Vincent had watched unfeelingly as the Chocobo charged towards the fire. From his current viewpoint, that being from the ground (covered with rubble and various bruises), he couldn't really bring himself to care. He was in pain and he. Was. ANGRY. Too angry, in fact, to be worried that he actually was this angry- too angry to even notice that he hadn't been this angry in months. Lots of months. Over a year, come to that.
As he slowly staggered to his feet, bracing himself against the wall, he could feel something building inside him. Something harsh and uncontrollable. As the shrill, terrible cry of the Chocobo pierced his mind, it sent him dizzying, spiralling over the edge, and the darkness within him was suddenly released in a mind-blowing tide. Distantly he could hear himself make an inhuman sound, halfway between an animalistic roar and a scream of agony. But that was far away, because all he was capable of comprehending was the excruciating pain of muscles stretching, of THINGS bursting out of back, his skin, his face, warping and melding. His bones reforming and rearranging themselves, sickeningly, nauseatingly. It hurt- Oh, it hurt, he had forgotten how much. He felt the familiar blood-rush to a brain that was no longer his. Then finally the last shred control was ripped away from him and with a scream of defiance he became Chaos Beast.
Yuffie shrieked, sobbing almost hysterically as she pressed herself harder into the wall, trying to make herself disappear into the stone- as far away as possible from the... the THING that had thrown itself between her and the Chocobo. Strangely skin-like wings batted her face and body, clawing a thin red line across her cheek, and she shrank back further. The wind made by their dreadful battering of the air buffeted her and blew her hair into her clenched eyes. Ohgodohgodohgod! In the darkness she heard a bodily thump, then the high-pitched whine of a Chocobo in pain receding into the night. She tore open her eyes and saw possibly the most revolting sight she had ever laid witness to. A body, twisting and melting; horrible, impossibly grotesque shapes slipping into each other, dwindling and shrinking in a mass of blood and muscle... And then there was Vincent. Lying still and white on the cold stone floor.
She didn't know what to say. She just stood, trembling, looking down at his pale body stretched out on the ground. Somehow, through the mist of shock, one logical connection surfaced. So that... was Chaos Beast? Yuffie had never actually seen it, but Tifa had told her once... Suddenly, Yuffie's face contorted, and running out into the rain, she was noisily sick.
Walking slowing back inside, Yuffie wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, her face almost as ashen as Vincent's. She stared at him silently for a few seconds, unable to move. Then it occurred to her that Vincent hadn't moved.
`Oh my gawd! He's DEAD!' Without stopping for thought, the young ninja threw herself on top of his body with an ear-splitting wail, cradling his slumped head in her arms as she cried into his hair.
`You're dead.... It's all your fault! Actually...' She paused a second, then caught her shaky breath. `It's all MY fault! Why did you do that for me? Why, you stupid idiot!' Here she starting shaking him roughly between sobs. `I could have handled Mr Boki! You know I could have! And then you did it in such a gross and icky way and you looked really scary and you stepped on my pizza, and now... you're DEAD!'
Her voice became almost unintelligible through the tears. `I'm so sorry I bossed you around and whacked you and sent you out in the rain, but I was only doing what I was supposed to do and in MANGA giant Chocobos never come and kill people!' She opened her overflowing eyes and grabbed Vincent's collar and jerked his face level with her own. She opened her mouth and prepared to hit a new crescendo.
`YOU'RE-' She looked down to see bewildered crimson eyes looking up at her. She faltered, her voice tiny and trembling. `-alive?'
Vincent was groggy and confused. They were the words for it; he always was after Chaos was in his mind. And that's it, isn't it? He thought, ignoring the events going on around him. When he was Chaos, he wasn't him... Idiot. You shouldn't have done it again, not after so long. Always drains your strength, and... you promised. Never again. Why...? With a gasp, his head was jerked upward, but he didn't have time to reflect on the effect that had on the pounding in his brain because at that moment, he experienced the single loudest sound he had ever heard from Yuffie- and that constituted as the single loudest noise he had heard, ever. `YOU'RE-'
He opened his eyes, wincing for the sake of his eardrums, and looked at her. She was so close; he could see the shock register in her features, her eyes swollen from crying, blood from a cut mingling with the tears running down her cheeks. `-alive?' With a squeal, he was dropped, the hard floor contacting painfully with his neck, and he could hear her scrabbling backwards on her hands and knees into a corner. He couldn't quite make out the hysterics coming from her direction, so they more or less washed over him. Something about how selfish he was letting her think he was dead but nevertheless, the high squeaks resounded in his mind like daggers...GOD his head hurt!
`Yuffie?' he rasped. There was silence. `I need... some water.' He couldn't help but the notice the way she avoided his gaze, made sure not to be near him, crossed the other side of the cave. And the one glimpse he had of her eyes- they were frightened. But even more unnerving was the complete and utter lack of noise she made as she walked over to the dingy water pot he kept by the cave mouth.
Oh, no... She would have seen him, wouldn't she? What else where you expecting? A voice in his mind mocked him mercilessly. She would have become repulsed by you sooner or later- she already was. So why not skip ahead to outright fear? She was going home in the morning, wasn't she? Well, now she definitely is... What the hell were you thinking? Did you ever have any hope? You've already destroyed any chance you've ever had... Any chance of what? There was never a chance anyway... She hated you then and you've made sure she hates you now... Vincent knew these things... But that didn't stop it from hurting.
He was desperate for anything to break the terrible stillness. `I didn't mean to...' He spoke softly, barely more than a whisper. Her head didn't turn. `I promised myself I wouldn't... It reminds me.' His voice rose at the memory. `Of the tests...of the tests, and the experiments and the injections, and... the coffin...'
`Don't tell me!'
Vincent snapped his head up to stare at her. She was shaking, and her voice was chocked with tears.
`I don't wanna know! I don't wanna KNOW about your stupid past! I don't wanna know about the coffin, or the claw, or Hojo, or the disgusting things you change into! Don't tell me, just don't tell me! MOST of all, I DON'T wanna know about CHAOS!'
Vincent was taken aback, shocked. Then he realised he was angry. `You... You think I like it? You think I like having something in my mind that can surface whenever it wants to? You think I LIKE having something that can take over my body, that I can't control?' He got unsteadily to his feet, shouting now, but he didn't care, neither knew nor cared what he was saying. Why did he even tell her? How could SHE understand? What- for once Vincent didn't think about what he had done to deserve it- what he had BEEN through?
`You think I LIKE being a freak? You think I LIKE been hated? You think I like it, having every goddamn person on the goddamn planet being AFRAID of me? You... you think I like THIS?' With that final shout, he thrust his gleaming, bloodstained claw into Yuffie's face. But instead of the expected scream, she just stood there, blinking at it. Then her features turned pale, and she fell backwards.
Even as he was running to catch her, Vincent regretted what he had just done. He hadn't meant it, any of it. He was stupid to let himself lose control... Somebody like him, somebody who had caused so much pain to so many. What right did HE have to yell at her, about something he had actually deserved? How could he have been so selfish? He shouldn't have tried to unload his burden of guilt on her, and when she said she didn't want it he had attacked her. No matter what she pretended to be, she was only young girl with a tough front. She was still just an innocent. Another innocent who he had hurt.
The remorse from his past combined with the shame he had so recently acquired, crushing the last of that terrible mood which had held him in its grip. Desperately he reached for her body, falling in what seemed to be excruciatingly slow motion away from him. Suddenly a bout of dizziness and nausea stuck him once again. Stumbling, he tried to keep his balance. However, one of his feet got caught in his cape. The resulting jerk sent him sprawling forward. To his immense horror, he landed on top of Yuffie. Again.
Yuffie chose this precise moment to recover.
Vincent winced, expecting her to cry or shrink away from him. Although he should have known better, he did not even vaguely anticipate the reaction that followed.
`Oh my gawd! I let down my guard for one second, and you're at it AGAIN!'
Vincent cringed. Clenching his eyes shut, he waited for the blow to fall. He was surprised when after a few seconds he remained unharmed. He fearfully opened one eye. Yuffie was looking right up at him, the look in her large brown eyes impossible to read. Then she spoke, calmly and quietly.
`Vincent- are you going to get off now?'
Feeling bewildered, Vincent quickly got to his feet. Yuffie really was unpredictable...
The girl was silent for a few seconds as she sat up and looked around the room. Then her eyes fastened on one thing.
`My... pizza... has been CRUSHED! MY PIZZA! Vincent- this is all your fault!'
She crawled across the room and started to scrabble through the debris where the pizza in question lay scattered. Holding up one sand-encrusted slice, Yuffie began to wail.
Through the tears, Vincent could make out only a few of the individual words, but the message was clear.
`I was so hungry, too...' she sobbed. Then she turned to glare balefully at Vincent. `This- is all your fault. This is all your fault! You will get more pizza tomorrow!'
Vincent blinked. `But... You're going home tomorrow-`
`NO, I am NOT!' Yuffie snapped. Vincent found himself raising his arms to protect himself against the pizza missiles the irate ninja had hurled at him.
Vincent had changed his mind by this point due to the extreme mood swings Yuffie was having. She was not unpredictable; she was completely insane!
`The only place we are going tomorrow, mister, is to find MY Chocobo which YOU lost!'
Vincent's memories of that particular occurrence were markedly different, but he figured that it was futile to argue. Instead, he opted to keep his mouth shut and stay out of trouble.
`Besides, after today's,' she looked at him in disgust, `REVOLTING performance, it's clear that you have been alone for like, WAY too long! Don't try to argue; you need to learn how to behave like a civilised human being, and more than that, a gentleman. No matter what it takes, no matter HOW much ultimate personal risk from weird freaky pervert I'm at, I'm gonna teach you!' She shrieked, continuing to pelt him with the trodden pieces that might have tasted good once upon a time.
By some superior force Vincent managed not to groan, but only just. Why him? Why HIM?
`And no, buster, you will clean up this mess!'
Vincent stared at her helplessly. `But-'
`Do it! NOW!'
Vincent sighed, realising that he had no choice in the matter.
`Yes, Yuffie...'
