Author's Note: This originally was just one long story, but for convenience
I've decided to split it into several parts, and post them within a few
days of each other. Thanks to darknightdestiny for the idea of splitting it
up, it IS more manageable this way. I'm not gonna lie, this is a very dark
demented fic. It has an 'R' rating due to its general twisted-ness, gore,
and Hojo's potty-mouth. You've been warned...
Welcome to part three. In which Hojo performs some impromptu surgery, Vincent suddenly understands, and twisted-ness ensues.
~ Rene (seasonofthepumpkin)
* * *
JENOVA began to ease her pressure against Hojo's brain, tired of playing with them for now. Hojo pulled his hair viciously, trying to deal with this god-awful headache she was giving him. All of the color had drained from his face, leaving him as pale as Vincent. She was driving him insane, if she didn't stop soon...
"Well, it's been fun. Vincent, see what happens when you don't listen to Mother? Don't follow his example, it will cause you nothing but pain. And Mother knows what hurts you the most," Vincent merely kept his place on the floor, too absorbed in his misery to reply to the spiteful voice. "Hojo, Mother hopes you are ready to obey her again. Mother is disappointed in you." She intoned ominously, enjoying his wretched spasms. Then mercifully, she let up on Hojo, barely in time to save his sanity. Then she settled back into the two men's heads, silent at last.
"Ah, Crecia...I almost did that fiends bidding in my blindness... I always was blind, but I'm even more so now...such a blind fool to listen to her." Vincent sighed, his guilt laying heavily upon him, pressing him into the deepest pits of utter despair. Hojo sat gasping for breath, slowly recovering from his little JENOVA encounter. Hell, he had almost been killed twice, and the night was not even half over.
"...sadistic bitch..." He spoke without fear now, for JENOVA went into recession at times, where it seemed she was sleeping, oblivious to all. He could say whatever he wanted without fear of retribution, for the time being. "...so you survived, I see...way to try to kill me, Turk. I do deserve it, but one can't help but feel a little bitter towards such an assault."
"I didn't do that..."
"The hell you didn't. ...I'm not blind, I saw everything. You tried to rip my throat out, bastard."
"I almost wish I had," He sniffed, eyes narrowing into red slits as he turned to face the scientist. "Why did you do this to me, put that...thing into me? Why? Was it revenge,'cause of me and Crecia? ...well, she is mad at me now too, the whole damn world hates me. Everyone is against me. I never cared about the rest of the Planet, and I still don't; I only cared about what she thought. And now she hates me. You got what you wanted, you tore her away from me and made her despise me. Wasn't that enough?" he spat, anger quite evident in his normally calm voice. "This is only the icing on the cake, am I correct?"
"Feh...you slept with my wife, and you think you're the one with a right to be angry? Ha, I have more of a right to be angry than you ever will. Don't you think I care she's dead? Don't you think it hurt when I realized she left me for a goddamn Turk of all things? A pretty little moron in a blue suit with hardly two brain cells to rub together? Don't... make me laugh. You only got what you deserved. As did I, in a way." Vincent only mutely stared at him, unable to reply to this remark. He had never even considered Hojo might have cared his wife had died, or that he might have even loved her at one time.
"'Crecia's been dead to me for quite a while now. I lost her a long time ago...or maybe she never was really mine," Hojo continued dryly, polishing his glasses on his torn lab coat. "I only thought it was fair you lose her too. Now maybe you'll know how I felt when I realized she had gone on to better things. Well, she's gone on to much greener pastures now, found a lover much more than either of us could ever hope to be, and now he cradles her in his icy embrace. We've both lost her, and she isn't coming back. Deal with it. I have."
"You're so sick...just because she decided she didn't want to put up with your nonsense any more, you couldn't deal with it. You couldn't bear to see her being happy, so you had to ruin it."
"I suppose you're right. In fact, you've hit the nail on the head. I felt entitled to a little revenge, and now my actions have come back to haunt me. Or to at least rip my throat out." He stiffened, narrowing his own eyes behind his shiny specs. "So, let's cut the crap. You and I both know only one of us will walk out of this basement. You want to kill me, and I want you out of the way. It all ultimately depends on which of us is the more the animal, and the evilest and most base will prevail, with the better man lying dead on the floor. I only wish I could be the better man, the saint, Lucrecia's precious lover.
But isn't it ironic that ::I:: am the demon I've been searching for all this time. Maybe that's the reason Lucrecia was drawn to you. She saw a little of me in there somewhere."
"...I know I've received my just desserts, I will admit that. But the reason I've been left to suffer like this is not because I saved Lucrecia at least for a little while from the man who was slowly killing her with his indifference and coldness. I suffer now because I let her down. I promised I'd always be there for her, and I wasn't. I let her die. I won't pretend I don't deserve this, because I know I do. But don't you dare tell me that taking her away from you was my sin. It was probably the only good thing I ever did for her."
"You really amuse me. Don't you think I made the same empty promises to her when I married her? Don't you think I really believed she would always love me, and we would always be together? Don't you think I thought I honestly meant what I said when I told her I'd always be there for her, and every other sentimental lie I ever told her? Well, as you've seen, all those lovely, sincere promises really don't amount to anything after all.
As for your sin, call it whatever you want. I really don't care anymore. You've shown yourself to be the good man, the noble one, while I've demonstrated I'm the true monster by what I did to 'Crecia's precious lover. Oh well. Are you satisfied now?
There, I said it. I was wrong, and I'm sorry, although if I could turn back time, I don't think I would have done anything differently. I still would have fired that shot, I still wouldn't hesitate to pump you full of that shit."
"What do you mean I'm the noble one? My hands are just as dirty as yours. We both used her, in our separate ways, although I used her most cruelly. I used her for her love, while you used her to fulfill your twisted desires. You murdered her in the name of science, and I in the name of love. I'm just as guilty." Vincent's face fell as he uttered these words, Lucrecia's bitter, damning voice echoing in his brain.
"This is very pointless, you know that?' Hojo grinned, brushing a stray strand of Vincent's hair out of his face, only to be met by a cold stare, which he ignored. "In other circumstances, I suppose we might have been friends. Funny, huh? Just think, instead of sitting on a cold cement floor in a drafty basement laboratory at each others throats, we could have been two old friends off in a bar somewhere shooting the shit. Almost impossible to picture, isn't it?"
"...stop it. Just stop it."
Hojo smiled sarcastically, shaking his head sadly. Vincent was aghast at this utterly ridiculous babble Hojo was spouting, wondering if the man had finally snapped. However, he was unable to muse on this very long; a throbbing pain in his left arm demanded his immediate attention. He glanced down at his arm and promptly gasped before he could stop himself.
His entire left forearm had turned a sickly black and to make matters even worse, the discoloration seemed to be steadily spreading upwards. Hojo's eyes widened at this, he instantly grasped Vincent's left wrist to take a better look, ignoring Vincent's protests.
"What the hell? Oh, shit...and this is the arm I gave you the injections in... That might explain it..." Vincent feebly tried to wrench the injured arm away from his tormentor, only to cry out as the dull ache gave way to sharp pains. "Hold still. I think I will have to amputate it..."
Vincent redoubled his efforts, frantically jerking away from Hojo.
"Damn it, stop that. I've got to think of a way to get this arm off...a saw...a bone saw..." Hojo began, more to himself than to Vincent. "...blood loss is my main concern...ah, I can probably handle it.."
"What are you doing?! Let go, let go!" Vincent cried, succeeding in pulling away. "You're a crazy, psychopathic bastard, and I won't let -"
"Valentine, you really don't have much of a choice. That arm is coming off. On the table." Hojo searched desperately through the file cabinet for an anesthetic that would knock Vincent out long enough to amputate. "Damn it, where is it? Don't tell me I used the last of it earlier...ah. This might work...no, it's just a local anesthetic. Ah well, beggars can't be choosers. You heard me, on the desk. I'd hurry if I were you, the rot is spreading. You can't even feel anything below your elbow, can you? I don't have time, it has to come off now."
Indeed, Vincent had no feeling below the elbow, the skin wretchedly black, and disgustingly cold and clammy. Of course Vincent wasn't eager to have his arm cut off, numb or not. All at once, his arm was filled with a stomach-turning sensation that set him on edge, a ticklish feeling inside the blackened tissue. "Ah, something's inside of it...it's squirming...I have worms in my goddamned arm!" Vincent cried out, the shock and pain of the entire night bearing down cruelly all at once, becoming too much for him. Hojo advanced on him with the shiny, silvery hand-held rotary saw, sleeves rolled up and latex gloves donned. He pushed the hysterical man against the desk, gripping the arm firmly, applying a tourniquet to stay any bleeding that might result. Vincent's eyes were two wide blood red orbs that stared up in shock as Hojo tied the tourniquet tightly, cutting off his circulation. That accomplished, he seized the arm roughly, holding it steady to make the cut.
"Now don't move until I have everything under control, understand? Don't move." The whirring of the saw filled the room, the circular silver blade slicing through flesh and bone quite efficiently. Vincent kept his eyes glued to the horrific scene, unable to rip them away. The arm finally severed, Hojo quickly switched the saw off, and prepared to stitch the wound shut.
Wait.
Where was the blood? Hojo stared wordlessly at the stump, the shock stamped clearly on his face. Vincent's stump wasn't bleeding, and as he observed the raw wound with sick fascination, the reason became apparent to him.
Vincent's arteries and veins had sealed their own ends, and were now extending themselves slowly out of the stump, like a snail extending it's antennae. They twitched lazily a few times, then withdrew back into the upper arm, looking for all the planet like a number of writhing, bloody snakes.
Vincent's ranting immediately came to mind, but Hojo shoved it out of his head, concentrating solely on the stump. He removed the now unnecessary tourniquet quickly, not wanting to damage the arm any more than he had.
"It seems JENOVA has already taken care of any problems involving loss of blood. She's sealed the severed arteries, I've no need to tie them off. Valentine? You still there?"
Vincent suddenly realized he hadn't felt a thing. All he had felt was the vibration of the saw, and the pressure of the blade bearing down. It hadn't hurt at all. All of this worried him even more, this was unnatural, having an arm lopped off was supposed to hurt, and it definitely was supposed to bleed.
"Feh, she must like you. Lucky, aren't you?" After wrapping the stump with gauze and taping it into place, he released what remained of Vincent's left arm. "Good thing you're a righty. I will see about replacing that arm, however, but in the mean time, this will have to do. Did you feel much pain?" He questioned with professional concern, eyes locked on Vincent's face waiting for any reaction.
"......" Somehow, Vincent could swear the arm was still there. He supposed this was the 'phantom pain' he had heard so much about in training. He could feel his forearm more vividly now, even more so than when it had still been attached to him. It just felt so frighteningly alive...like sparks of electricity were shooting through it, starting at the tips of his 'fingers' to the now nonexistent elbow. It was such a strange sensation, one that made him want to rip off the bandage to make certain the arm was really gone. Underneath the sterile white gauze, something stirred.
"I believe the reason the arm began to. rot, for lack of a better word was that your left forearm was the site of the injections. She should have dispersed her cells throughout your bloodstream evenly upon entering, to conquer as much ground as possible in a short time. The JENOVA cells die if they don't attach themselves to the hosts living cells within a few moments, so naturally she is in quite a hurry to latch onto as many of her host's cells as she can before that happens. I gave you...let's see...7 times the bi-weekly dosage Lucrecia received, but all in one go instead of gradually. An excess of the cells might have clogged the vein up, and all of the cells were not able to disperse. In that case, they attached themselves right where they were, populating the area far beyond your cell's capacity to host them. In other words, your cells were outnumbered and completely overcome by JENOVA's, jammed in until your cells burst and in the process I would guess that JENOVA devoured those human cells like a sort of...gangrene." Hojo opened his mouth again to add to this, but he was cut short upon seeing the bandage move slightly. He cautiously began to remove the gauze, unsure of what he would find lurking beneath.
Vincent watched spellbound, too absorbed in this to protest Hojo's touching him. What lay under the bandage, what horror awaited them? It seemed to take an eternity for Hojo to unwrap all of the gauze, in fact, Vincent had to be restrained from ripping it off himself, impatient with Hojo's agonizingly slow progress.
"Hurry up...I feel it moving..." Vincent urged, his heart racing like mad. He had to know what was under there, what further damage JENOVA had dealt him. "Hurry, damn you! You're too slow! Hurry," he whimpered, immediately disgusted with himself for it. This entire ordeal had reduced him to this, a pathetic, trembling wretch who was begging a maniacal professor to unwrap the bandage from his eerily alive stump. He was so disgusted with himself, ashamed he could not even find the resolve to be the calm, strong, aloof man he had previously been. Everything else he possessed had been ripped away from him already, from his dignity to his brown eyes Lucrecia had admired so, and what hurt most of all, her.
"Now stop that. Keep still! The more you squirm, the longer it takes." Hojo scolded as he slowly unwrapped the soft gauze, feeling pretty lousy now. Although he had not really known Vincent before, he did know that Vincent had always been the strong, silent one, the perpetually unruffled one.
And now this dark, calm man was little more than a bundle of raw nerves. Hojo put it down to exhaustion, shock and pain, and doubted that it would be permanent, but it was unnerving anyway. He had done this to Lucrecia's lover. Lucrecia had loved him, and Hojo had done this to him. Instead of satisfaction, he felt. well, guilty for wanting to hate such a pathetic creature. And for some reason, the mere fact Lucrecia had cared for this man made him feel worse.
The gauze was down to it's final layer, the pair's eyes locked on the stump, hardly daring to breathe. Hojo glanced up at Vincent, who's expression was one of intense tension. "Are you ready..?" Vincent nodded, without even looking at him. Hojo eased the last of the bandage away, and for a moment time stood still.
* * *
(end part three)
Welcome to part three. In which Hojo performs some impromptu surgery, Vincent suddenly understands, and twisted-ness ensues.
~ Rene (seasonofthepumpkin)
* * *
JENOVA began to ease her pressure against Hojo's brain, tired of playing with them for now. Hojo pulled his hair viciously, trying to deal with this god-awful headache she was giving him. All of the color had drained from his face, leaving him as pale as Vincent. She was driving him insane, if she didn't stop soon...
"Well, it's been fun. Vincent, see what happens when you don't listen to Mother? Don't follow his example, it will cause you nothing but pain. And Mother knows what hurts you the most," Vincent merely kept his place on the floor, too absorbed in his misery to reply to the spiteful voice. "Hojo, Mother hopes you are ready to obey her again. Mother is disappointed in you." She intoned ominously, enjoying his wretched spasms. Then mercifully, she let up on Hojo, barely in time to save his sanity. Then she settled back into the two men's heads, silent at last.
"Ah, Crecia...I almost did that fiends bidding in my blindness... I always was blind, but I'm even more so now...such a blind fool to listen to her." Vincent sighed, his guilt laying heavily upon him, pressing him into the deepest pits of utter despair. Hojo sat gasping for breath, slowly recovering from his little JENOVA encounter. Hell, he had almost been killed twice, and the night was not even half over.
"...sadistic bitch..." He spoke without fear now, for JENOVA went into recession at times, where it seemed she was sleeping, oblivious to all. He could say whatever he wanted without fear of retribution, for the time being. "...so you survived, I see...way to try to kill me, Turk. I do deserve it, but one can't help but feel a little bitter towards such an assault."
"I didn't do that..."
"The hell you didn't. ...I'm not blind, I saw everything. You tried to rip my throat out, bastard."
"I almost wish I had," He sniffed, eyes narrowing into red slits as he turned to face the scientist. "Why did you do this to me, put that...thing into me? Why? Was it revenge,'cause of me and Crecia? ...well, she is mad at me now too, the whole damn world hates me. Everyone is against me. I never cared about the rest of the Planet, and I still don't; I only cared about what she thought. And now she hates me. You got what you wanted, you tore her away from me and made her despise me. Wasn't that enough?" he spat, anger quite evident in his normally calm voice. "This is only the icing on the cake, am I correct?"
"Feh...you slept with my wife, and you think you're the one with a right to be angry? Ha, I have more of a right to be angry than you ever will. Don't you think I care she's dead? Don't you think it hurt when I realized she left me for a goddamn Turk of all things? A pretty little moron in a blue suit with hardly two brain cells to rub together? Don't... make me laugh. You only got what you deserved. As did I, in a way." Vincent only mutely stared at him, unable to reply to this remark. He had never even considered Hojo might have cared his wife had died, or that he might have even loved her at one time.
"'Crecia's been dead to me for quite a while now. I lost her a long time ago...or maybe she never was really mine," Hojo continued dryly, polishing his glasses on his torn lab coat. "I only thought it was fair you lose her too. Now maybe you'll know how I felt when I realized she had gone on to better things. Well, she's gone on to much greener pastures now, found a lover much more than either of us could ever hope to be, and now he cradles her in his icy embrace. We've both lost her, and she isn't coming back. Deal with it. I have."
"You're so sick...just because she decided she didn't want to put up with your nonsense any more, you couldn't deal with it. You couldn't bear to see her being happy, so you had to ruin it."
"I suppose you're right. In fact, you've hit the nail on the head. I felt entitled to a little revenge, and now my actions have come back to haunt me. Or to at least rip my throat out." He stiffened, narrowing his own eyes behind his shiny specs. "So, let's cut the crap. You and I both know only one of us will walk out of this basement. You want to kill me, and I want you out of the way. It all ultimately depends on which of us is the more the animal, and the evilest and most base will prevail, with the better man lying dead on the floor. I only wish I could be the better man, the saint, Lucrecia's precious lover.
But isn't it ironic that ::I:: am the demon I've been searching for all this time. Maybe that's the reason Lucrecia was drawn to you. She saw a little of me in there somewhere."
"...I know I've received my just desserts, I will admit that. But the reason I've been left to suffer like this is not because I saved Lucrecia at least for a little while from the man who was slowly killing her with his indifference and coldness. I suffer now because I let her down. I promised I'd always be there for her, and I wasn't. I let her die. I won't pretend I don't deserve this, because I know I do. But don't you dare tell me that taking her away from you was my sin. It was probably the only good thing I ever did for her."
"You really amuse me. Don't you think I made the same empty promises to her when I married her? Don't you think I really believed she would always love me, and we would always be together? Don't you think I thought I honestly meant what I said when I told her I'd always be there for her, and every other sentimental lie I ever told her? Well, as you've seen, all those lovely, sincere promises really don't amount to anything after all.
As for your sin, call it whatever you want. I really don't care anymore. You've shown yourself to be the good man, the noble one, while I've demonstrated I'm the true monster by what I did to 'Crecia's precious lover. Oh well. Are you satisfied now?
There, I said it. I was wrong, and I'm sorry, although if I could turn back time, I don't think I would have done anything differently. I still would have fired that shot, I still wouldn't hesitate to pump you full of that shit."
"What do you mean I'm the noble one? My hands are just as dirty as yours. We both used her, in our separate ways, although I used her most cruelly. I used her for her love, while you used her to fulfill your twisted desires. You murdered her in the name of science, and I in the name of love. I'm just as guilty." Vincent's face fell as he uttered these words, Lucrecia's bitter, damning voice echoing in his brain.
"This is very pointless, you know that?' Hojo grinned, brushing a stray strand of Vincent's hair out of his face, only to be met by a cold stare, which he ignored. "In other circumstances, I suppose we might have been friends. Funny, huh? Just think, instead of sitting on a cold cement floor in a drafty basement laboratory at each others throats, we could have been two old friends off in a bar somewhere shooting the shit. Almost impossible to picture, isn't it?"
"...stop it. Just stop it."
Hojo smiled sarcastically, shaking his head sadly. Vincent was aghast at this utterly ridiculous babble Hojo was spouting, wondering if the man had finally snapped. However, he was unable to muse on this very long; a throbbing pain in his left arm demanded his immediate attention. He glanced down at his arm and promptly gasped before he could stop himself.
His entire left forearm had turned a sickly black and to make matters even worse, the discoloration seemed to be steadily spreading upwards. Hojo's eyes widened at this, he instantly grasped Vincent's left wrist to take a better look, ignoring Vincent's protests.
"What the hell? Oh, shit...and this is the arm I gave you the injections in... That might explain it..." Vincent feebly tried to wrench the injured arm away from his tormentor, only to cry out as the dull ache gave way to sharp pains. "Hold still. I think I will have to amputate it..."
Vincent redoubled his efforts, frantically jerking away from Hojo.
"Damn it, stop that. I've got to think of a way to get this arm off...a saw...a bone saw..." Hojo began, more to himself than to Vincent. "...blood loss is my main concern...ah, I can probably handle it.."
"What are you doing?! Let go, let go!" Vincent cried, succeeding in pulling away. "You're a crazy, psychopathic bastard, and I won't let -"
"Valentine, you really don't have much of a choice. That arm is coming off. On the table." Hojo searched desperately through the file cabinet for an anesthetic that would knock Vincent out long enough to amputate. "Damn it, where is it? Don't tell me I used the last of it earlier...ah. This might work...no, it's just a local anesthetic. Ah well, beggars can't be choosers. You heard me, on the desk. I'd hurry if I were you, the rot is spreading. You can't even feel anything below your elbow, can you? I don't have time, it has to come off now."
Indeed, Vincent had no feeling below the elbow, the skin wretchedly black, and disgustingly cold and clammy. Of course Vincent wasn't eager to have his arm cut off, numb or not. All at once, his arm was filled with a stomach-turning sensation that set him on edge, a ticklish feeling inside the blackened tissue. "Ah, something's inside of it...it's squirming...I have worms in my goddamned arm!" Vincent cried out, the shock and pain of the entire night bearing down cruelly all at once, becoming too much for him. Hojo advanced on him with the shiny, silvery hand-held rotary saw, sleeves rolled up and latex gloves donned. He pushed the hysterical man against the desk, gripping the arm firmly, applying a tourniquet to stay any bleeding that might result. Vincent's eyes were two wide blood red orbs that stared up in shock as Hojo tied the tourniquet tightly, cutting off his circulation. That accomplished, he seized the arm roughly, holding it steady to make the cut.
"Now don't move until I have everything under control, understand? Don't move." The whirring of the saw filled the room, the circular silver blade slicing through flesh and bone quite efficiently. Vincent kept his eyes glued to the horrific scene, unable to rip them away. The arm finally severed, Hojo quickly switched the saw off, and prepared to stitch the wound shut.
Wait.
Where was the blood? Hojo stared wordlessly at the stump, the shock stamped clearly on his face. Vincent's stump wasn't bleeding, and as he observed the raw wound with sick fascination, the reason became apparent to him.
Vincent's arteries and veins had sealed their own ends, and were now extending themselves slowly out of the stump, like a snail extending it's antennae. They twitched lazily a few times, then withdrew back into the upper arm, looking for all the planet like a number of writhing, bloody snakes.
Vincent's ranting immediately came to mind, but Hojo shoved it out of his head, concentrating solely on the stump. He removed the now unnecessary tourniquet quickly, not wanting to damage the arm any more than he had.
"It seems JENOVA has already taken care of any problems involving loss of blood. She's sealed the severed arteries, I've no need to tie them off. Valentine? You still there?"
Vincent suddenly realized he hadn't felt a thing. All he had felt was the vibration of the saw, and the pressure of the blade bearing down. It hadn't hurt at all. All of this worried him even more, this was unnatural, having an arm lopped off was supposed to hurt, and it definitely was supposed to bleed.
"Feh, she must like you. Lucky, aren't you?" After wrapping the stump with gauze and taping it into place, he released what remained of Vincent's left arm. "Good thing you're a righty. I will see about replacing that arm, however, but in the mean time, this will have to do. Did you feel much pain?" He questioned with professional concern, eyes locked on Vincent's face waiting for any reaction.
"......" Somehow, Vincent could swear the arm was still there. He supposed this was the 'phantom pain' he had heard so much about in training. He could feel his forearm more vividly now, even more so than when it had still been attached to him. It just felt so frighteningly alive...like sparks of electricity were shooting through it, starting at the tips of his 'fingers' to the now nonexistent elbow. It was such a strange sensation, one that made him want to rip off the bandage to make certain the arm was really gone. Underneath the sterile white gauze, something stirred.
"I believe the reason the arm began to. rot, for lack of a better word was that your left forearm was the site of the injections. She should have dispersed her cells throughout your bloodstream evenly upon entering, to conquer as much ground as possible in a short time. The JENOVA cells die if they don't attach themselves to the hosts living cells within a few moments, so naturally she is in quite a hurry to latch onto as many of her host's cells as she can before that happens. I gave you...let's see...7 times the bi-weekly dosage Lucrecia received, but all in one go instead of gradually. An excess of the cells might have clogged the vein up, and all of the cells were not able to disperse. In that case, they attached themselves right where they were, populating the area far beyond your cell's capacity to host them. In other words, your cells were outnumbered and completely overcome by JENOVA's, jammed in until your cells burst and in the process I would guess that JENOVA devoured those human cells like a sort of...gangrene." Hojo opened his mouth again to add to this, but he was cut short upon seeing the bandage move slightly. He cautiously began to remove the gauze, unsure of what he would find lurking beneath.
Vincent watched spellbound, too absorbed in this to protest Hojo's touching him. What lay under the bandage, what horror awaited them? It seemed to take an eternity for Hojo to unwrap all of the gauze, in fact, Vincent had to be restrained from ripping it off himself, impatient with Hojo's agonizingly slow progress.
"Hurry up...I feel it moving..." Vincent urged, his heart racing like mad. He had to know what was under there, what further damage JENOVA had dealt him. "Hurry, damn you! You're too slow! Hurry," he whimpered, immediately disgusted with himself for it. This entire ordeal had reduced him to this, a pathetic, trembling wretch who was begging a maniacal professor to unwrap the bandage from his eerily alive stump. He was so disgusted with himself, ashamed he could not even find the resolve to be the calm, strong, aloof man he had previously been. Everything else he possessed had been ripped away from him already, from his dignity to his brown eyes Lucrecia had admired so, and what hurt most of all, her.
"Now stop that. Keep still! The more you squirm, the longer it takes." Hojo scolded as he slowly unwrapped the soft gauze, feeling pretty lousy now. Although he had not really known Vincent before, he did know that Vincent had always been the strong, silent one, the perpetually unruffled one.
And now this dark, calm man was little more than a bundle of raw nerves. Hojo put it down to exhaustion, shock and pain, and doubted that it would be permanent, but it was unnerving anyway. He had done this to Lucrecia's lover. Lucrecia had loved him, and Hojo had done this to him. Instead of satisfaction, he felt. well, guilty for wanting to hate such a pathetic creature. And for some reason, the mere fact Lucrecia had cared for this man made him feel worse.
The gauze was down to it's final layer, the pair's eyes locked on the stump, hardly daring to breathe. Hojo glanced up at Vincent, who's expression was one of intense tension. "Are you ready..?" Vincent nodded, without even looking at him. Hojo eased the last of the bandage away, and for a moment time stood still.
* * *
(end part three)