The accommodations on the Highwind were fairly sparse, and Vincent found himself forced to share a room with Red XIII. He wasn’t particularly thrilled about having to share a room but at least Red wasn’t a human. Still, Vincent would have been just as happy to have slept up on deck but Cid forbade him from doing that.

"Not on my ship, mister." Cid had told Vincent. "It’ll do you some good to have to interact with others. That’s how the world works, you know."

Vincent awoke some time during the night. He scanned the room around him, trying to remember where he was. There, laying on the floor, Red was looking back up at him with his one amber eye.

"You’re up?" The cat asked in a whisper.

Vincent sat up, somewhat unnerved to see the cat staring up at him. He was still too groggy to speak.

Red sensed the rise in Vincent’s heart rate and purred in amusement at having elicited such a response from this particular human. "Sorry if I startled you."

He just blinked in response to the cat’s words. Then, in an attempt to free himself of his tiredness, he ran his hands across his ivory face. "I just forgot where I was for a minute, that’s all."

Although Red found humans strange, this one was even more so. But Red knew that this was the one human who could understand him. Vincent had been held captive by Hojo just as he had. Only this man knew what it was like to be continually tortured and experimented on by the insane scientist.

Vincent knew what was on the cat’s mind. This had been the first time since Vincent had joined the group that they had been alone. He knew what their conversation inevitably had to be about. "So, what all did Hojo do to you?"

The cat smiled and then nodded in the direction of Vincent’s crumpled coat. "I will tell you, but first I want a little of whatever you have in your coat over there."

Vincent reached over and brought his coat to him. Cold blooded killer or not, he had a sweet tooth, and there was always candy stuffed into his pockets. He pulled out a small foil wrapped chocolate and removed its wrapper. He stopped just short of tossing it to the cat. "Chocolate is bad for cats."

Red narrowed his eye. "I have been smelling that candy all God damned day. Just give me it!"

Vincent smiled and let the candy go into the air. The cat caught it cleanly in the mouth and it was quickly swallowed.

"Now," Vincent laid back down on his side so that he could look at his roommate, "tell me your story."

"Alright." Red flicked his tail. "Being the last of my kind, I was naturally an object of interest to Hojo. He managed to trap me as I was out scouting the desert one day. I was kept fairly well tranquilized for the duration of my captivity, so my memories are a bit clouded. He placed these I.D. markings on me, branding me as one of his specimens."

"Oh…" Vincent sighed lazily. "Your missing eye…did he do that?"

The lion growled. "Yes, and I’ll be damned if I know why. All the blood and tissue samples he took from me, it’s amazing that there is anything left at all."

Vincent laughed, not really meaning to do so. As relaxed as he was, his stone façade was down, and the cat was seeing the real Vincent, something no one else on the Highwind could claim. "I’m sorry, it’s not funny but…aw hell, yeah it is."

The cat sat up. "Your turn."

Vincent closed his eyes briefly. "Not much to it. Hojo shot me for interfering in his experiment with Lucrecia. Instead of letting me die, he thought it would be entertaining to see what he could, shall we say, rebuild of me." He raised his cybernetic arm.

Red sensed the depth of Vincent’s pain, and came to his side. "We will get him, right?"

Vincent instinctively reached out and patted the top of the cat’s head. There was something very therapeutic about doing so. Having grown up in the city, he had never had much contact with animals. "Yeah, I’m sure we will."

Red continued to allow Vincent to muss with his fur. He would have usually walked away from someone doing this, as it made him feel like a pet, but he could sense how it calmed the human. "I hope so. I guess all of us have a bone to pick with him. You, me, Cloud…all of us."

Vincent sighed, "Yes we do. Hey, don’t you dare tell any of the others that I can be friendly."

The cat smiled again. "Wouldn’t dream of it. I know you have an image to maintain."

Vincent didn’t respond, and his hand soon fell away from the cat. He had fallen back to sleep still having the blue foil from the candy clasped between two of the blades on his claw.