What the HELL.
Cloud was as shocked by all this as Zack was, but he was too intimidated to even CONSIDER speaking of it to Sephiroth--but as they headed away, he took the raven haired PFC aside and murmured to him in very careful tones, NOT wanting to be overheard.
"ZACK, what the hell is going ON with everybody?! Vergil AND Seph almost just killed each other, Vergil hurt Reno BAD, and I don't know what the hell to make of ANY of it--and SEPHIROTH acts like nothing even HAPPENED! Zack, he left Vergil in a POOL of blood--and--we are supposed to all be friends--Reno's in the HOSPITAL and Zack please tell me what's happening to us all?!"
He was freaking out, just a LITTLE.
"I dunno, Spike. I have no fuckin' idea." Zack was ASTOUNDED by the coldness displayed by their mutual lover just then, a coldness he hadn't seen except for in battle, and that hadn't BEEN a battle. "That was just...insane.."
Sephiroth could hear the two murmuring softly, his eyes going to mere slits as he paused, turning his head back for just a moment. "I SAID, we should be going. Gossiping like little schoolgirls is not GOING, is not getting HOME." His jaw was tight as he caught sight of the fear in his lovers eyes. "Now, come along, we shouldn't tarry long in the streets."
Dante stood up, cradling Vergil to his chest as he walked over to his bike, carefully situating he and Vergil ON it. "I'm gonna get you home, gonna help you as best I can, okay? God, I love you, but sometimes you can just be a stubborn ass." He was worried, worried to DEATH that Vergil might die, and only because he didn't KNOW about their accelerated healing.
Rude paced, the sound of his heartbeat thudding in his ears, the fear and sick dread coming up in nauseating waves of misery.
It still really felt more like a very, VERY bad dream than any sort of even twisted reality. He could not believe what Vergil had done, gods, he had believed the young swordsman had DEFENDED Reno from some mysterious attacker, and when it had come out that VERGIL had been the assailant, Rude had felt the world SWAY before him.
He had broken Reno's fingers, STABBED him, and all for WHAT?! Rude knew Reno, and he knew he did not deserve this--but he also knew of course he had literally pleaded with him to NOT do what he had done. He had SEEN that a bad result would come, though he hadn't REALLY believed Vergil was capable of this DEGREE of psychosis.
FINALLY Reno was settled into his room, having come out of the surgery surprisingly well, but then again he was young, and that helped the situation immensely. It wasn't long before his eyes fluttered open, and though the materia-healed fingers were still quite swollen, at least they'd not had to cast them, as the breaks had been clean. The arm that had been pulled out the socket was in a sling for the time being until the damaged ligaments healed all the way, and it annoyed him to no end because it made it difficult for him to move at ALL. "Fucker didn't need to DO that to prove his point. It's not as if what I told Dante was even all that INSULTING, for Shiva's sake." He tried to push himself into a sitting position, only to gasp in pain when it pulled at the stitches just under the ribs on his left hand side that had sealed the gaping wound closed.
Reno DESPISED not being active, hated it with a passion that very few could understand or match. Rude had seen it, of course, seen how jittery he got during those times when he couldn't be out and about as he'd like. It was not at all pretty, not in the least, and the fact that the monthly had come and he couldn't even put a pad on made him even crankier. "Hate this shit, hope someone just fucking OFFS that bastard.. . fucking hate him."
"He's a sick young man, Reno. I don't even know what to say, he's--he's SICK in the head. I'm gonna talk to Rufus, see about having him committed for involuntary observation in the morning. I found out that he's stabbed three people in the past two weeks, and they are all so afraid of him they will NOT press charges. Apparently he put the fear in them, and they just REFUSE. But this is too much. He has to be stopped-- and if Dante gets pissed I can't help it."
The guy was a danger, a REAL one--and Rude was going to see to it he GOT the help he so clearly needed before someone DIED.
"I can't blame you for the way you FEEL, Red, but I DID ask you practically on fucking bended KNEE to leave them both alone. I'm gonna ask you AGAIN--at least until we get Vergil some help--stay away from them, please? Just humor me, will you?"
"One issue with that Rude. . the old man LIKES the white haired bastard." Reno grunted as they brought his food in, then growled in frustration when he couldn't feed himself due to the fact that both hands were useless, resisting the urge to just DIG his face into the tray to get it in him. It was SUPREMELY irritating to be dealing with this. "I was right though, wasn't I? I told you. ..I fucking TOLD you something was up with him, and I was right."
He just gave another headshake, and sighed. "And yeah, so were you, but at least Dante has some idea of what he's dealing with, and that's a GOOD thing, really, at least in my opinion it is. Vergil's just BAD news all around, he just is, and maybe now Dante will REALIZE that, so he knows what he's dealing with. I don't WANT him to get hurt, and I don't think you really do, either."
"Yeah, I know--but you got to remember, and I feel like I'm preachin' this to a brick wall sometimes, really-- but no matter how BAD a guy Vergil may turn into, or already IS now, no matter how fucking sick in the head he is--Dante LOVES him, he is his lover AND his brother AND his twin, and that's a LOTTA toes to be steppin' on there, Red. You warned him, Dante was okay and Vergil went NUTS. Now LEAVE it, okay? Leave 'em BE."
He PRAYED Reno would let up now, he'd done his duty to Dante as he saw it as a friend, and yeah, the guy's brother was motherfucking NUTS--but apparently--so was SEPHIROTH, who had gone JUST as nuts.
"There's some CRAZY shit goin' on all around us, Red. We gotta MELLOW it all out, or someone will die!"
Three days had passed, and though he was very sore, Reno had healed well enough to be allowed to go home, even if he could not return to work as yet. His lips were drawn into a thin line of determination as he walked himself out of his room and toward the door. He HATED hospitals, with a passion. He did give Rude just the slightest bit of a smile as he did, though. "Thanks for bein' a friend, yo. . .REALLY thanks. I owe ya." He really did realize he owed the man a lot.
Reno of course had no idea how bad it was about to get, he couldn't have really, not yet. When he DISCOVERED how bad. . .well, when he discovered how bad it would be extremely messy, and that was something he was not yet prepared for. It would be the start of an enmity that would later nearly destroy his entire life. Of course for now he was young and foolish and didn't UNDERSTAND that. The understanding would come in later years when he was older and wiser than the teenager he now was.
"Let's just get home, ne, Rude? The sooner I can get myself back into shape so I can go back to work, the better
Rude smiled at Reno fondly, and again asked, as they got ready to head out, that question that was nagging the shit out of him--even though he knew Reno didn't want to hear it, he wanted a fucking ANSWER.
"Okay, gonna ask AGAIN, 'cuase the other day you really didn't give me an answer, Red. Will you stay away from those dangerous boys? At LEAST until they get it together? Lover's quarrels--and this is a BROTHER quarrel TOO--are best stayed out of altogether--I won't say I told you so, even though I DID--but Vergil I think really made the point better than I ever could. Something is goin' ON with him, and he--he needs HELP, really. I'm afraid he ain't gonna get it, and next time, there WILL be deaths. And I don't want you to BE one of them. Stay away from them, please, for me, as a friend who cares about you?"
Vergil was now officially a MENACE in his mind, and the boy needed to be SEEN to.
He was going to do what he had just warned Reno NOT to do, and suggest over the phone to Dante that he get his brother seen by someone before he hurt someone ELSE--or was simply killed himself. He knew Dante did not want to see that happen, and Rude sure as shit did not want someone in that frame of mind running around OFF meds.
Reno had at least partly agreed to Rude's wishes that he stay out of this mess, but he suspected that that wouldn't last long. Something was going ON with Vergil, something that made him extremely uncomfortable. They might not exactly have been FRIENDS, but Vergil had at least been CORDIAL up to now. This was something that was maybe not exactly out of the realm of possibility, but it was at least out of the ORDINARY. The older male had gone totally ape shit though, and that was something Vergil for the feeling of danger he'd always had had not ever done before.
For now Reno was supremely glad of his own enhanced healing abilities that had allowed the casts to come off the broken fingers so he could at least feed himself now. He sighed in contentment as he took a bite off his pizza and sat back. His arm was still in the sling due to the large number of muscles and ligaments that had been torn when Vergil had pulled it out of the socket, but those too would heal soon enough. For right now, he was simply worried about what was going to happen now.
"I give it two weeks before Vergil does something utterly dumbassed that has Dante telling him at least temporarily where he can go, and I guarantee the suggestion ain't gonna be very pleasant at all."
Rude wasn't sure if this meant Reno WAS or wasn't going to leave them the fuck alone, and it was making him nervous. Reno had sort of half assed kinda maybe?? agreed to it, and Rude didn't feel real SURE of it at all. And if he didn't, if he continued to fucking mess around with dynamite, it might well blow up in all their faces again.
"Look, you ain't giving me back a lotta happy thoughts on this, partner, and if I've learned anything, it's that you'll do what you want. I Guess you got that right. But I'm preaching for the last time, leave those fucking twins alone, ALONE. Get a fucking HOBBY, Ren. We'll go fishing or some shit, okay?!"
He couldn't even put into WORDS how bad an idea it felt like to FUCK with them, even Dante was edgy and BAD tempered as hell when he felt like it now. But Rude was going to call him anyway, and he walked outside to make that call, NOT wanting to be overheard.
"Dante--it's Rude--listen, don't take this the WRONG way--but--I think maybe Vergil needs --uhhhmm--to be --to be seen --by someone for his--uhhhh problem, his ANGER problem, let's call it that. I didn't tell Reno but I found out there are five cases pending of stabbings near their area, and they were BAD wounds, all in alleys, all unsolved, all where the victims WON'T talk. I think--he MIGHT be --doing some bad shit--but-- I don't mean this ACCUSINGLY, it's just--fuck, he's gonna get KILLED, Dante, or kill someone else, he ALMOST killed Reno! Got to DO something, man, okay?!"
"I ain't messin' with Vergil again, ok? I just ain't, even I know when it's healthier to leave someone th'fuck alone. M'just worried about Dante, an' he's m'friend, so I got a right ta be. M'not gonna get into th'middle of it anymore unless Dante ASKS for help, though. I said I wouldn't, and I won't." Reno just shook his head as he sat down, wincing just the tiniest bit as he sat down, body still very sore where the injury had been, so he was trying to be a bit gentle.
As Rude went outside to make his phone call, Reno began to chew apart not only the mess with Dante and Vergil, but Sephiroth's odd behavior as well. It disturbed him to a great extent simply because the General was normally so even tempered. SOMETHING had gotten into him, something that Reno didn't understand just yet. He would soon enough, though, and when he figured it out it would be disastrous for everyone involved.
Now returned home in far less than anything approaching any sort of victory, Vergil felt the creak and give of the bed under him as Dante laid him down, his twin looking shaken and stunned, his face pale with the trauma. He was already healing, the wounds were CLOSED, though the blood loss had been severe--he did not want Dante to SEE that he had already healed, and there had to be a way to keep him from it--but HOW?
He was going to want to bandage it, after cleaning it, and while they had gone through all of this before, of course--their bloodsports had never gotten THIS intense.
They had neither one ever been wounded this gravely.
Not even CLOSE.
And while he was not entirely certain just why he did not want Dante to know just HOW great their healing abilities were, he did know it mattered a very great deal.
"Dante--I think--I think it's going to be alright, really, you don't need to clean it, just bandage it--or maybe I can even do it myself--" Damn it, he KNEW Dante was going to go into fucking DOTING mode and INSIST here on seeing how bad it was.
"I think it's trying to HEAL, Dante. It wasn't really as BAD as it looked--"
Dante scowled, tugging at the shredded clothing, "Vergil let me LOOK at it. This is BAD, I mean, you bled all OVER me when I was carrying you back, you can't be HEALING already." He was annoyed that Vergil was being SO adamant about him wanting to check him, to look him over and make sure he even COULD stitch him up.
"Come ON, Vergil, seriously. It could get infected, or WORSE, and you could get sick, and have to go to the hospital, and I KNOW how much you hate that place, you tell me often enough." He grabbed the scissors, holding them up, "Either you LET me look you over, or I start cutting clothes and get to it MYSELF."
SHIT.
"Alright, let me do it then--" He was still incredibly sore, the inner bruising of the soft tissues taking far longer to entirely heal up--and he would be in some real PAIN for a while. But the actual ruptures and bleeding out had ceased, so how was he going to explain this to Dante without giving away just how severe the damage really WAS he could take?
They had engaged in loveplay with blades, bloodplay as Vergil liked to call it.
Daggers drawn down the belly and chest and ever over straining cocks, blood welling and then fast receding. Hadn't Dante NOTICED this, in all this time? He must have, he had to understand that there was some extraordinary healing ability going on here. Vergil was appalled to find that he simply could not recall if they had ever even discussed it, and this was on top of all the other things his memory was lagging badly on.
DAMN it, he really should know this.
"Dante, I--it's not so bad now--" He stripped naked, slowly, in clear misery as he flexed hurting muscles and still-mending body parts--hoping even in his weakened and shaky condition to possibly allure his brother on to BYPASS all this, though it was really not too likely.
I was run THROUGH, twice. Hardly a love slash as we have done to one another. Cannot let him know, it would cripple what I have planned--
Dante nodded when Vergil said that he would take care of it, though he didn't look too enthused about letting Vergil tend to himself.
He HAD noticed the quick healing during their blade and bloodplay, but he had always thought that even WITH the demon blood, they could only heal such small wounds fast, that others would be much harder to heal, taking at least a day or two--something far longer than the truth, but far shorter than he knew of for humans.
"Sorry for fawning over you like that, but God... that blade went right THROUGH you..." He was still pissed off about the Reno part of the incident, but he was overlooking it at the moment. "I was just WORRIED, okay? Can't your brother be worried for you?"
"Of COURSE you can worry about me, you idiot." He got up and pulled Dante close to him, bringing their lips together for a deep kiss, lingering over it, taking time, tongues entwining.
"I just didn't want you to be so upset. I'm alright, I give you my word, alright? I'm not secretly bleeding out or anything, I'm okay."
This could be the last time...
May be the last time, I don't know...
"I love you. That's forever, 'Te."
And then Vergil pulled away, the coldness coming to cast its pall over his elegant face, the chill coming back into his voice once more. Had to be frigid, had to be iron and had to be ice as well. Numb and dead inside, so that--the ends could really justify the means.
This is all for you, lover. In the very end, you will see. I'll share my power with you, but first I must break your heart and destroy you to obtain that power.