chipperDemon Blood
One year after the Deepground incident, Chaos has emerged once more from the planet. Does his coming foretell the world’s destruction, or is there a different meaning to his return?
Chapter 1 Hallelujah
“Vincent Valentine, it has been one year since the defeat of Omega. Why are you not joining the celebration?” Shelke asked. Vincent was leaning against the wall of Cloud’s villa in Costa De Sol in his usual broody fashion, merely watching as everyone else drank, danced, and had fun. He glanced at the brunette for a moment and said, “I’m only here because Tifa would have sent you looking for me had I done otherwise. I have no intention of joining the festivities.”
Many things had happened in the year since Omega’s defeat.
Cloud had moved out of the extra room in Seventh Heaven and had taken up residence in his Costa De Sol villa, which nobody could figure out how he came into ownership of it. He had tried to tell them that the former owner had sold it to him cheap while Meteor had still hung in the sky, but nobody believed him. Yuffie started a rumor that Cloud was in on some illegal Chocobo Race gambling scheme, but nobody believed that, either.
Denzel had moved into Cloud’s old room, giving Marlene the other one all to herself. Barrett had moved in, having proposed to Tifa after the battle with Deepground. They were married two months later, and ran Seventh Heaven together. Tifa had hired Shelke as a barmaid since she had needed some extra help, and Marlene was still a bit naïve to be serving alcohol to hordes of drunken men. Shelke had rented a small apartment a few blocks away from the bar, and hadn’t moved out since then.
Reeve and Yuffie were now engaged, even though Lord Godo wasn’t too happy about the situation. The two of them together were now working with the recently recovered Rufus ShinRa on restoring Kalm and Midgar. Rufus had tried to get them to let him handle all the reconstruction, but Yuffie would hear none of it. The two groups had been working together since then.
Cid and Shera had split up since the Deepground incident. About a month after the final battle with Omega, Shera up and disappeared from their home in
Vincent took up residence in the abandoned ShinRa mansion in Nibelheim. He had sealed up a lot of the underground tunnels and had made the mansion itself habitable. He had done this when he found that, without Chaos inside him, he was no longer immortal. Over the past year he had begun to feel his age catching up to him, and, even though he would never show it, this worried him.
“C’mon, Vince, you can’t just mope around the whole time,” a drunken Cid said as he stumbled over to him. Vincent gave a noise of disapproval at Cid’s demeanor and retorted, “I’m not going to make a drunken fool of myself as you have, Captain Highwind. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going inside where it’s not so hot.” With that, the gunman retreated indoors, distancing himself even further from the celebration.
Vincent sat in the common room for a few minutes, brooding once more over his past with Lucrecia. He had been able to mostly let go of her, realizing finally that she had only humored his infatuation with her because she had been in love with his father, Grimoire Valentine.
He spotted an old concert piano sitting close to the wall and found himself strangely called towards it. He dusted off the bench and opened the key tray with some protest from the disused hinges on the case. The instrument seemed to be in working order, and he began to play in order to see if it was in tune. Once he decided that it was, he began to draw Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata from the seemingly ancient device, his clawed gauntlet surprisingly not hindering him.
Only once he had finished the song did he notice that he had an audience. “Vincent, why didn’t you tell us that you can play piano?” Tifa asked curiously. Vincent stared down at the keys and said, “It never came up. It’s a useless skill, anyway. I’m sorry for disrupting your festivities.”
He moved to stand up, but Cloud’s firm grasp on his arm stopped him. “Hey, don’t let us stop you. This party is in your honor, so if you wanna use my dusty old piano, we’d be happy to listen to you play,” the blonde said.
Vincent sighed and said, “Fine, but it’s been a long time since I last played.”
He shifted back into position in front of the keys and began to draw out another slow tune, this time singing with the music.
I’ve heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the lord,
but you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth,
the minor fall, the major lift,
the baffled king composing hallelujah…
Hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah.
Your faith was strong, but you needed proof.
You saw her bathing on the roof;
her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you.
She tied you to her kitchen chair,
she broke your throne and she cut your hair,
and from your lips she drew the hallelujah…
Hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah.
Baby, I’ve been here before;
I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked this floor.
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch,
but love is not a victory march;
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah…
Hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah.
There was a time when you let me know
what's really going on below,
but now you never show that to me, do you?
I remember when I moved in you,
the holy dark was moving too,
and every breath we drew was hallelujah
Hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah.
Maybe there's a god above,
but all I've ever learned from love
was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.
It's not a cry that you hear at night,
it's not somebody who's seen the light,
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah…
Hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah.
Hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah.
For a few moments the entire room was still. Then, Vincent rose from the piano bench and left the room without another word.
He left the villa and went to the beach, not caring about the stares he got for wearing black leather and a heavy cape in a place like Costa De Sol. He found a deserted area by the safety fence and sat on the half-rotten planks, mulling over what he had just done. He hadn’t meant to pour out his feelings like that, but something about that piano had drawn it out of him, and he’d had to get away from it before he revealed anything else.
Back at the villa, everyone was absolutely speechless. When the initial shock wore off, Cid said, “Damn, that was fuckin’ amazing.” Tifa nodded and said, “Yeah, it was. I never knew he was so talented.” “None of us did. He’s so secretive, it’s a wonder that we know anything about him,” Cloud said as he continued to stare at the piano. “That’s the thing, though; we don’t know anything about him,” Reeve said with a frown, holding Yuffie close. Shelke nodded and said, “Indeed; the only thing that we know for certain is that he had an unrequited love with
The group stayed quiet for a few more minutes before, finally, Cloud made the decision that they should go look for him. However, before they could do that, Vincent returned to the villa, acting as if nothing had happened.
When he saw everyone staring at him, he glared back and said, “What?” Shelke walked up to him and responded, “Vincent Valentine, it is rude to leave during your own party.”
He made a small sound of acknowledgement and said, “Sorry, I needed some air. However, I am afraid that I must be leaving now. It is almost sundown, and I wish to return to Nibelheim before tomorrow.” “Aw, come on and stay a while longer. I can get ya back to that spooky old mansion in two hours on the Highwind,” Cid offered, throwing back the rest of his beer.
Vincent pondered this for a moment and eventually nodded, saying, “Very well, Captain Highwind. I will take you up on that offer, but I’m still not drinking.”
It was close to midnight when Cid had finally passed out, and it was then that Vincent made the decision to simply haul him out to the Highwind and take him back to the mansion with him. Vincent said his goodbyes and brought Cid to the airship. The crew just sighed and started up the engines, having seen their captain passed out drunk too many times to count since the divorce.
The crew was all grateful when Vincent offered to take Cid in for the night, and they helped him drag him up to the guest bedroom on the mansion’s second floor. When Cid was in bed and sleeping soundly, the pilot turned to Vincent and said, “Thanks for taking in the Captain for the night. He’s been an absolute mess since the divorce a few months ago, so we’re all glad to see that he has such good friends. We’ll pick him up tomorrow evening after his inevitable hangover has had time to smooth out. Here’s his tea kettle and a box of his favorite tea. He likes three cups when he wakes up, no sugar or anything else. Thanks again, Mr. Valentine, for taking care of him for the night. I’ll see you tomorrow.” The pilot handed Vincent the tea kettle and left, leaving the mansion silent except for Cid’s loud snoring and the occasional creak of an old shutter.
Vincent put the tea and kettle in the kitchen and trudged his way to the basement where his coffin was. He simply didn’t feel comfortable sleeping anywhere else, having slept in that coffin for thirty years. However, when he opened his coffin this time, he discovered that it wasn’t empty. Inside Vincent’s coffin was none other than Chaos, Omega’s harbinger of destruction.
The demon’s golden eyes shot open and he stared at Vincent. The cloaked gunman barely had time to register the demon’s presence before the dark being lunged at him, fangs and claws bared.
Vincent was slammed into the wall across from his coffin, forcing the air from his lungs with an abrupt cough. He winced from the impact when the back of his head hit the wall, praying to Gaia that he didn’t have a concussion.
“We finally meet face-to-face, Vincent Valentine. You’re working a bit worse for wear since we were a single entity,” the demon said, looking Vincent over as he held him to the wall. “What would you know about my health, Chaos?” Vincent asked with defiance and a glare. Chaos looked directly into Vincent’s eyes and said, “I know that time has been catching up to you since my departure, mortal.”
“Why have you returned, you fiend?” Vincent queried with a glare. “I see you’re still blunt and to-the-point. Very well; I shall tell you why I have returned. I wish to observe life on this planet from the view of its inhabitants. However, I need a host for my spirit if I am to retain a physical form for an extended period of time. Since we had been bonded in a similar way before, it is logical to ask you to be my host once more,” Chaos said, slackening his grip slightly.
“If you need a host so desperately, why not simply take control of my body as you did before? It should be easy for you now that the Protomateria is gone,” Vincent said as he observed the demon for the first time. He didn’t look very different from the final battle with Weiss and Omega, except for the Protomateria’s glow being absent from his chest. “I require a willing host for my observations from the physical realm. Do you know of any other people that would be willing to even consider becoming my host?” Chaos retorted with a slight growl.
“If you agree to be my host for the duration of my stay in the physical realm, I will fulfill one request of yours to the fullest extent of my abilities,” said the demon. Vincent pondered the consequences of what such an action could mean. Omega had been defeated, and there hadn’t been any signs of its return. Finding no reason to deny the dark fiend’s request, Vincent said, “In return for becoming your willing host, I want you to return my son to the realm of the living as well.”
Chaos grinned, a truly intimidating sight, and released his hold on the gunman. He held out his palm, and a small turquoise flame appeared. The dark harbinger of destruction closed his clawed hand around the flame, crushing it. When he opened his hand again, a small plume of smoke appeared before dissipating.
“It is done; Sephiroth has been returned, body and soul, to the physical realm. However, I do not know where he was sent. Now, since I have fulfilled my end of our bargain, I expect you to live up to your end,” Chaos said before his form began dissolving. As he disappeared, a sphere of energy floated in his place. When he had vanished completely, Vincent’s feet touched the dusty basement floor again, and the energy ball shone with a dark brilliance.
Vincent gazed at the orb for a moment before reaching it, only for it to shoot towards him and embed itself in his chest. An icy feeling began to build from where the sphere disappeared and started to spread rapidly throughout Vincent’s entire body. He clutched at his chest as his breath started coming in short gasps. On shaky legs, the dark gunman stumbled across the musty room to his coffin. With a sharp outcry of pain, his vision went dark.
When Vincent regained consciousness, the candles in the room had extinguished themselves. He sat up slowly in his coffin, going through the events with Chaos. “Did I do the right thing in granting his request?” Vincent thought to himself as he rose from his grim resting place.
He went upstairs into the house and went to the master bath. There was light shining in through the shutters on the aged mansion, signifying that the sun had already risen. Sounds of the townspeople milling about their daily work could be heard in the distance along with the usual creaking of the gunman’s dark home.
He turned the lights on in the bathroom, but immediately regretted the harsh change in brightness and turned them off again. He walked over to the sink and peered into the mirror mounted on the wall behind it. Nothing about his physical appearance had changed much; he was still pale but with a smidgen more pigment than before, his eyes were still red, and his hair was still black.