Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch82 - Finding You

Vincent would proceed to Edge alone. Reeve and Sephiroth were needed back in the HQ. Sephiroth assured him that many of his recruits were already in Edge and they were going to help him deal with whatever troops of Deepground's had attacked the City.

But when he got there, Vincent noticed something he hadn't seen in Edge before. Silence. A city that hosted a few thousands of people, was silent. He knew it was night. It was probably the earliest hours of the morning. But he knew that it shouldn't be that silent. Edge was a city that never really slept. There were always cars around no matter the time. And now he knew that Deepground would already have killed a couple of people. He did see bodies scattered around the streets. He did see WRO's troops dead by the streets. The fight must have already ended. He was relieved that Cloud had taken Tifa and the kids out of the city right before the attack. Corel was indeed a pretty good choice.

Wherever Deepground attacked, it would be some big city that hosted huge numbers of people. Corel was small, it had always been. If it weren't for Barret to go back there and rebuild it, it wouldn't exist at all.

Vincent knew he should be content about the silence that lingered all around the streets that he passed by. All he could hear was the gentle tap-tap-tapping of the rain as it hit the roofs, the sidewalks, the pavement that shined silver in the rain. The rain didn't really bother him. Vincent just let it drench his clothes, his cloak, his hair. He had been through so much worse, that rain was nothing he couldn't handle. He just ignored it and kept walking within the streets trying to find somebody that was alive.

But he just couldn't focus. All that he could think of was her. Jocasta. Was she alive? Was she dead? He didn't know. He knew he couldn't believe what he'd seen on the screen of that computer. He knew that there must be something more to this. Why would they kill her? Why now? They had her for an entire year, why do it now?

That's what he wanted to find out and he couldn't tell what their intentions were. He only knew that she wasn't dead. He couldn't believe that she was. He couldn't.

And then he heard movement. Heels patting on the cement of the sidewalk that he stood on. Vincent's hand reached immediately for Cerberus and he turned around, pointing it right on his stalker's head. It was a woman. There was something familiar about her and at first, he couldn't point his finger at it. She was wearing a white lab-coat, a dark red skirt, and a blue shirt on top that exposed half of her belly. She was wearing circular glasses. One of her eyes was closed. Maybe it was an eye that she had lost somehow. She too had a gun pointed at him. The bangs of her pale brown hair fell on her face and she didn't seem to mind. But she did have a card, pinned on her lab-coat. He took a better look, recognizing the initials.

"Are you WRO?" Vincent asked but neither of both let down their guns.

"Who's asking?"

Vincent pulled Cerberus away, fitting it back in its case on his thigh. "Vincent Valentine," he introduced himself "Reeve sent me,"

At that, she pulled away her gun. She rolled it skillfully between her fingers before she placed it in a case beneath her lab-coat. "My apologies. Shalua Rui of the WRO. The Commissioner has told me much about you,"

"What happened here?" Vincent asked.

"That's what I'd like to know," Shalua said "I'm here on another business but something's not right. It's too quiet. I've seen no trace of Deepground nor the squads that were sent here to fight them. Also, where are the half a million people who were supposed to still be living here?" she sighed "This is getting us nowhere. Like I said, I have a business to attend to. See you around," Shalua said as she turned around and began walking away.