Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch61 - New Threat, Same Enemy

Reno drove quite dangerously between the streets of Edge. Jocasta didn't quite care though. Honestly, crashing onto somewhere with a car, sounded almost like a good idea. Maybe that's why she wasn't letting herself buy a car. Her head was still buzzing from the excess amounts of alcohol that she had consumed the past twenty-four hours. It wasn't damaging her organs. It wasn't scarring her kidneys like it would to a normal human organism.

Whatever damage came to her, was being repaired immediately. Except maybe the one on her stomach. That one was much like the scars on her body. Permanent. Where that stinging pain hit her like a blade, burying itself through her insides and made her body fold and her fingers clutch on her cane. She had nowhere else to clutch onto. Nowhere else to reach out for support to walk. Her supporter was a dead piece of wood.

But it did hurt less this way. At least now she was alone and she had lost it all, and she had nothing to get attached to. She only had her work. Work. She was absorbed into it. She forgot about everything else. She had distanced herself away from everybody, no matter how many times Tifa had asked her to visit them and stay. No matter how many times Cid and Barret and Sephiroth would call to keep her aware of their whereabouts and their progress on stuff that kept them busy. They would tell her different things every time, and every time, she'd have nothing but to tell them the same. Work. Teaching. Researching. That was all. That was indeed all.

Reno's continuous cursing reached her ears. He had dialed a number on his phone and he'd been waiting for somebody to pick it up from the other side of the line. Whoever it was, it took them long to respond, and maybe that's why Reno was cursing.

But when they responded, Reno tensed up right away, eyes widened, fingers clenched around the steering wheel "Lockhart? You're Tifa, right? Where's Strife? ...Reno, Reno, the hot redhead from the Turks. I chased ya guys down lots of times, remember me? ...good. I have a job for Strife. Let him know will ya? I'll be waiting for him in Healen," and with that, he ended the call.

Jocasta raised an eyebrow "So that's where you're taking me," it made sense. Shinra had turned that place into a Medical Center for the people affected by Geostigma, dedicated to the research for a cure as well. She raised an eyebrow "Does Rufus have it too?"

On that, Reno didn't respond. He just let out a heavy sigh and dialed another number on his phone, before pressing it against his ear. He waited for a good, few beeps before they picked it up.

"Hey, Hester babe, how you been doin'-? No wait! Don't hang up! Hest-! Wait! Hester!" he groaned and flipped his phone closed, tossing it on the passenger's seat beside him. "Your daughter's a real pain in the ass, ya know," he looked back at Jocasta through the mirror.

Jocasta raised an eyebrow "What do you need my daughter for?"

"Tryna get in touch with her man. He doesn't pick any phones of Shinra's,"

"And what do you need Sephiroth for?"

"Classified,"

She pursed her lips "Too bad. He would pick up my phone, but since it's classified then I guess-"

"Fuck this," Reno cut her with a sharp curse "I'm not sure if the boss's planning to give you that briefing, but we got a new problem. We need all the help we can get,"

"Ah so another senseless war of yours that needs to be fought," Jocasta said and she sighed. She grabbed her phone and flipped it open. She found Sephiroth's number and called him before she handed her phone back to Reno.

This is gonna be fun.

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Reno and Jocasta reached Healen Lodge a few minutes later. It was a series of buildings and cabins where the President of the company resided. The clinics were filled with people that suffered from Geostigma, and doctors and research scientists were experimenting and researching in the labs. The entire settlement stood between forests and waterfalls nearby Edge and the Chocobo Farm.