By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Tifa sat at Vincent’s side in the infirmary. They had now been back for several hours and Tifa hadn’t seen the slightest hint of movement from him for a long while. When his eyes finally fluttered open, she was filled with relief and excitement. "Vincent, are you all right?"

He stared up at her getting his bearings. "I think so…"

There was no way for Tifa to know that she wasn’t really dealing with her husband at all. "How do you feel?"

"Tired." He forced a false smile. "I don’t want them to drug me anymore."

"I know, but they are just worried that Chaos will come back out if you are allowed to be awake." She replied.

He struggled futilely against his restraints for a moment; not able to break them with Vincent’s weakened body. "You’re not going to tell them that I’m up, are you?"

She shook her head, fairly certain that he couldn’t get up anyway. "No, and Dr. Arlin won’t be back for a while."

This seemed to please him. Chaos knew that in order to generate his own body it was going to take a huge expense of energy but that was the only way he was going to get off this bed. He decided to try his chances with getting Tifa to free him. "Can you loosen these restraints?"

Tifa looked down to where the strap was cinched around one of his wrists. As much as she truly did want to let him go, Tifa knew better than to do so. Tseng had made his point earlier and she was not about to defy him again. "I’m sorry Vincent, but I can’t."

Anger flashed through his eyes and he fought against the restraints with just a little more force. With Tifa having told Vincent and thus Chaos earlier on the airship that there was a plan to kill the demon, Chaos was determined to escape. "God damned it, let me up!"

Suddenly she realized that something wasn’t right. Tifa scanned the infirmary for help but soon realized that she and Vincent were completely alone. There was a call button on the wall just a short ways away and she ran over to it. She hit the button hard with her fist. "This is Tifa, Chaos is trying to get out!"

Dr. Arlin’s voice crackled back over the intercom. "Get out of there, Tifa! I’m on my way."

Tifa spun back around, knowing that she needed to get out of the room before Chaos managed to do anything. Her eyes landed upon Vincent and she gasped to catch her breath.

The demon was using all of his strength to take over Vincent’s body and make it his own long enough for him to break free. His scaled flesh was quickly enveloping Vincent’s metallic body, and his upper body was now totally Chaos.

She covered her mouth with her hands in her moment of shock. Chaos was between her and the door and she didn’t know how she was going to escape.

The demon managed to finally complete his transformation and with his own arms he ripped away the restraints from the bed. Once free he hopped to the ground, having to stoop slightly to keep from hitting his head on the low ceiling of the room. His wings briefly stretched out behind him before being folded away.

"Stop it!" She screamed, somehow hoping that she would be able to purge the demon from her husband.

The truth was that Vincent’s own mind was still drugged enough as to be completely unaware of what was going on, giving Chaos no competition. He looked back at Tifa’s direction momentarily and snorted. "I have no time for you now."

Tifa remained rooted to her spot as she watched Chaos make his way through the door and out into the hallway. She followed him as best she could, until she felt someone grab her from behind. She glanced over her shoulder to see that Dr. Arlin had caught up and halted her. "Let me go! What are you doing?"

Dr. Arlin continued to hold her as Reno and Tseng ran by with their weapons drawn. "Let them handle this, Tifa."

"No!" She screamed after the two men passed, terrified that they would kill the demon and in the process her husband. "Please, I have to help him!"

"Tifa, listen to me," the doctor forced her to turn around and look at her, "We’ve been through this a thousand times! The chances of you getting hurt going after that demon are too high and if something did happen to you we all know that Vincent wouldn’t be able to live with it. Tseng and Reno will do everything that they can to contain him. You know they don’t want to hurt Vincent anymore than you do."

Tifa was shaking badly and tears were in her eyes. "This is all my fault… Tseng told me not to tell Vincent that we had a way to get rid of Chaos but I was so mad that I did it anyway…"

"It’s okay Tifa." Dr. Arlin spoke in a calmer tone. "Who’s to say that Chaos wouldn’t have done this anyway? It’s just as much my fault for not keeping him under heavier sedation."

Whether or not this was true didn’t matter to Tifa. The guilt that she was being riddled with was overwhelming. "What have I done?"

***

Reno and Tseng pursued the demon as well they could. The monster was able to run much faster than any human, much less one as hopelessly out of shape as Reno and one with a heart condition. It was obvious from the path they were taking that Chaos knew where he was going; he was heading for the airfield.

Tseng was falling behind, being limited by the growing tension in his chest. When they were almost to the door outside, he collapsed to all fours.

Reno heard the sound behind him and stopped, seeing his boss on the ground. "Tseng!"

The older man pointed toward the door and yelled, "Never mind me, don’t let him get away!"

Reno debated momentarily whether to stay or follow his boss’s orders but when he saw Tifa and Dr. Arlin come around the corner he knew that Tseng was in good hands and so continued his pursuit.

Chaos had made it out into the night air and looked around. He needed to find a hiding place quickly before his strength ran out and he lost control of Vincent’s body again. He saw the lights of the town just a short ways off and unfurled his wings, taking to the air.

Reno sprinted after the demon as best he was able but by the time he reached the boundary of the airfield, he had lost sight of the beast in the dark sky.