The change comes like a storm, without warning and without mercy. Veins split like lightning beneath Vincent’s pale skin, his breath breaking in ragged bursts as his body fights itself to retain control, to retain his sanity. The lights around you flicker, casting his shadow long and inhuman against the walls. The room is filled with the visceral sound of bone shifting and claws breaking through flesh.

He’s undergone this transformation in front of you once before, long ago in Shinra Manor. You didn’t know him well then, but you do now, and it pains him for you to witness it. His eyes—half still his, half something ancient and violent—find you through the chaos, pleading. “Go!” manages Vincent, his voice torn in two, human and beast clashing in his throat. “Before I hurt you!”

When you don’t move, his hand slams into the ground beside you, cracking the stone, the air thick with the scent of metal and blood and fear. He’s fighting it as best he can, but every second you stay makes it harder. And even as the Galian Beast takes over, Vincent still thinks only of you.