Lamenting Innocence

Chapter 3: The Demon Within

Blood seeped under the door to Vincent's room, Cloud and the rest of the crew standing before the door with horrified expressions on their faces.

"V-Vincent?!" cried Yuffie, banging on the thick wood door, "What's going on in there? Are you alright?"

"...Go away." Muttered Vincent from behind the door, "Nothing's wrong."

"Bull shit!" shouted Cid, "There's blood seeping under the damn door!"

A sigh was heard from behind the door, and the click of the lock being opened, as Vincent opened the door. "...Come in."

Everyone looked around apprehensively at each other as they entered the dark room, unaware about what they were about to witness.

"Oh my God!" gasped Tifa looking around the dark room.

The top of Vincent's bed was a pool of blood, the excess flowing over the side and under the door. Tifa's face turned pale as she let out a gasp before falling over faint.

"Tifa!" cried Cloud as she fell to the ground, placing a hand on her neck and letting out a sigh of relief. "She's only fainted."

Cloud rose to his feet and shot a glare at Vincent, "Tell me, Vincent," said Cloud coolly, "Cut yourself with a knife?"

Vincent turned toward Cloud, returning the glare and nodded.

"No way!" cried Cait Sith in sock, "No knife could cause that much blood to b lost by just being careless!"

"Well this time it happened." Said Cloud shortly turning toward the crowd of onlookers. "I'll help him clean it up. It was only a simple mistake so don't worry about it."

Everyone gave Cloud a questioning look, not believing his corny tale, but stepping out of the room with an unconscious Tifa in Cid's arms and exiting the room.

"So." Stated Cloud as the door was closed, the automatic lock clicking into place, "What really happened here?"

"You feel him don't you?" murmured Vincent, throwing a few towels around the room to cover up the pools of blood.

"Shut the Hell up!" cried Cloud, his face turning pale again. "It can't be! I won't believe it!"

"You know..." murmured Vincent, unaffected by Cloud's outburst, "You only defeated him in your self-conscious."

"No!" yelled Cloud, picking up the blood-soaked towels and throwing them into the adjacent bathroom "I killed him!"

"Yes..." mused Vincent, "But only in your subconscious. You were knocked out the whole time in the center of the planet."

"N-no..." moaned Cloud, his body starting to tremble with rage, "He's dead! I KILLED SEPHIROTH!"

"If that's true," sighed Vincent, "Why is it growing back?"

Cloud's body turned numb at these words, the pain in his back returning. "How..." he gasped, "How do you know that?"

"Because..." murmured Vincent, "I also feel the pain, his willing to come back and finish you off."

"Is that..." started Cloud, "Where all the blood came from?"

Vincent nodded. "I am also infused with Jenova cells. Hojo had his fun with me."

"Then what...?" questioned Cloud meekly.

"You need not know this instant," said Vincent, "When the time arrives, my transformation will be complete."

"Your what?!" exclaimed Cloud, "Transformation?!"

"You know it all to well." Stated Vincent.

Cloud started to fill up with rage at Vincent's all-knowing demeanor, and muttered, "Y-you know nothing about how I've been feeling!" Cloud then ran out of the blood-coated room and back to his room where he fell onto hiss bed, Sephiroth's voice echoing through his mind.

Ha, I, the ultimate creature ever created defeated by a mere copy? My blood flows freely with the blood of my mother Jenova...you cannot avoid fate, I am coming back to dispose of you...

"Damn it!" screamed Cloud into his pillow, "I killed you! YOU'RE DEAD!"

See for yourself.

Cloud then felt himself falling, and opening his eyes, he saw nothing but darkness, an endless abyss. "N-no!" Cloud cried, "Why...why now?!" Suddenly, Cloud's left shoulder began to burn like it never had before, a black spike penetrating his skin.

Cloud couldn't stifle a cry this time for the pain was to awesome, blood seeping down from the hole in his back. The spine was extending even further outside his skin, a never-ending waterfall of blood pouring down his back. When the spin was fully extended outside Cloud's body, a tremor started in Cloud's legs, steadily moving up his body until it reached the spine. At the sudden movement, the spine twitched and extended to its full length outside Cloud's body. In an instant, the spine opened like a fan, into a full-fledged wing.

The dark wing glistened with blood, twitching with the slightest movement. Opened to its full extent, the wing had stopped Cloud from falling, and held him suspended in the air. Cloud opened his eyes, gasping for air because of the sudden stop.

Cloud's back was a gaping wound; the wing had left Cloud's back covered in deep, red blood. "Heh." Sputtered Cloud, coughing up some of the leftover blood, "Vincent was right."

"It's what you desired though, isn't it?" cooed a hellishly familiar voice.

"Sephiroth!" cried Cloud, trying to keep himself conscious because of all the blood he had lost, "Show yourself!"

A dim light soon reminisced throughout the dark tunnel, a figure emerging from the darkness. Sephiroth smirked at Cloud's appearance. "Pitiful."

"Damn it Sephiroth!" Cloud roared, "Where am I? What the hell do you want from me?!"

Sephiroth laughed coldly. "I think it's the other way around. You were the one who wanted to see me."

The rage boiled within Cloud as Sephiroth stepped forward, a delicate wing of feathers protruding out of his right shoulder. "You wondered why I am blessed with the pure wing of an angel, while you are cured with the hideous wing of a demon.

"You bastard..." growled Cloud, "You think you know everything about me..."

"But I do." Stated Sephiroth, walking over to cloud and forcefully grabbing his neck. "You are not worthy enough to be called my clone. You are the disgusting bastard child of my mother,"

"Some mother." Stammered Cloud with all of his strength, starting to loose consciousness. "She didn't give birth to you....your real mother...Lucrecia...was seduced and injected with Jenova cells."

Sephiroth's eyes hardened, his face turning into a nasty glare. With a flip of his wrist, the Masamune appeared and landed in Sephiroth's waiting hand. "I've always approved of torment before death," he cackled, his black eyes turning a shade of red. "Although I had to dispose of your little girlfriend a little quicker. So much power, yet so fragile..."

"You..." growled Cloud, curling his hand into a fist and punching him square in the face.

"Heh." Sephiroth smirked, forcefully pushing Cloud back and ramming the Masamune into his demonic wing.

Cloud's eyes widened in horror as the invisible ground was painted a shade of red.

"Now to finish you..." cackled Sephiroth twirling the Masamune skillfully between his fingers.

"N-No!" sputtered Cloud, coughing up some diluted blood, "I won't let you live after all you've done...I will kill you!"

"Hah!" laughed Sephiroth, "Is that your death wish? To murder me to avenge that Cetra I killed? A childish whim. Just look at you, soaking up your own blood like a sponge. You should welcome death because it all ends now!" And with that, Sephiroth leaped into the air, holding his Masamune in the same vertical angle exactly like when he killed Aeris.

"N-no!" sputtered Cloud, the loss of blood impairing his sight, "I'll never be happy until I kill Aeris's murderer!"

Sephiroth cackled at the man's pathetic pleas for mercy and continued his downfall above him. As Sephiroth's blade was just about to penetrate Cloud's skull, a powerful force knocked him back.

"What the fuck?!" gasped Sephiroth gazing up to see a back bearing a demon-like wing like Cloud's, and a feathery angelic one lie Sephiroth's. "It can't be...!"

AN- Okay....hehe. I know somethings in here may be different than the game...I'm not sure that Vincent was infused with Jenova's cells, but it's a pretty crucial part of this fic so I'm adding it in. This was originally one full chapter like that last two chapters were, but it was so long I had to chop it again. Anyway, hoped you like this chappie, and thanks to all who've reviewed! And please review again! When you review, it makes me happy, and you want me happy because when I'm happy I write. . So till next time!!