As the wound seeped bright blood, Vincent put his hand to the wound. When he pulled away his gauntlet was tarnished with the red liquid, turning it to a burgundy copper. Holding his gauntlet at eye level, he watched a drop of blood slowly slip of in the shape of a tear. His scarlet eyes focused on the figure standing in front of him. Lillian stood there, her staff held loosely in her hands as she watched him back. Vincent felt strange...Why wasn’t she attacking him?
Hojo smirked as he watched his ex-experiment stare in confusion at his newest assistant. The look of confusion and bewilderment on Vincent’s face was priceless, he almost laughed out loud at how pathetic the ex-Turk looked. Holding back his laughter Hojo stepped forward, but before he could say anything Vincent interrupted him.

“Hojo. What have you poisoned me with now?”
“Ah, but that would telling now wouldn’t it? Anyway, that would be spoiling the fun. Surely you don’t want to bring down our good moods know do you?” Hojo cackled.

Lillian, still under Hojo’s influence; now stood gently throwing her staff from one hand to the other. A manic glint lit up her eyes, she grinned like a jackal who’d spied its next meal. Seeing Vincent in his weakening state, she began to creep forward like a panther. Slowly edging closer, hands tightening around her staff as she lifted the blade to waist level. Luckily for Vincent, whose attention was fully focused on Hojo, she was stopped in her tracks by a sharp command from Hojo.

“No Lillian, not yet.” He said in a drawling voice, Lillian lowered her staff and crept back to her masters’ side.
“You should see the extent of my power over her Valentine; I bet you could put it –and her- to good use, and all it took was some Mako enhanced injections...quite marvellous what modern science can do isn’t it?”
“...What do you mean when you say put her to good use?”
Now Hojo actually laughed out loud.
“Don’t be stupid boy; you know exactly what I mean.” He laughed, but he stopped at the blank look on Vincent’s pale face. “Jesus Valentine, how long has it been since you last had a woman in that coffin of yours?”
Vincent snapped and made a lunge at Hojo in a moment of madness, but he didn’t need Lillian’s barrier to stop him, his newest wound was suddenly shot with pain and a black cloak fluttered over his eyes. Landing awkwardly, Vincent was forced to roll onto his back then to his feet before he was able to leap back to his original spot. As he landed, Vincent clutched at his head in an attempt to make the room stop spinning. He gasped as his legs suddenly went numb; they became useless lumps of flesh as he hit the hard, cold floor.
Lillian let out a yelp of laughter at her former lover.

“...Hojo! What the hell have you done to me?!” Vincent growled furiously as he struggled against his temporary paralysis.
“Well, since you asked so nicely” He grinned, baring his yellowy teeth. “To put it bluntly, I coated the blades of Lillian’s staff with potions, one on each blade. The first, as you discovered, was a deadly poison, but luckily for you, she gave you the antidote.” Hojo glowered at Lillian as he said this. “The second, the one you’re experiencing out now, is a powerful paralysis drug infused with a sleeping potion so strong it could even take out that demon inside of you.”

Surely enough Chaos had been out of it for a while now, Vincent cursed under his breath. How could he have not realized?

His vision was blurring, he could make out the darkening figures of the crazy Professor and his poor assistant as they closed in around him.
Vincent tried to stand but he was as helpless as a new-born kitten, he couldn’t even draw out Cerberus.
Everything was getting darker and distorted.

As he finally succumb to the potions effects, Vincent Valentine closed his scarlet eyes with a grunt. Hojo began laughing triumphantly as he flipped open his cell phone and ordered someone to come and collect his new experiment participant as soon as possible.

Lillian on the other hand, just stood staring at Vincent’s unconscious form in confusion, her head tilted to one side as if she couldn’t understand what was going on. If Hojo had taken time to check on her rather than fuss over Vincent’s removal then he’d have realised that her eyes were beginning to drain of the poison he’d inflicted earlier.