Vincent needed solitude for a private conversation. Reeve's balcony wouldn't do; he didn't want Reeve, even unintentionally, overhearing. Anything he could reach by shadow was also out of the question, being accessible to Nero.
He chose a catwalk on the east side of a water tower at the edge of town, and found an angle that cast as little shadow as possible. Not that Nero was likely to turn up, after everything they'd said to each other, but better safe than sorry. It wasn't the time, or the right circumstances, for Nero to hear what Vincent was going to say.
Chaos had left him with the ability to take on his form, and that gave him a direct line to Chaos's conscious mind. Prodding him awake took effort; Vincent resorted to a vicious mental jab that would have left permanent damage if Chaos had been mortal, and vulnerable.
He was neither. He hit back.
Vincent staggered, his head striking the wall of the tower behind him. For a moment stars spun before his eyes. "Fuck!"
"Oh it's you," Chaos muttered. "Why do you wake me, mortal?"
"Cut the pretentious crap," Vincent snapped. "You screwed up, Chaos. You screwed up royally."
"Meaning what?"
"Deepground! You barely touched it!"
"Impossible." Chaos gave a haughty toss of his horned head. "I destroyed most of it! You were there!"
"Yes, I was, and thanks for nearly killing me as well, you prick."
"You cannot die. We are bonded. Your strength is bound to mine," said Chaos, with a sour note that suggested he regretted that fact. "What is this talk of failure? Was it not burning as we finished? Were there not corpses strewn like salt in the fields?"
Vincent blinked. "You need to stop reading those florid romance novels. Look, the point is you only got the levels closest to the surface. They weren't important. There are at least a hundred lower levels that weren't even touched. You may have trashed a few labs, and I know people died, but there was more. Much more."
"How do you know this?" Chaos growled. Always one for melodrama, he somehow managed to give off a whiff of brimstone, wings rippling with a sound like distant thunder.
"I have my sources." Not about to mention Nero, Vincent pushed back. "What the hell are you trying to pull? You're a Summon, for gods' sake! You could've gone deeper, destroyed everything! Why didn't you?"
"Are you accusing me of deliberately holding back, mortal?"
Vincent crossed his arms, eyeing Chaos. "Did you?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Chaos huffed. "Did it feel like I held back? Would you prefer I had dragged you with me into the depths of that Shinra-inspired hell? Even you might not have escaped without injury!"
"That never stopped you before."
In the depths of his mind, Chaos loomed like the demon some named him, wings spread, eyes glowing like balefire. "Do not dare to chastise me, human! There are matters you know nothing of!"
"Not buying it. The more I think about it," said Vincent, drawing on what memories of the fight were clear in his mind, "the more I realize you moved people out of your way without killing them...almost like…"
Chaos blasting holes in the ceilings and corridors of Deepground…
Chaos striking with rabid fury, throwing Deepground troops around like broken dolls….
Chaos, flinging a dark, familiar figure into the void…
Into shadow.
And afterward, very soon afterward if memory served, Chaos had pulled up and out, leaving a smoking crater, and one Vincent Valentine senseless on its threshold.
"You were looking for Nero!" It had to be true; it was the only thing that made sense. "Shadows are his element, his craft! You knew tossing him into the void wouldn't kill him."
Vincent reached for Chaos, grabbing the Summon-spirit's arms. "Why? What do you want from him? What the hell are you doing?"
Chaos simply melted from his grasp, appearing again some distance away. "That is not your concern, human."
"It is my concern, damn you! He's my son!"
"Perhaps. Genetically." Chaos shrugged, dismissing Vincent's words. "Spiritually, he is nothing of yours."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Every living creature has its part to play, in the grand scheme of things…"
"This isn't a game!"
"...and his is not yet written." Chaos' wings stirred, ragged, red-black, rising over his shoulders. "I tire of this conversation. Complain as you will, Sable's destiny is not yours to rule."
"What are you talking about…?" Vincent made another grab for Chaos as his form began to fade. "Don't you dare leave me hanging like that!"
Chaos sighed. "Foolish humans…"
He was gone.
Falling back into reality, Vincent sank down on the catwalk, shutting his eyes against the glare of the sun.
"Destiny," he spat, the word bitter on his tongue. "Damned arrogant interfering asshole!"
From the back of his mind, a voice with a smirk in it called out, ou'll thank me one day, Valentine. After all, I saved his life, didn't I…?
He was right, damn him to the hell he'd spawned in.
