Crimson Demons (FF7)

32) Under Attack

"Is it true?" My voice doesn't sound right as it echoes through the old, stone room that sick man Professor Hojo harbors at the moment. He raises an eyebrow, mocking me.

"Is what true?" I glare at the flickering flame of the candles on the dark wood table before him. The room eerie enough without them; dust and cobwebs everywhere, every floor and wall the same cold, grey stone, and the stained glass windows casting strange colored shadows I have mistaken for people out of the corner of my eye more than a few times.

"That Lucrecia..." Filing cabinet, Vincent. "That Dr. Crescent," I correct. "Is to take part in this project?"

"It's true." I jump, looking over at the new person in the room. The room seems to have changed her lovely features to icier ones. That could be the only explanation for such a sudden, drastic shift in her personality. She walks forward, closer to Hojo's side. "Why are you so surprised?" Hojo cocks his head to the side with a crazed smirk.

"But using your own child... For an experiment?" I partially ask, bewildered that she would do such a thing. Suddenly, Violet's stories about her sister don't seem so far-fetched.

"Ha!" Hojo shrieks. "I don't know what you're implying, but both of us are scientists. We know what we are doing. You are the last person to have any word in this. Now leave us at once, boy." I suddenly feel sick to my stomach.

"But..." I start after a moment's hesitation.

"But what?" Lucrecia demands sharply. I can't help but release the smallest, wheezy laugh of disbelief. She narrows her eyes. "If you have something to say, say it."

"Are you... Are you sure that this is what you really want?" This can't be it... After all you worked for for a pure type of science in this place without human experimentation...

"Am I sure? Am I sure?! If this only concerns me, then yes, I am sure!"

"Oh... I just..."

All I did was watch. I didn't even try to stop her. And then...

The clacking of her ruby red heels. That's all I can hear through the walls of this hell I'm trapped in. My mother was right. I shouldn't have excepted the Nibelheim job to start with. First it was David, but that was only an accident; a kill in war that was nothing to someone on Wutai's side. Then it was Violet, who I am not certain is alive any longer. Her son... he's raised by the maids know. And now Lucrecia, who is now throwing her sister's sacrifice away as if it was nothing. If I hadn't come... If I hadn't met any of them... Maybe then I-

The pained cry of Lucrecia in the other room drags me from my wistful thoughts and into the room that she collapsed in. $%^& you, Hojo! I growl internally as I lift her gingerly. This is what you wanted?

That was my sin. And this... This is my punishment.

Claws. Fur. Gold. Blood.

Claws.

Fur.

Gold.

Blood.

CLAWS. FUR. GOLD. BLOOD.

"Hello, host."

Screams... Are those mine?

"I'm so sorry."

~|~|~|~|~

"Vincent!" Upon hearing my name, I'm dragged out of the pitch black darkness that I've been trapped in for what seems to have been forever and yet one moment at all the same time. I can feel my surroundings moving and bouncing through the surface I'm laid on.