dragonchaser

Cosmo Canyon was a beautiful land, one he liked. It was, like him, ageless. No seasons, no advancements, naught but simple contentment.

Vincent ignored the guard asleep on his feet by the canyon’s entrance and strode forward into the village. It was a long way up to the observatory, but he didn’t mind all the stairs. It was nice to feel a hint of fatigue for once.

He knocked once at the door and schooled his face into a mask of uter indifference. In truth, he was glad to be in the canyon again, but it wouldn’t do for him to be smiling. A ghost of a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he wondered what his old friends’ reactions would be to the sight of him smiling. Not, of course, that they would ever see him smile. They were more acquaintences than friends, which he had intended from the start. No one could get close to him and survive.

The door opened from the inside, and he found himself looking into the mako eyes of Cloud Strife. Before he could say anything, Cloud had grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

Vincent had been expecting Nanaki, of course, and instinctively tensed against the forceful movement. “Strife,” he said tersely, “what are you doing?”

Now that he was safely within the house, Vincent could see Nanaki sitting on his haunches a few paces away. At the sight of the cloaked man, the lion-wolf had risen and loped over to him. “Thank Gaia,” he breathed, touching Vincent’s gloved hand with his nose.

Vincent’s frown deepened. He settled for giving them a crimson stare.

“We’ve been trying to contact you for months,” Cloud said, his voice strained. “It’s... you need to know what happened.”

“To whom?” Vincent asked, not bothering to blink. It wasn’t as if he actually needed to.

Both of the old members of AVALANCHE squirmed. “We should sit down,” Cloud said, turning to Nanaki’s kitchen. Vincent gave a slight nod before following them to the table. Nanaki jumped up onto a bench against the wall which let him see them over the table.

“Where have you been?” Nanaki asked after a moment’s pause.

Vincent lifted his shoulder in the smallest of shrugs. “Wandering.”

“We tried calling you, but they said your phone had been disconnected,” Cloud said.

Vincent’s lips curled ever so slightly. “My phone is currently giving a monster indigestion.”

Cloud’s eyebrows rose. “Even I haven’t managed to do that... but that’s not important. It was six months ago...”

“Do not skirt around the issue,” Vincent said when he realized Cloud wasn’t sure how to continue. “Simply tell me what occurred that has you so distressed.”

Nanaki nodded. “Six months ago, Shera Highwind was found murdered in her kitchen.”

Whatever Vincent had been expecting hadn’t been anything of that nature. He drew in a sharp breath. “What of Cid?” he asked, knowing full well the pilot would no doubt stop at nothing to get revenge.

Cloud sighed, sounding so dejected that Vincent had to wonder if his assumption had been wrong. “Cid... isn’t Cid.”

“Tch. Who would be?”

Nanaki shook his head, bangles jangling. “It is not what you think. For the first few months, he acted like you would expect: furious, guilty, vengeful. Reeve set up a small investigative squad to find Shera’s killer, but they came up empty-handed. Cid started to move on, but about a month ago... he completely changed. That man is not Cid Highwind, but bears his form.”

Vincent couldn’t help but raise a thoroughly skeptical eyebrow. “Do you mean to say that Cid has been replaced?”

“Possibly,” the lion-wolf assented.

Cloud saw Vincent’s disbelieving stare and coughed slightly, drawing the gunman’s attention to him. “I thought it was bullshit, too, when Nanaki told me Cid wasn’t Cid. So I took some time off and stayed with him, thinking Cid just needed... support. That’s not Cid at all. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but it isn’t him.”

“How is he different?” Vincent asked, deciding to play along with them for the moment.

“There’s no more passion left in him,” Cloud replied. “He still swears and bitches at everything, but he doesn’t care anymore. The Cid we know would never give up or give in, but he actually said to me that Shera didn’t matter. If you think that’s something Cid would say... anyway, you get the point. I came here to ask ol’ Red, and he says Cid doesn’t even smell right anymore.”

Nanaki gave Vincent a grave look. “I dislike denouncing myself to the likes of a mere beast, but Cid’s scent is very much off. Cid smells of cigarettes, tea, and oil normally, but there is something else there now, something that is not human.” Nanaki sighed and idly licked his paw. “It reminds me of the stench of mako, but much stronger.”

Vincent’s expression hardened. “I am sorry to hear of Shera’s death and Cid’s troubles, but I otherwise fail to see why you are telling me this. Doubtlessly the others know nothing of your suspicions.”

Cloud snorted in agreement. “Can you imagine Barret’s face if we told him? Honestly, we don’t have any proof, but we have a pretty strong hunch that something’s wrong. We were hoping you would be able to tell, but we didn’t know where you were.”

Nanaki gave a slight cough, or the closest equivalent of such a noise. “You arrived at a most convenient time. What brought you to Cosmo Canyon?”

Vincent gave a small shrug. “I thought I might check in on civilization. Cosmo Canyon was the only place I cared to visit.” He had briefly considered Wutai, but the mere thought of Yuffie Kisaragi had decimated that idea. He sighed. “I suppose you want me to go see Cid, or rather, not-Cid.”

“Unless you have something better to do,” Cloud said, a smile curving his lips.

“Feh.” He supposed he might as well, seeing as he would know in an instant if Cid was himself or something else. Cloud had enough mako to sense other living beings, but the raw power lying within Vincent could see into the depths of a man’s soul. And as Cloud had said, he truly had nothing better to do. It wasn’t as if he was employed or had an actual home. Rather, Vincent wandered through the world, quietly existing. And so he made his decision.

“Where is he?”

—\—


have you ever seen such a sight oh such a nice pretty sight

oh covered in blood and death and stop oh stop it hurts

no no no don’t wake it let it sleep sleep so deep so quiet inside

it won’t come out oh no it’s resting let me rest let me sleep

to sleep to dream to die