze for a moment and then there was a loud scream from Aeris' room.
Veld flipped up to his feet, cursing. "I got, Se." Veld didn't want to let something happen to Aeris, not just because she was Ifalna's.
From behind Tseng the door was flung open. For the first time, Veld saw Kuja. He blinked, shocked at the voice coming from the feminine frame. "Hold, STILL, woman."
"I will not! Let me go!" Aeris grabbed at his hair, yanking down and bit at his arms.
Kuja yelped, throwing her roughly into the wall with a curse. He lifted his hand to slap her and a loud shot ripped through the air. Tseng ducked, Turk instincts till intact, Aeris covered her head and Kuja staggered backwards, covering his shoulder. He glared, but before he could grab at Aeris again, Vincent was across the room.
He'd always used his long legs to his every advantage in a fight, Vincent's reach was impressive given his height and his unusual speed wasn't something to take lightly. Kuja didn't bother trying to fight back instead he dodged, proving to have impressive agility of his own. The addition of his tail gave the sorceress the appearance of a primate, albeit a very pretty one.
Vincent's control was amazing, though he missed Kuja with every kick he was able to stop his foot before connecting with any of the doors or walls. Instead he flipped after the sorceress, who always danced just beyond reach. "TSENG!" Kuja ordered. "It's Ifalna!"
Tseng's head snapped around to Aeris, who had yet to get up off the floor. He lunged at her.
Before Veld could do anything, two heartless leapt out at him, grabbing his arms. He snarled, bringing his foot down on one of the heartless' and ripped his arm with the gun free. Jabbing the weapon into the heartless' gut, Veld fired, making the creature explode in green orbs.
The black creatures flooded down the stairs from the roof and suddenly another shot rang out. Cid was in the hallway, two guns smoking in his hands. "Get Aeris, I'll cover."
Tseng was faster than Veld, ignoring the shots from both Veld and Cid he swooped across the room and wrapped his arms around Aeris' waist, hauling her backwards. Veld followed, trusting Cid to keep the heartless away from him while he followed Vincent, Kuja, and Tseng to the roof.
What greeted Veld on the roof was pretty much at the top of his list of unwelcome things to deal with. A silver…
…it was a dragon. Great.
Without a word, Kuja pointed to Vincent, the dragon responded, snapping its jaws out at the dark man. Vincent leapt out of the way, but the creature's mouth caught his cape, flinging him into the air.
Green orbs splattered about his shoulder and looking behind him, Veld saw Cid. He'd replaced one of his guns, though he'd fired… a sword?
Veld didn't have time to question how a gun was a sword; he had Vincent on one end and Aeris on the other. One fending off Tseng and the other was staring down the belly of the beast in a far less than figuratively speaking way.
"Veld!" Cid yelled, throwing one of his handguns over and spinning, cutting a path through the heartless. He actually managed to push his glasses up in the process, looking for all the world, for just a second, like he was simply reading a book.
This man was a different knight than Vincent, yes, Veld was certain he was not a hero, he was a knight. Funny, how he hadn't met any heroes yet…
…why did he think like this at the WORST times?
There was a roar then, the roof itself shook as the dragon's claws ripped through Vincent's cape and dug up the tar and matting of the building. It swung its massive tail around, pitching Vincent to the ground before lunging with its jaws at his chest. Vincent lifted his arms then, catching the top jaw in his claw and the bottom with his human hand, both he and the dragon locked then, growling at each other.
The heartless exploded again, next to him and Veld made a choice. He lifted his weapons and fired at the dragon, clipping its head four times before finally shooting out its eye.
The dragon bellowed, tossing its head from side to side, clawing at its face. It whirled to face Veld for a moment, blinking the remaining eye in anger.
Vincent looked over his shoulder then, what could have been a smile was on his face before he leapt up again. He raked his claw across the dragon's neck, leaving deep red lines in the creature's silver flesh. He landed on the dragon's shoulders, whipping out another gun and firing into the dragon's skull. It flailed again, and both it and Vincent pitched off the roof.
Veld beat down the part of him that was excited to have helped Vincent down and went after Tseng. Tseng, however, seemed to have his hands rather full with Aeris, who had no compunctions with the "I have no fighting method but flailing and biting" school of thought. Her teeth clamped down on his forearm, and he yelped, backhanding her and pitching her to the ground.
Veld's rush forward was halted, however, when Kuja landed in front of him. "Your guardian cannot help you now, Seeker."
"He'll be around." Veld responded before firing.
The sorceress staggered, cupping his hand over his chest and snarling. "Well I see where you get this from." He pointed a hand at Veld then, "but are you like him in body?" The glow started around his wrist, creeping to his palm.
Before he fired however, Cid slashed down, breaking Kuja's concentration. He leapt back, firing at the knight, but Cid used his blade as a shield of shorts and was barely pushed back by the blow.
"I've got him, you get Aeris." Cid responded with a smile. No, he wasn't Vincent's sort of knight at all.
Veld nodded once in thanks before turning to where Tseng was trying to drag a now battered Aeris from the roof. The side of her face was red from where he'd hit her, but that didn't seem to bother her much as she continued to claw at his head, yanking on his hair.
Veld lifted his guns again, firing twice. Tseng released Aeris then, glaring through heartless eyes. "Protecting her from your own children?!" This wasn't Tseng, it was not.
Then there was a scream, something far less than human, anguished enough to make everyone on the roof stop and turn.
The laughter was more what made them all walk to the edge of the roof. High then low then rattling about, Veld knew without looking that Vincent had transformed and upon looking he wished that he hadn't.
The dragon was backed up into the alley, its long tail and white wings closed tightly against its body. Its jaw looked slacked and broken, and that had been why it screamed.
"Lords and Aeons…" Kuja swallowed, reminding Veld of his presence.
Before Veld or Cid could do anything, however, the sorceress yelled something and a flash of light blinded Veld. When he blinked his eyes again, Tseng, Aeris and the heartless were gone, Kuja stood next to his dragon, facing whatever the giggling monstrosity Vincent was.
"What are you?" Kuja asked, worry seeped through his voice.
"He he he he he he he …. Gonna play with you, you wanna play?" Oh gods, no, this wasn't a part of Vincent that Veld had seen more than once… bloodlust was not good in a Turk.
He'd been wounded…
"Shit! DOWN!"
…someone ratted them out…
"I fucking said DOWN!"
"Goddamnit! Oh… fuck"
Veld remembered coughing up blood…
"Alright, you fools wanna play…let's play then."
There was a reason that Veld wasn't shocked to see Vincent Valentine fight a dragon. But there were more things in Veld's mind than he thought should be there. Why, for instance, had Vincent snapped that one time? What made him do that? Was that monster always a part of him?
…oh gods.
The monster lumbered forward, and then leapt at Kuja, cackling like a lunatic the whole time. The dragon, slid in front, and though the action saved Kuja, it seemed to know this battle was a lost cause.
This creature didn't fight to kill, it bit down on the dragon's neck, ripping out flesh and clawing, still laughing.
The blast from Kuja pitched the monster into a full flip, saving his dragon from any more assaults.
The monster started morphing again, smoking from Kuja's blast. Neither Kuja or the dragon wanted to move forward, however. Vincent rose to his feet, cape in tatters and panting.
Kuja smiled then, placing a foot forward before looking up the roof and sliding backwards. "Amazing…"
Vincent rocked from side to side, the golden claw splayed out.
"Dear god those guys ran for their fucking lives!"
"…"
"Vincent?"
Back then, Veld didn't know how to tell when Vincent was bluffing. He didn't think anything could stop Vincent at that time; the man was like a force of nature.
But this was now, and Vincent was bluffing. He never postured; it wasn't the way he did anything. He always skipped fighting preliminaries, if someone went to bump chests with him; Vincent was already going for their throat.
Kuja remained standing a fair distance from Vincent, beside his dragon that looked like all it wanted was to fly away. Veld was alone on the rooftop save for Cid. Risking a glance around, Veld saw only green orbs remaining on the rooftop, Aeris, Tseng and the heartless were gone.
He turned to Cid then. "He needs help." People didn't bluff if there wasn't something wrong. And it was a fair distance down... but he was twenty-five again, right? What were a few broken bones, really?
Cid nodded, "fire escape." He rushed to the side of the building, moving very quickly for someone of his age.
They reached the ground and then they could hear Kuja talking.
"So, are you going to do any other little ...tricks?"
Vincent growled.
"No? Maybe I could take you with me then? See what else you do?"
He started walking forward then, but halted, looking over his shoulder at Veld and Cid. "Well, here comes the heroes?"
"No hero here, Kuja, you know that." Cid lifted the ... gun, sword, thing that he had then. "I'd leave now."
It was interesting that they hadn't run into any real heroes yet. Weren't there supposed to be zillions of them running around, just like every other type?
"I'm just having a conversation with Vincent, here. No harm in that, is there?" He asked, tail lashing about and reminding Veld of a pissy cat.
"I'd hate to see what an argument is wherever you came from." Veld replied. Yep, still couldn't keep his mouth shut.
There was a short laugh from Vincent and Kuja's mouth twisted in a smile. "This isn't what you lead me to believe it was, Vincent."
"I think that this is quite enough." Another voice echoed down the hallway and Vincent actually looked startled for half a second. White-blue hair and polished armor came into view and the man spoke again. "You have a nasty habit of taking people when they don't wish to be taken, Kuja."
Another man stepped up next to the armored knight looking one... except he was wearing all black and hid half his face in a manner much like Veld had remembered of the old Wutain soldiers.
He had a feeling the cavalry had arrived.
"Rrrrrr" Came a sound behind the darker of the two men. A dog slid in front of them, snarling at Kuja.
With a delicate snarl, Kuja took a sweeping bow in Vincent's direction. "Looking forward to our next meeting, Vincent." And in a flash of light, he and his dragon were gone.
"Thank you, Cecil." Cid smiled fondly, sliding his weapon to his hip. "I'm afraid that Aeris has…" His face looked guilty, pained.
"Don't worry, I'll get her." Cecil responded without a second thought. He turned his gaze over to Vincent, he opened his mouth but didn't say anything, closing it.
Vincent let out a breath of air and sagged against the wall, panting. Red eyes narrowed for a second at Cecil, but then dismissed him in favor of concentrating on standing on his own.
"It is no small thing, to fight a dragon…" Cecil started. "Would you like help?"
"No." Vincent responded, standing up straighter. Upon second glance, he didn't look very well, long claw marks had ripped through his arms and chest and the cape was in tatters.
Cecil inclined his head for a moment, thinking before he turned to Veld and Cid. "I'm Cecil Harvey, a Paladin. This is my friend, Shadow and his dog Interceptor."
Shadow nodded at them, but said nothing. Veld looked worriedly over at Vincent... he was hurt. He wasn't quite used to seeing that.
They both watched as Vincent made his way slowly to stand behind Veld. Cecil nodded as though he'd figured something out. "Perhaps a rest and a regrouping is in order, would you like to come with us to stop Kuja?" He said this easily, as though fighting a sorceress was the same as going out for sandwiches. "You both look a little worse for wear, no offense meant."
The dog's tongue lolled out and it leaned a bit against Shadow, tail thumping.
Shadow scratched behind the dog's ear. "We will be waiting," he said simply, and started walking off. Veld looked after the man confusedly for a moment before glancing back at Vincent. Behind him? This was certainly an odd change of roles.
Cid thought for a moment. "How about the two of you take a shower, Edea can patch you both up, Cecil and I can retrieve you supplies. Do you only use guns, Veld?" He didn't ask Vincent if the other man needed weapons. After all, it was Vincent Valentine.
Cecil nodded in agreement. "Yes, and, at least get you a new suit, you both cannot be comfortable."
"Black." Vincent responded, he didn't sound injured.
"Black suits then?" Cecil asked. Was he usually this calm when planning a war?
Vincent nodded.
"Right, see you then." Cecil himself turned to follow Shadow.
Cid laughed. "There you go, Veld. Get a good look while you can, you may not see another one." He started after the Paladin.
Veld blinked, nodded, looked around... he felt disoriented now that they weren't directly fighting anything. Aeris was gone, but he was particularly disturbed by what the sorceress had said to Tseng. "She's Ifalna." Did that mean this war would lead him to her? And if so... who was holding her?
The two were standing alone for what felt like entirely too long in the alleyway before Veld turned around. Vincent nodded to him. "Good job, kid." He turned then, seeming to agree to take Cid's advice about a shower.
Edea stood in the doorway, one arm around a child's shoulders and the other keeping the door open for Veld and Vincent.
"You go on ahead first," he said to Vincent, giving Edea a half smile.
Vincent started through the doorway, smooth strides once again. He didn't look behind him or nod. Rest would be a good idea, for both of them. He still had that PDA in his pocket, he still had questions, and now he had… whatever Cecil was. The man that planned wars like he was making toast.