Haunted
Part Three

Rating: R
Category: AU
Pairing(s): Cid/Vincent, Rufus/Reeve
Warnings: Violence, gross stuff
Summary: Cid agrees to look after Rufus while he gets settled into his home in Nibelheim. However the old Shinra Mansion still has a few surprises left in its darkened halls.
Notes:
Click here if you haven't read Part One
Click here if you haven't read Part Two

The first thing Cid did was call Vincent, hoping that he was not the one responsible for whatever was going on. He reached him at the hotel, and it seemed he had been firmly asleep when the call came through.

“Mrphlb?”

“Valentine! Where are you?”

“Asleep in bed with… some big freaking spider on your pillow.”

“So you are not here and you did not do something horrid to Reeve and Rufus’ cat?”

“What? No! I’ve scared people, I never hurt them!”

“Well Reeve and…” Cid looked to Rufus. “What’s your cat’s name?”

“Dark Nation.”

“Is that what you call her?”

“No I call her Princess Esmeralda Fuzzy-Butt.”

“What do your Turks call her?”

“Rufus your fucking cat took my shoe.”

Cid turned back to the phone. “Reeve and Rufus’ fucking cat went to the back of the house and have not been seen since.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Cid closed the phone, then looked to Rufus. “You’ll be happy to know the thing that’s been living in the basement and scaring your boyfriend and caretaker is on its way over.”

“Oh goodie. Call my Turks.”

Cid handed him the phone. “You call your Turks, I’m gonna bolt the door.”

Vincent arrived in minutes, appearing in the room in a swirl of red and black mist. Cid raised an eyebrow.

“Well that explains why locking the door didn’t work.”

“What happened to Reeve?”

“We don’t know,” said Cid. “He was following the cat to see where she hid his satchel and he never came back. That was two hours ago.”

“Vincent,” said Rufus, “is there anything in this house we need to know about? You’ve lived here thirty years…”

“A few monsters, but they seem to have been all cleared out. Nothing Reeve couldn’t have handled.”

“Reeve’s not really a fighter,” said Rufus, “If something surprised him…”

“As soon as the Turks get here we’ll go look for him,” said Cid. “We can’t leave you alone.”

Tseng, Reno, Rude and Elena showed up a few minutes later. Cid unlocked the bedroom door to let them in, and braced himself for the anticipated disagreement about who went and who stayed, but Rufus himself took command of the situation.

“Rude, you stay here with me. Tseng, you, Elena and Reno go with Cid and Vincent.”

They may have argued with Cid, but they did not argue with Rufus. However at the mention of Vincent’s name, four heads abruptly turned to look at him, just now noticing the tall, quiet figure standing at the far side of the room.

“Who invited you?” asked Reno.

“I did,” said Cid. “You got a problem with that?”

“Well no, other than he’s been scaring the shit out of us, writing on mirrors in blood and trying to drive us away. Killing Reeve might just be a great way to do that.”

“Except he spent the night with me last night,” said Cid. “Whatever it was that grabbed Reeve didn’t do it until after Vincent left the house.”

The Turks stared at Cid, blinking. He stared back, confused.

“What?” said Cid.

“You…? And the vampire?” said Reno.

“Gorgon,” said Vincent.

“And who I spend the night with is none of your business, Mr. I’m-Not-Here-Fucking-Cloud-Really-Honest-Truly.”

Elena looked at Reno, jaw hanging. “You’re fucking Cloud?”

“Well not at the moment!” said Reno.

“We can argue about who is fucking whom after we find my boyfriend,” said Rufus. “Cid says Vincent spent the night with him and I believe him. Now get looking.”

Rude seated himself on the window seat, and the other Turks filed into the hall. Cid just shrugged, then looked to Vincent.

“C’mon.”

They followed after the Turks, Cid noticing they were not heading for the secret door to the basement.

“Where are we going?” asked Cid.

“Well if Reeve was following Dark, then they would not have gone down,” said Elena. “Dark always heads ‘up’ when she steals something. Her species is arboreal. If she had a toy, chances are she would put it in the highest room in the house. Does this place have an attic?”

“It does,” said Tseng, “but I have no idea how Dark would have found it. The stairway is behind a secret panel in the wall. It’s this way…”

He led then down the hall to the room with the secret panel that led downstairs, but that was not where he went. Instead he turned left and took the short hall to another room, walking into the tiny chamber and over to a wall, pausing as he saw that it was broken open, and there were large cat prints all around.

“Well I guess we know how she got into the wall,” said Reno. “Reeve must have followed her.”

“I didn’t know this place even existed,” said Vincent.

“Only the highest level Turks did, along with those who had authorized access,” said Tseng. “You would have not been of a high enough rank yet.”

“What went on there?” asked Cid warily, peering into the black hole.

“Horrors,” said Tseng quietly. “Unspeakable horrors. This was the lab where they conducted their experiments on the unborn infants. This… is the portal to hell.”

The small group stood in silence, gazing at the darkness within the hole. Anything could be in there; monsters and freaks gone insane from years of isolation, nightmare creatures awaiting a chance to eat human flesh. Cid looked to Vincent.

“You can stay here if you want. No one will blame you if you don’t want to go in there.”

“I don’t want to go in there,” said Vincent quietly. “But I don’t want to leave Reeve and the cat in there either.”

Cid gave him a brief squeeze, then slipped into the large hole ahead of the others, looking around. The narrow passage he found himself in was dark and damp, leading to his left and heading for an equally narrow flight of steps that went up. Slowly, Cid followed the stairs up to a small door, pushing it open.

Dark greeted him franticly, leaping up to put her paws on his shoulders, pushing herself into this arms, seeking comfort and assurance. Cid held the great cat, petting her head and speaking softly to her. As he looked her over, he saw that someone had taken what seemed to be whip to her. She was badly beaten and desperate for someone to give her positive attention. Cid doubted very much that anyone had ever raised a hand to her in her life, so being beaten bloody would have been a new and devastating experience for her.

“Go find Daddy,” he said to her, and the huge, leggy black animal did so without further encouragement. Moments later Vincent appeared by his side.

“Rufus will have a fit when he sees what was done to her,” said Vincent.

“I think she took a pounding defending Reeve,” said Cid. “She is trained to attack, but I don’t think anyone ever fought back before.”

They stepped further into the room, the Turks coming into the small, cluttered room after them, and paused to look around. It was a regular chamber of horrors, and the miniature scale of most of the equipment clearly showed it was meant to be used on the very smallest and most helpless of victims. It was enough to make a person vomit.

“I don’t normally say things like this,” said Elena as Reno distastefully examined tiny shackles on a small examination table, “But these people need to fucking die. Horribly.”

“You won’t hear any disagreement from me,” said Cid. “Reeve! Are you up here?”

“Reno,” said Tseng. “Open that large window behind you. Let’s start throwing this garbage out the window. The cleaning crew can take it away when they come.”

Reno opened the window. It was enormous, and it was likely this room had once been used to observe the stars before it was converted to a hidden lab, and the huge observation windows hidden behind boards. Reno and Tseng managed to tear the boards away, spilling the old wood down to the ground, and began ripping up the equipment and throwing it out. Slowly the badly cluttered room cleared out. It was by no means a large room, but it was packed with as much equipment as it could possibly hold and still have room for the scientists to work. Finally everything was out save for an enormous free-standing wardrobe, and Reno grasped the handles, pulling the doors open.

Reeve fell out of the wardrobe, Reno only just managing to catch him and ease him down to the floor. He clearly had been in a fight with something; his clothes were torn, and he was covered in whip marks. Tseng moved forward to kneel beside him.

“Reeve! What happened?”

Reeve coughed, blood crusted on his lips. “It was Hojo. I don’t know where he came from or how long he’s been here, but it was him.”

“What was he armed with?” asked Tseng.

“Nothing,” said Reeve. “He’s been experimenting on himself. Injecting himself with Jenova cells. He’s not human any more.”

“Assuming he ever was,” said Cid. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He left after pushing me into the wardrobe. He must have heard you coming. I couldn’t hear anything in there. I think he soundproofed it somehow.”

“Well he didn’t go the way we came,” said Elena. “There has to be another exit. Reeve can you stand?”

Reeve managed to get to his feet, shaking visibly. Tseng went to his side, helping to support him as he glanced at his companions.

“I’ll take him to Rufus. You guys see if you can find the hidden door, and then wait for me. I don’t want anyone playing the hero with a Jenova-based monster.”

“No worries about that,” said Reno. “I don’t want to take it on even with all of us there.”

Tseng helped Reeve out of the room, and the group began searching for the door. The wardrobe was pulled aside as they searched the walls, pulling free any loose boards, then searching the floor for hidden trap doors.

“I can’t find anything and we’ve torn the room apart,” said Cid. “Is it possible he did slip by us?”

“I don’t see how,” said Elena. “I mean where would he have gone?”

Cid was wondering that very thing when his attention was attracted by Vincent as he walked to the center of the room and looked up. Feeling a chill down his spine, Cid slowly looked up as well, and felt a shock of cold fear shoot through himself as he spied something firmly attached to the ceiling.

The over-all appearance was rather like a gigantic glob of nasal mucus with spider-webbing holding it to the rafters. It was grey and glistening and stomach-churning, and clearly not the work of any natural creature. Thin fine tentacles hung down, turning and twisting slowly, and in the middle of the disgusting mass was a face. Cid had only just enough time to realize what he was starting at and prepare to throw his lance when three tentacles shot down, grabbing him around the neck, arm, and leg, yanking him high up off the floor as more tentacles emerged and began lashing him with force enough to flay him alive. Elena could only watch helplessly as Cid was torn and whipped, as could Reno, there not being any way to reach him, and the creature was out of range of his rod.

Then something with wings and golden claws leapt up, slashing through the tentacles. Cid dropped to the floor and lay there like dead and bloodied meat, Reno and Elena running to his side to carry him out of the room and to someplace safer. Vincent felt the tentacles wrap around his body, entangling him, binding him with sticky-slimy rope-like limbs. He kicked out with clawed feet, managing to cut the monster, but it did not release him. Two more tentacles shot out; one wrapping around his throat, the other trying to force its way into his mouth.

Oh yeah. He’d seen enough Hentai to know where this was heading.

Vincent bit down hard on the slimy snake of flesh, feeling it sever. He spit out the piece of mucus-covered meat, and began thrashing, biting, kicking and clawing for all he was worth. Hojo had degraded him enough already; if he thought he was stuffing him full of tentacles on top of it then he had another thought coming.

Attacking just the tentacles didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere; the bits fell, the bits grew back, and they returned faster than Vincent could cope with. He had to get to the body. Hooking his claws into the tentacles, he began climbing them, smiling coldly as Hojo naturally retracted them in an attempt to prevent Vincent from climbing, then screaming as Vincent lashed out with all four sets of claws, maiming the soft body. Golden claws hooked into entrails and organs, and when Hojo dropped Vincent, the weight of the demon Chaos hanging onto his guts effectively turned him inside-out.

Hojo made a hideous noise and released his hold on the rafters, falling on top of Vincent in an attempt to kill him as well, if nothing else. His body was like a mass of mucus and bone, suffocating Vincent with viscous flesh, a few serpents emerging from the glob to try to strangle the life out of the demon beneath it. Vincent panicked as his throat filled with gagging slime and he slashed and kicked with all his might, carving his way out of Hojo’s vile bulk and vomiting onto his enemy’s corpse. Then he collapsed, sick and weak, feeling his body begin to shut down. He was poisoned. The slime had gone into his mouth and his wounds, and now he was dying…

The last thing he heard was Elena screaming his name.

***---***

A hand was carefully petting his hair, and a soft voice was speaking his name. Vincent opened his eyes and found he was in a bed in Rufus’ room. The blinds were up and the late afternoon sun was shining in through the huge windows. Cid was lying in the bed beside him, stitched and bandaged and bruised, but very much alive.

“Hey,” said Cid. “How you feelin’?”

Vincent answered by abruptly rolling away, leaning over the bed and throwing up into a small waste basket beside the bed.

“That good, huh?” said Cid dryly.

Vincent hung over the edge of the bed, limp and sick, his head pounding, his stomach feeling like he could never vomit enough to clear it. He sighed as Dark put her enormous black nose in his face.

“What happened to Hojo?” he asked weakly as the cat licked his face with her rough tongue.

“Dead,” said Cid. “Dead and slow-roasted in a furnace meant for cremating bodies. He’s snot coming back. Heh. Get it?”

Vincent threw up again. Cid made a sound of sympathy, rubbing Vincent’s back.

“Awww… guess that’s snot funny right now huh?”

“Highwind I hate you.”

“Hey that’s snot nice.”

“IF YOU SAY ‘SNOT’ ONE MORE TIME…!”

“Cid stop annoying the demon,” said Reeve.

“Hear hear,” said Rufus.

Vincent raised his head and looked to the large bed across the room from his own. “Reeve. Are you all right?”

“I’ve been better but I survived. How are you?”

“Sick. I was dying. How… how did I get better?”

“Reno had some materia,” said Rufus. “Even with it, we weren’t sure you were going to be all right.”

Cid stroked Vincent’s hair, smiling as Vincent rolled towards him and allowed himself to be held.

“So are we all okay?” asked Cid.

“Should be,” said Rufus. “My Turks are going to watch over us. And I believe we have finally cleared out all the scary things.”

“Where are your Turks now?” asked Vincent sleepily.

“They went out for supplies. Don’t worry, they’ll be back soon.”

Dark hopped onto her master’s bed and settled down, her injuries stitched and bandaged. Cid stroked Vincent’s hair, kissing his brow.

“Everything’s fine now,” whispered Cid. “You can just relax.”

Vincent nodded and pressed a little closer, exhaling a long contented sigh. There was silence in the huge house, and outside the window the sun slowly sank, bathing the room in pinks and golds, then violet, then finally a soothing darkness. The painful day was over. Now it was time to sleep, and heal.

There was a sound in the hallway, like boots running over the floorboards. Heads raised as the four in the room listened, curious. The sound seemed to stop, heads went down. Silence reigned.

….until the boots ran back and a door creaked open. Rufus looked up and listened.

“If those boneheads are playing hide and seek I’ll fire the lot of them. RENO! Stop it!”

Silence. Three more heads popped up, listening. There was no sound save for a quiet wind. After a few minutes the heads went back down. Then there came the sound of a door down the hall creaking open, and clear as day could be heard the ghostly voice of Zack Fair.

“HOJO YOU BASTARD! YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!”

Then the door burst open and there was a powerful gust of wind that slammed the shutters open and broke the window. Rufus Shinra sat bolt upright in bed.

“OH YOU HAVE TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME! ZACK FAIR IS HAUNTING MY HOUSE!”

“Could be worse,” said Cid. “Could be haunted by…”

A tall shadow appeared in the doorway, featureless, but there was no mistaking the long hair, and the sword. Rufus flopped back to the pillows with a loud noise of aggravation. He adamantly refused to look up and acknowledge one more ghost.

He managed rather admirably until the spectral bugler showed up.