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Jack had been his hero way before the whole world called him that.
He had been in no state to see it clearly at the time, but that day he saved him remained fresh in his memory. A warm body close to him, shielding him from his assailants. A gentle yet strong and firm voice driving them away. The sight of that fearless and fierce look on that delicate face.
And then, he and his brother were given a new life.
Jack was a noble, yet he’d tell him endearingly to call him big brother. He’d take gently his face in his hands and press tenderly their foreheads together and tell him with a bright smile how he loved his red eye.
A warm place and a warm person he wished to protect with everything he had.
That’s why he hated Alice, mean Alice who would anger Gilbert and embarrass Jack. To him, Alice was the one who was about to destroy this life he wished to keep forever. He hated her so, and he would destroy anything she had to keep her from further hurting those who mattered to him.
But it was all in vain, for his life got destroyed anyway, and he blamed it all on that devil woman who whispered words of deceit in his credulous ears.
When he met Ada Vessalius, he immediately resented her. She had the same emerald eyes and golden hair as him, the same delicate features, the same purity, the same lovable smile. Her family was that of a hero, he could find her no wrongs and it was so infuriating that he wished he could taint her, make her as filthy as he was, ruin her name and drag it in the mud.
Little did he know at the time that Jack might have looked pure like Ada, but that he was, in fact, a lot more similar to him, twisted, sullied Vincent. The truth came to light when the head of Gilbert’s master came out of that seal at Pandora’s headquarters, and truly, it was most fitting that his savior ended up actually being the enemy of the world. And maybe, just maybe that is why, even when Gilbert’s hatred for the man became as great as his love for the boy who shared the same body, even as he, Vincent, was following Glen who cursed the day he met Jack in hopes of erasing his very existence that brought misery upon Gilbert, even though he himself found the fact that the blonde had hurt his brother to be most unforgivable, somehow, he still couldn’t bring himself to hate him.
And it was most ironic that because of this simple fact, he would come to feel so much closer to Alice, he would understand both her unwillingness to keep chasing after him and her unwillingness to resent him like no one else could understand, because truly, love was an odd thing.
Now Alice was gone, and of Jack nothing was left beside an empty vessel offered to the Core of the Abyss, where only this red eye Jack loved could look at him anymore.
The whole world might curse him now, and that was fine.
Because now at least, he was back to being his hero alone.