Guilt’s Cost: Part XCI
Insanity
By Kristen Gupton-Williams
Please pardon the rash of typos certain to be in this chapter. It is very late and I am very tired. J
Vincent felt his consciousness return to him. Even before he was able to open his eyes he noticed that things were different. Instead of being strapped to the cold table, he realized that he was lying in some type of bed. At once he grew confused, realizing that he wasn’t restrained in any way. Slowly his eyes managed to open and he found himself staring up into the dim fluorescent light flickering above. He could feel his heart beat in his ears, and he felt sluggish and groggy.
Hojo was sitting in the corner in a chair, waiting for the moment when Vincent would come back around. The scientist had spent several hours working on him, and it was now growing to be late afternoon. Hojo had lost all track of time however, being too absorbed in his work on him beloved Mr. Valentine to notice. When he saw Vincent’s eyes finally flutter open he rose from his seat and walked over. "Good, you’re finally awake, Mr. Valentine."
Vincent turned his head to the side slightly to see the scientist coming towards him. The mere sight of Hojo made him sick and he looked back up at the ceiling again. He felt something covering him and struggled to see his body, which was draped with the same bloody sheet that had been thrown over Tifa earlier. Strangely enough, one of the first things that he noticed was her scent still upon it. The way that the sheet was laying confused Vincent to some degree. It looked as though he had an intact body beneath it.
That’s when Vincent realized that he could feel his extremities again. Both of his arms and legs, and they felt almost normal. Vincent sat up, but was forced to close his eyes as he did so from the incredible pain in his head. Once he was upright, he brought his hands up from under the sheet and held them out. Half filled with dread at what he would find, Vincent allowed his eyes to open again. His expression at once turned to disgust as he came to see what Hojo had given him. Both of his arms had been replaced with new cybernetic prosthetics, but they in no way looked like human hands. They were made of a black metal and were proportionate to what his real arms and hands would have been to his body, but they were almost skeletal in appearance. Above the wrist and up to the shoulder his arms were constructed of the same black metal, but the armor plating over them gave his arms some substance to their appearance. He reached down and grasped the sheets with his new hands. The tactile sensitivity of the mechanical fingers approximated that of his previous human skin, but this went unnoticed as he simply used them to rip the sheet away and cast it to the floor.
Vincent came to see that from the waist down he was completely robotic now. His androgynous doll like lower body was made in the same style and material as his arms. Slowly he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and slid to his feet. He continued to stare there looking down at his new body, heartbroken at what he had been turned in to.
Hojo watched the whole spectacle with great interest. He was almost as interested in Vincent’s reaction to his new body as he was the result of his new cybernetic prosthetics functionality. "Do you approve, Mr. Valentine? I should point out that you have been relieved of your reproductive system in its entirety. Since you would never have been able to impregnate a woman due to your altered genetic condition, I did not feel the need to further burden you with their anatomical presence. Take note, however, that for eliminations you will be required to sit for both functions now. I wouldn’t want to you make a mess of yourself. I can’t wait to see how well these new limbs work for you."
Vincent’s fists clenched and he brought up his hate filled gaze to meet Hojo’s own. If Hojo wanted to see how well these new limbs worked, then Vincent felt more than obliged to show him. He shrugged off the last of his grogginess and bolted toward the madman.
Strangely, Hojo didn’t seem that concerned as Vincent rushed toward him. When Vincent was only a few paces away, Hojo muttered one simple word. "Collapse."
A started cry escaped Vincent as he suddenly lost all feeling and power in his limbs. He dropped to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His face struck the concrete floor and his mouth at once tasted of blood.
Hojo howled with laughter at the sight. "Mr. Valentine! I should have warned you that the circuits that carry the signals to and from your nerves are in communication with my computer. Upon my word, you will lose all mobility as you have just seen. You can do your best to attack me, but your attempts will do no more than result in another nasty fall. Let’s try this again, and this time I want to you behave. Power on."
Just as quickly as the sensation of his limbs had been lost it returned and Vincent managed to get to his knees. Upon his fall his teeth had bit into his lip terribly and the pain was intense, although nothing compared to what he had been through before. He hung his head and allowed the blood to drip down to the floor between his knees.
Hojo cocked an eyebrow as he saw Vincent’s shoulders begin to heave and his breaths start to grow jagged. "Mr. Valentine, this is no time to break down. Why should you be crying at a time like this? You have a functional body again, I should think that you would be grateful!"
Vincent threw his head back and gazed up into the light. Having the last vestiges of normalcy ripped from his body was more than he could bear. He had suffered so much at the hands of this man, and had endured it fearing for Tifa’s safety. Now she was no longer in danger and he didn’t have to worry about what would happen if he let himself go. Something deep within Vincent’s mind shattered.
"What?" Hojo grew confused as he realized that Vincent wasn’t crying at all. He was laughing. "Mr. Valentine?"
Vincent howled with an insane cackle. The rational part of his mind was completely gone and his body was gripped in gut wrenching throws of maddened laughter. As his body convulsed in his outburst, he outstretched his arms.
Hojo grew frightened at what he was witnessing. He had seen victims snap before, but this seemed different. This wasn’t the temporary type of shock that most people under duress slipped into; this was out and out insanity. The thought that he had pushed his dear specimen to this extent of lunacy confounded him. Not knowing what else to do, and fearing that Vincent in this state might hurt himself, Hojo again gave the command. "Collapse."
Vincent’s body again went limp and he sank into a heap on the floor. Even this did not stop his break down and he continued to squeal in madness as he flopped over onto his back.
"You need to get a hold of yourself." Hojo said, backing up towards the door. "I will give you some time alone now, Mr. Valentine."
Vincent was oblivious to the fact that the scientist had slipped out of the room as his body continued to be shaken with howls.
Hojo locked the door behind him and reached into his pocket. He found Vincent’s wedding ring within and pulled it out. As he stood there staring at the gold band he sighed. He never would have suspected that Vincent had a breaking point as he had lasted through so much up until this point. No one had ever even come close to tolerating what he had and it was because of this that Hojo had become careless, believing that Vincent would never lose his mind. For another rare instance, Hojo had erred, and he didn’t like it. He slipped the ring onto his own finger, more than a little pleased to see that it fit and Hojo decided to keep it on. "You belong to me, Mr. Valentine. I know that you’re trying to escape via insanity, but I won’t let you get away. I know you’ll come back to me. We still have so much to do… I know you will come back. All you need is a little time to regain control of you faculties, and I will grant you that time."
Even through the closed door, Vincent’s break down continued to ring through the lab. It would take more than time for him to be normal again; much more.