Viral Love

Our buggy ran out of gas less than ten miles from Nibelheim. Valentine stomped around for a few minutes, frustration painting his fine features. At last, he picked up the bag he’d brought and slung it onto his shoulder. “Half a million gil sitting in the wilderness for the picking of any random thief,” he complained.

“It isn’t worth forty thousand gil,” I said, climbing out. “Forget about it.” I was still furious with him, but some of my anger had drained. The last three hours he’d not said a word, but I could see him processing everything I’d told him.

I should have gone farther in pretending to rape him. Perhaps that would have driven my lesson home more effectively. But, I hadn’t lied when I told him I couldn’t get my cock hard to rape. I sometimes pulled amazing boners while doing odious things, but in his case I just couldn’t manage it.

Again with the endless walking. I kept his pace easily today, having a good head of angry steam propelling me. I could see Mt. Nibel easily now, and even feel the breeze coming off its frozen top. It mixed with the hot, humid air here and created puffs of tolerable temperatures. I smelled rain in our future.

Valentine stopped under a tree and took off his bag. He pulled a canteen from it, drank and handed it over. “If I endlessly apologize, what will it help?” he asked.

I drank, gave his canteen back and sighed. “One apology that’s sincere has more weight than a thousand apologies meant only to make things easier,” I answered. “But, fine, Valentine. Just chalk this all up to getting back at me for the things I’ve done, and let it go.” I thought we’d progressed past petty revenge, but I supposed I’d figured wrongly. The Turk could hold a grudge and nurse it close to his undead heart for centuries.

Valentine leaned on the tree, closed his eyes and shivered. “Then, Hojo, where’s my apology?” he asked. “Even after learning I didn’t want you to make me into some sort of mystical creature, you didn’t say you were sorry.”

“You want to play that game?” My anger came crashing back. “Where’s my apology for fucking my wife through a mattress for six months?”

His eyes snapped open. “That was different from this and you know it.”

“Yes, it is, because you and Lucrecia were consenting adults. I didn’t agree to share her, though, did I? Maybe if I’d gotten even a mostly insincere act of contrition from either one of you, I wouldn’t have felt entitled to make you into a lab toy.” I didn’t want to talk about this, not at all. Our sins stacked upon themselves, making an absolute mountain of tainted remorse. “I couldn’t make up for what I did to you, Valentine, not ever, not even if I could undo everything. Even the attempt to express my regret would accomplish nothing but insulting you.”

“Then why are you so goddamn determined to get a pound of flesh from me right now?” he demanded, angling his long body off the tree trunk and progressing toward me.

“Because you aren’t me, Valentine!” I shouted, meeting his advance. “It goes against your nature to do what you did yesterday, so much so that you won’t even look at it!”

Chest to chest we stood, glaring at each other. Heat, resentment and frustration rolled off of him in waves. He took me by the shoulders and shook me, hard. “Who are you to be my conscience, or to be anyone’s conscience for that matter?” he asked harshly. “You’re the cruelest creature I’ve ever known, Hojo. You can torture and murder before and after every fucking meal!”

“Well, so can you, Turk!” I shouted right back, shoving against him. “Don’t take the moral high ground just because you can’t fucking remember the things you do!”

Before I knew it we were tumbling on the ground, throwing punches. Jesus Christ he could hit hard. I blocked and defended as well as I could, but he was fast, so fast I barely followed his fists. I deliberately hit him in his sore abdomen, once, twice, three times, listening to the air escape him.

He broke my nose. I threw a finger stab into his femoral nerve, making him collapse. But, it didn’t last. He rolled atop me and rained down a series of hits that would have killed me had I not boasted mako and Jenova augmentation. I threw him off me and leaped upon him, absolutely enraged.

“Does this make you feel better, Turk?” I asked, targeting every vulnerable nerve I could reach. “Does this make your universe more orderly?” I could taste blood in my mouth, in my throat, flowing freely from my broken nose. “Will it make you feel better if I treat you like a lab specimen again? Here, have a good sulk! I’ll make it worth your while!”

“Goddamn you, Hojo!” Valentine pitched me backward, and I hit the tree with my back. I hit it so hard I heard it crack. Stunned, I slid down, breathing hard. In seconds he towered over me. I watched his hand coming closer and closer to my body. At the last second, I grabbed his wrist and flung him back to the hard earth.

Again I pinned him. I had a thousand techniques for subduing a rowdy specimen, and only half of them involved my tentacles. Valentine had superior strength and agility, but I knew exactly where to put pressure on a body. He couldn’t move.

Horror crept into his red gaze. Finally, he showed me fear. He showed me he understood we were an equal match. I almost felt sorry for him. He probably had only ever gotten this sort of humbling from me. “That’s right,” I said, enjoying the way he suddenly stiffened and tremored. “How many times do I have to remind you, Valentine, before you’ll bear in mind what I can do? How many fucking times?” I leaned closer. “You take all that I did to you, all the tampering and modification, and you remember I was my own lab specimen long before you ever came out from between mommy’s legs.”

He closed his eyes. Taking that for his surrender, I got off of him. I pinched my nostrils shut to stop the flow of blood, then set the cartilage back in order. “I’ve let you bully me, shove me around, tell me what to do, and I haven’t complained,” I told him, watching him get to his feet. “But you crossed a fucking line at the Gold Saucer. I don’t take dick from anyone I don’t want, not anymore. I’m not your property.”

I turned on my heel and set off for Nibelheim, not even bothering to look back and see if he followed.