Infernal Devices | Vincent Valentine (Final Fantasy VII)

Chapter II | The Man in Crimson

A/N: The chapter is unedited so please excuse any grammatical mistakes. Hope you enjoy~

You could only watch as you lost all control.

You had receded to someplace inside of your mind and something else had taken over. You were suspended in some kind of well of consciousness, looking through a slit in the concrete, tunnelled vision. You had surrendered all control to whatever it was that was now possessing your body.

And you could only watch, power thrumming through your veins like tiny electric impulses, adrenaline surging, as you - or whatever was controlling you - tossed Reeve across the room as easily as if he was a rag doll, and ripped open the door, dodging the bullets that rained down from the two soldiers behind you. One grazed your arm but you hardly felt it, a pinprick of pain, then it was gone.

The corridor beyond was empty but you now noticed that there were doors set into the walls on either side. In your sunken consciousness, you wondered briefly if they had been there before, but you were already shouldering into one without bothering with the handle. The wood splintered from the force of the first hit, and then the door was ripped completely off its hinges from the second.

More bullets showered from behind but if you were hit, you didn't feel it. Radio static and the thundering of boots announced the arrival of backup, and you picked up the remains of the door, using it as a shield as you backed up into the room, similar to the one you'd just been in but with another door on the opposite side. As soldiers started pouring into the opening of the first doorway, you tossed the door as a temporary distraction and threw yourself behind the second one. A dark corridor greeted you, branching into another set of entrances. Without time to think, you punched a hole through the door on the right and then threw yourself behind the one on the left, slamming it closed behind you with such force dust showered down from the ceiling. You could feel your energy starting to slip away, like grains of sand filtering through an hourglass; your time was up, but you still kept running. Down the steps, along another corridor, your body slamming into walls and your feet tripping over each other as you fought to regain control. Then you found yourself in some kind of storeroom and stopped. You twisted the lock behind you, flipped the light off and uttered a growl that sounded so inhumane you refused to believe it came from you. Then your head started spinning, your heart pounding. You were struck with a brief spell of dizziness and then all of a sudden you were back in control. Warmth flushed through your veins and your lungs expanded, the adrenaline draining out of your body and leaving you feeling tired and depleted.

You collapsed to the floor in a heap, oxygen tumbling out of your mouth in short, heavy pants.

Your head was spinning from trying to understand exactly what had happened, why you had been unable to control your body, why you had such amazing strength.

You tried to get to your feet but your knees just buckled and you fell back to the floor. More panic struck you as you heard the distant thuds of soldiers' boots, a voice barking orders you couldn't decipher. What would they do when they found you?

Pulling your knees right up to your chest, a stray tear escaped from the corner of your eye, sliding down your cheek and leaving in its wake a cold, sticky footprint. You were confused. And scared. You'd woken up from some kind of coma with no memory, and now you were being chased by men with guns who told you they were trying to save the planet. Nothing made sense. What had just happened to you made no sense.

You weren't sure how long you sat there, sat in the gloom, cuddling your knees and listening, waiting for the heavy thud of boots just outside the door, the hail of bullets through the wood. But it never came. A few minutes passed, then maybe an hour. You couldn't tell how long, but nobody came looking for you.