Adult-FanFiction.org : Final Fantasy

Viral Love	By : Savaial Category: Final Fantasy VII > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 1115 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy; Square Enix does. I make no money from using these characters; Square Enix does.

Chapter List
- 1-Viral Love
- 2-2
- 3-3
- 4-4
- 5-5
- 6-6
- 7-7
- 8-8
- 9-9
- 10-10
- 11-11
- 12-12
- 13-13
- 14-14
- 15-15
- 16-16
- 17-17
- 18-18
- 19-19
- 20-20
- 21-21
- 22-22
- 23-23
- 24-24
- 25-25
- 26-26
- 27-27
- 28-28
- 29-29
- 30-30
- 31-31
- 32-32
- 33-33
- 34-34
- 35-35
- 36-36
- 37-37
- 38-38
- 39-39
- 40-40
- 41-41
- 42-42
- 23
- 24
- 25
�You don�t have a ghost problem anymore,� Valentine said coldly to the inn owner. He�d by-passed Margery, the clerk, and spoke to the head man himself, insisting he needed to do this before we left this evening. �For my service of pest extermination, I demand you let my companion eat a decent meal and that you give him a coat.�

The innkeeper stared at him. �You�killed�the ghosts?� he asked, clearly disbelieving. �But, how?�

Valentine bared his teeth, and even I, who knew what those fangs could do, shuddered in eerie appreciation. �Just go and check,� he said lowly. �You�ll find the evidence all over those moldy walls.�

The innkeeper hurried away, though he displayed clear reluctance to go below to the basement. I leaned in toward Valentine. �Thanks,� I said.

�It�s no issue,� he deflected. �The least they can do is fill your belly and give you a decent cover from the cold. That room did them no good, after all.� He tossed his head, sending tendrils of blue-black hair cascading over his shoulders. �I should demand the night�s rental gil, too.� He looked down at me. �Where did you get that money?�

�Those Wutainian women gave it to me for the kiss,� I explained. �Well, one of them, anyway.�

A very slight smile moved Valentine�s lips. He resumed staring straight ahead, but his humor rolled off of him in waves.

I had to grin. His humor was infectious. And, appreciated, too.

The innkeeper came back, breathless and with awe in his brown eyes. �You did kill them,� he said. �Yes, I�ll give you both a good supper and a coat.� He turned and began snapping orders to his second, the much put-upon Margery. In a few minutes we sat at a table in the main room, a slew of platters before us.

I grabbed a soup tureen and served myself, hungry and eager to fill that gnawing hole in my belly. Jenova cells made it impossible to ever just ignore a meal. I forever battled famine.

Valentine started on a loaf of savory five-grain bread, liberally spreading savory, salted butter upon every slice he cut. We ate for nearly a half hour before slowing, battling over platters and finally just sharing a glass of milk that we refilled from a pitcher. Satiated and almost sluggish from eating, we staggered out into the night. I had a good, thick leather trench coat, too.

�You look better,� Valentine announced, gazing upon me with interest. �But, you seem a little�green.�

�My natural olive coloring and Jenova�s cells,� I explained, belting my second-hand but much appreciated coat. �Alien though she was, she did enjoy the proper caloric intake. I had to feed her mutilated corpse a steady carbohydrate diet while she floated in her tank.� I paused to look in a puddle, trying to see my reflection. �Do I look really green?�

�No,� he said after a moment. �Just�foreign, like someone from Wutai. If that�s truly your country of origin, I imagine you look natural.�

�Good. A really green tint means I�m trying to mutate into one of her forms.� I secured my right bootlace, wishing I�d been able to find a new pair of socks. Much longer with these against my skin and my skin would rot. I�d attempt to wash those things out if we neared a body of water in the morning.

We walked an hour before Valentine attempted conversation. �You mentioned she tried to kill you,� he said, referring to Jenova. �How?�

I shuddered, remembering that day. �Tried to drown me,� I revealed. �She pulled me into her tank. I escaped, but only after she ripped a goodly amount of hide from my body. Bitch.�

Surprisingly, he chuckled. �That wasn�t your clue to stop?�

�Stop?� I laughed, too. �Valentine, she represented arcane knowledge, dreams, hopes and the betterment of our world. I wouldn�t have stopped unless I was dead.� Sobering, I paused to reflect upon that time. �I didn�t know she�d infect our world like cancer. If I had, I truly can�t say I wouldn�t have been frightened enough to quit. It was only after I saw what her disease brought Gaia that I realized her truest menace.�

After a long ten minutes, Valentine nodded. �You�re actually quite mad, aren�t you, Hojo?� He stopped to look at me, his red, red eyes so intent and powerful I could only stare like a rabbit caught in automobile headlights. �You�re so mad you�re almost, almost unaccountable for what you do.�

Unaccountable? No, not nearly. Unrepentant? That was something else entirely.

�I�m a disease, like Jenova,� I answered, walking again. �That�s why I host her so very well, Vincent. I�ve never been human and I probably won�t ever be.� I gave into fit of giggling. �We aren�t so very different, Turk,� I said. �I host alien consciousness and you host demons. Funny thing is, we both do so only because of the same woman.�

�What?� Valentine stopped walking, forcing me to stop as well. �Explain,� he demanded.

�Well,� I replied, gathering my thoughts. �I took Lucrecia on the Jenova Project a mere month after Gast and I unearthed her; she encouraged me to explore and discover the alien by any means necessary for scientific discovery.� I smiled as I remembered Lucrecia�s enthusiasm. God, she was such a good scientist. �You took demons into your body in the effort to please her, didn�t you? We both capitulated to that sweet voice and convincing argument.�

Valentine blanched to the color of fresh paper. He stopped dead on the road, staring down at the packed mud and breathing hard. �We�both�� he said after a moment, clutching at his heart. �Fuck, Hojo��

�Oh, get over it,� I advised. �She was worth it, wasn�t she?� I put a hand up and wiped nervous sweat from his brow. �A better woman never walked the planet.� I dragged his sweat off on my pant leg, watching him carefully. �Lucrecia was brilliant, a sexy, complete woman. She nurtured the best and worst we could offer. We deserve what happened to us, don�t we? She even told us what could and would happen, and, like the smitten fools we were, we just accepted what she offered.�

Valentine collapsed upon the road, and, on his knees, began to retch. Stunned, I knelt beside him and gathered up his long hair so he wouldn�t puke in it. �You all right?� I asked.

�I�no,� he said after a long moment. He gagged, throwing up a blood-tinged wad of his dinner. Spitting, he braced himself in the dirt with his golden gauntlet. �She� led�me?�

I frowned. Was he so dull? Standing back, I looked upon his curved, strong frame, his beaten and curled shoulders. He puked in earnest now, throwing up every last bit of food he�d eaten in the port inn.

Oh, holy fucking Shiva.

He�d acted all these years while of a mind that my wife loved him.

The nobility of his spirit came crashing down, illuminating his actions and words. Vincent Valentine, decent, righteous, moralistic and proud, he�d done all he�d done because he believed in true love. My wife had ruined him more completely than anyone or anything could have ever accomplished.

Without meaning to, she�d crushed him absolutely.

Of a sudden, I understood it all. I comprehended his venom toward me, his hatred, his pure and true desire to see me dead and buried. I grasped the way she�d played us against one another. Lucrecia had pitted us in such a way that Valentine had no choice but to hate me, eliminate me. But, I�d scored first by shooting him. He now labored between his instinctive desire to eliminate a rival and his intrinsic insistence for justice.

Holy fuck, what a dilemma.

I truly, entirely pitied him.

�Vincent,� I said after a long moment. �Sit back.�

Valentine sat firmly upon his fine bottom, stretching his long legs out before him. His maroon eyes, so beautiful and vibrant, fixed upon me and latched. �Hojo,� he said in his gravely, lovely voice. �You loved her?� All the despair and hope in the world dwelt within his beautiful red eyes.

I did love her. I�d loved that woman with all I�d ever had. All I could summon. She�d taken me to the very height of feeling, and then dropped me to the nadir of hope.

I shrugged, sitting beside Valentine. �I did,� I admitted, feeling my heart recoil from admitting a weakness. �I loved her more than a man has a right to love a woman.�

He bowed his head. His long, raven hair fell around him like a curtain. �I did, too,� he confessed harshly.

�I see that,� I murmured. �Look, just because she didn�t love us the same way, didn�t mean she didn�t love us with her full capability. It�s quite possible she gave us everything she had to give.�

At this, Valentine frowned thoughtfully. He turned his head aside and spat, then sighed. �I suppose, Hojo.� Slowly, he got up and dusted himself. �I suppose, too, that I can stop mourning her. But, I don�t know that I can. Mourning her is a part of me now, as natural as my desire for darkness and quiet.� He turned to look at me as I got up from the road. �Don�t you miss her?�

�Of course I do. I miss her and I miss Sephiroth, though neither of them would have pissed on me if I caught flame.� I smiled wryly. �I didn�t know what I had until I lost it.�

�I did know,� he replied darkly. �I knew and I lost her anyway. I failed to protect her from you, failed to spirit her away.�

�She never needed protecting me from me,� I answered. �If she made you believe that, she misled you. Lucrecia was behind the Jenova Project one hundred percent, no one forced her. I never laid a hand on her in anger, either.�

Valentine didn�t say anything more, just started walking again. The set of his shoulders told me of his deep depression. He believed me, didn�t want to believe me, and I�d hurt him. Again.

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