Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Seduction of the Darkness ❯ Chapter 9: The Truth About Hellfire ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9: The Truth about Hellfire

 

The crimson-clad gunman dismounted the hover bike, cradling the unconscious woman against him. She'd passed out from exhaustion when they were halfway to The Shera and hadn't woken up yet. He began to worry if she was truly unconscious…or worse. Cloud and Tifa were waiting for him in the hangar, their expressions filled with worry.

 

`What happened to her?' asked Cloud.

 

`She passed out while attacking Deep Ground,' explained Vincent, not giving a hint to his worries about her. Tifa leaned over and listened carefully. After few moments, her expression softened with relief but was no less grave.

 

`She's just unconscious,' she said. `Get her to her room.'

 

Vincent nodded and walked swiftly out of the hangar and into the corridors where his, Cloud's and Hellfire's rooms were set up. He opened the door to her room and gently lay her on the bed, careful not to injure her any further. She stirred and moaned softly as soon as she was laid down but didn't open her eyes. Relieved that she would be all right, he left her to rest and retired to his own quarters for the night.

~*~

He couldn't sleep. He lay awake that night thinking of the mysterious new recruit. How did she get here? Who was she really? It made no sense for someone like her to come to this plane of existence and not remember a shred of her former life. Did she have family where she came from? Brothers? Sisters? Was there someone significant in her life before she became attached to the members of AVALANCHE? His mind burned with so many unanswered questions that he thought his head was going to explode from the confusion.

 

A soft voice caught his attention and he listened carefully. It was coming from Hellfire's room and it sounded agitated. Concerned, Vincent rose to his feet and walked over to her door. He gently pushed it open and saw the young woman talking in her sleep, arguing with some unknown person.

 

`I'm telling you, it's too much of a risk!', she was saying. `If this portal does work, it will only spell certain doom for the one testing it!'

 

She waited for a reply before venomously denying whoever she was speaking to.

 

`No! I won't have you use my brother to conduct this experiment! The calculations aren't right, the co-ordinates are inaccurate and the crystal only has a limited life! If you send someone through there, they may never be able to return!'

 

She was silent and when she spoke again, her voice was calmer.

 

`Look, Ezekiel, just give me more time. I can fix this problem…we don't have to risk unnecessary lives due to a chemical and syntactical error.'

 

Then her voice pitched.

 

`What the hell are you doing?!'

 

Another silence. It seemed that this Ezekiel was doing something rash and Hellfire didn't like what she heard.

 

`You're mad! Our friends died because of this portal, and it almost killed us when we recovered it! I want you to shut this project down right now!'

 

Her voice suddenly pitched to a higher tone and was filled with venom.

 

`Put the gun down, you fool! You don't have to do this!'

 

Another silence. Then-

 

`I won't have you endanger my brother for the pursuit of glory and wealth, you arrogant little shit! Now, I won't say it again, put the gun down.'

 

Ezekiel seemed to be going ahead with his plans anyway for Hellfire suddenly thrashed about, her hands grappling air as though she was trying to wrestle a gun from someone. Vincent shut the door and rushed to hold her down, but she was thrashing so violently in her sleep that he could barely restrain her.

 

`Hellfire, open your eyes,' he urged her. He was worried she was going to hurt herself and he did his best to rouse her to wakefulness, but she was in the throes of her nightmare.

 

Hellfire suddenly screamed.

 

`Ezekiel, NO!'

 

A snarl of pain and she gripped her shoulder, as though she'd taken a bullet wound.

 

`Hellfire, wake up!' Vincent shook her slightly, but that only served to agitate her further.

 

`SHADOW, GET OUT OF THERE!' She made a violent move as though to push someone aside. She still thrashed in the gunslinger's grip

 

`Hellfire!'

 

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, staring wildly at the crimson-clad gunman who held her still. Her expression softened with recognition and she flung herself against Vincent, clinging to him as though she'd never let him go.

 

`Oh God, Vincent!' It was all she said as she sobbed quietly, her shoulder trembling from her ordeal. Vincent sat there, unsure as how to respond to her distress before he cradled her in his arms. He stroked her soft hair soothingly until she calmed down enough to talk. Vincent gently pushed her back and looked in the eyes.

 

`Tell me what you remember,' he said. Hellfire looked at him, the dream fresh in her mind.

 

`Everything,' she whispered. `I remember everything.'

 

`Tell me.' The gunman's voice was quiet and surprisingly gentle as he put forth his demand. She looked at him.

 

`I used to work in a lab facility where I was a physicist's assistant,' she said. `We'd just uncovered a time portal in the caves near our facility and had taken it back to the research labs to test and study it. Many died on that excursion, because the radiation from the portal was still of a level that if anyone was exposed to it for more than a few hours it brought instant death.'

 

Vincent nodded for her to continue. She took a deep breath and went on.

 

`I was one of the people who had constant access to the portal for my mentor was not only the one who discovered it, but the one who instigated the project in the first place. It was a strange device, like a laser only more advanced and it had a prism set into it about a few feet away. It also had a platform, large enough for one person to step onto. We saw a series of dials carved with strange symbols on the side of the laser and we came to the conclusion that it was a doorway to another time or another world. Ezekiel was my mentor and the physicist who I worked for.'

 

`What happened with this portal?' Vincent asked.

`Ezekiel wanted to test it again on a human subject, but none of us were willing due to previous experiments. So he tried to manipulate my brother Shadow to volunteer for the experiment, but I wouldn't have any of it. I'd recently done calculations pertaining to the device and discovered that the co-ordinates were not recognisable by our database and the crystal only had a few months left before it expired. I insisted that we test the device on animals before we did anything else with it but he was under the absurd notion that we wouldn't get the benefits we would if we sent a human being.' Hellfire swallowed and continued.

 

`After that he snapped. He tried to force my brother onto the machine by gunpoint and threaten to kill him if I interfered. I tried to wrest the gun from his hands, but he was too driven by madness. He threw me off and shot me with the intention to kill me, but he missed and instead went ahead with his experiment anyway. I pushed my brother off the platform, but couldn't get out before the laser struck me. The next thing I knew, I was in Midgar.' She looked at Vincent. `I know it sounds like the ravings of a girl on the brink of sanity-`

 

`It explains everything,' said Vincent gently. `Ever since the first day you arrived, I couldn't help but wonder about you.'

 

`Guess I was the Most Fascinating Mystery of the Week,' quipped Hellfire. Vincent couldn't help but smile a little. But his face became grave again.

 

`But it still doesn't explain the tattoo on your back.'

 

Hellfire glanced at the winged goddess, which was glowing with a crimson light. `I can't explain it either, although I have known for a while that I can tap into the immense power it contains. It's saved my life many times, but I didn't realise the true extent of its power until yesterday on the battlefield.'

 

Vincent remembered the fiery goddess of death in Kalm and knew what she meant. `So, you didn't know you could become what you were that night?'

 

Hellfire shook her head. `And after seeing Deep Ground's intentions, I'm glad you found me before they could use it.'

 

She took the words right out of his mouth. He smiled at her briefly before he suddenly became aware of her warm body in his arms. He turned his head away from her. Hellfire frowned.

 

`Why won't you look at me, Vincent?'

 

Vincent swallowed and turned back to her. `Every time I look at you, I see nothing but death.'

 

Hellfire looked at him and turned away. `I suppose death will always be apart of you.' Her voice was soft when she said it, but he could detect a trace of hurt, The gunman released her and rose to his feet, walking to the door. He laid his hand on the handle.

 

`Vincent.'

 

He turned to regard her.

 

`Thank you,' she said softly. `Now that I've told you, I'll sleep easier knowing someone understands.'

 

`I understand a lot better than you realise, Hellfire.' With that gentle remark, he opened the door and walked out, shutting the door behind him.

~*~

 

After briefing the group on their findings and after Cid told them their next course of action, Vincent and Hellfire retreated to his room to talk more about the attack. Hellfire sat on the bed, toying with her hair as she looked at her friend.

 

`Deep Ground's fallen back for now,' said the young woman. `But I have a feeling they won't stay in hiding for long.'

 

`If they allow us the reprieve, we have at least five days before their next attack,' said Vincent. He turned to her and frowned at the anger he saw blazing in her eyes.

 

`What is it?'

 

`They're either intent on capturing you or killing you,' said the girl. `But there's more to than that.'

 

`What makes you think that?'

 

`Vincent, they sent an entire army to Kalm! If all they wanted was you, they would have just killed you when they had the chance, not raid an entire city.'

 

She had a point. `So, what do they want?'

 

Hellfire clawed at her head in frustration. `That's the thing I can't figure out! I don't know what they're thinking or what they plan to do next. Hell, we don't even know the bare facts they would have in order to carry out another assault!'

 

Vincent's frown deepened. `What is it that's upset you so much? Why are you so worried about this?'

 

`Because I don't know when each moment may be our last!.' Hellfire rose to her feet in one swift movement. She ran her hands through her hair and turned to him. `I don't know when I'll be able to talk to you like this again, or when we'll fight side by side in battle. Or when…..' she swallowed. `Or when we'll have a beautiful and peaceful night of getting to know each other like the night we had the second day I was on this ship.' She glanced away from his intense gaze before turning back to him. Vincent was standing there in quiet shock, noting how her beautiful face was taut with distress.

 

`What are you trying to say, Hellfire?'

 

`I love you, Vincent! Don't you see that?' She ran her hands through her hair. `But it's that love that's killing me because I don't know when you're going to go away on some impossible mission and never come back. And the fact that you're my friend and I feel this way for you is torturing me as well.' She was standing there, her eyes bright with grief.

 

Something inside Vincent snapped. Something that had kept his emotions in check for many years had finally been broken by her heartfelt words. He stared at her before averting his gaze. Hellfire stared at him and shook her head.

 

`But I guess this is how things are meant to be,' she said softly. `Friends destined to be at odds with each other till the day we die. Fate plays a cruel hand, doesn't it?' She turned and walked to the door, brushing past him as she did so. She laid a hand on the doorknob.

 

Vincent suddenly lunged forth and grabbed her slender wrist. She gasped as the crimson-clad gunman pulled her back and hurled her onto the bed. She landed on her back, staring up at the gunslinger that swooped down on her. The demand she was about to voice was silenced as Vincent pressed his lips hard into her mouth with a fiery passion. Hellfire lay there stunned for a few minutes as the sensation of his soft lips finally sank in. She responded to his passion, wrapping a hand round his neck and feeling his tangled silky hair beneath her fingers. He carefully cradled her face with his gloved hand as he kissed her, their lips fused together in heat and fire. She ran her hands down his back, feeling the tattered cloak and supple leather. Hellfire arched her neck as Vincent worked his way down to her throat. He ran his clawed hand over her lithe body, caressing her and worshipping her perfect beauty as he felt her pulse in his lips. She took his head and kissed him full on the mouth with a sudden passion. He ran his hands over her bare shoulders as she kissed him, feeling the fire that she'd been fuelling for the past weeks course through him. Her fingers traced the slender scars on the back of his neck and sent a thrill through the gunman. Vincent kissed her fiercely, all the while caressing her and feeling that searing fire. He knew there was no place in this world for the fire that now burned brightly within him, but he didn't care. He just wanted to embrace her, to feel her soft hair and warm skin. To lose himself in the consuming heat and fire of love, for he knew that he most likely would never feel that love again for as long as breath was in his body.

They broke the kiss and gazed at each other. Vincent brushed her hair away from her face, his expression soft and faintly reminiscent of a young boy. Hellfire smiled softly as she gazed into the beautiful face of the gunman. His crimson eyes glittered in the dim light, filled with an emotion other than anger or sadness.

`Vincent, what-?' Hellfire said. Vincent shook his head, laying a hand over her mouth.

`Consider this an apology,' he whispered. `I was wrong to hurt you.' Hellfire smiled and caressed his face.

`I never blamed you,' she said softly. `Not once. You listened and understood when others wouldn't. That's all that matters to me.'

Vincent looked like he was warring with himself to say the very words she had previously spoken, but Hellfire shook her head.

`Don't,' she said softly. `Let's just embrace this moment while it lasts.'

Vincent responded to her with a kiss of heartbreaking gentleness. He cradled her face in his hand and she ran her fingers through his hair. They didn't move for the longest time.

Suddenly, a loud booming voice broke the moment.

`Everyone to the bridge on the pronto!' boomed the all-too-familiar voice of Cid. `We got some new information regarding Deep Ground.'

Vincent looked at Hellfire. `We'll continue this later.'

Hellfire smiled. `I'll await that moment with bated breath.'

Vincent grinned for the first time.