I should probably clear this up now. Sarah's backstory is going to be saved for another story, one that happens before this one. Some bits of her past get explained during this story but I do have others planned :) There are rough character Bios on my profile page; explaining a bit about Sarah and Edge Security these will get updated as the story develops

I hated the original prologue I had for this, and have also worked out some kinks in the original plotline, so I hope this one is better :).

Please, if you read this, then leave a review. I need concrit; I won't know what I'm doing right/wrong if you don't tell me!

Chapter 1.

What doesn't kill you...

The ruins of the Sector 5 slums stood strangely triumphant below the full glowing moon; cracked and broken rubble bathed in a blue eerie glow..

Sarah would have thought it beautiful if she wasn't here under such brutal circumstances.

Sighing inwardly, she absent mindedly kicked a piece of stone away from her foot, draining the remnants of her now cold coffee, savouring the bitter sweet milky taste that caressed her throat on the way down.

Shit, Tifa, why you?

In all honesty, the victim should have been her. Tifa was only out here because Cloud was ill. He'd phoned Sarah during the week, asking her if she could tend to the flowers every day because he was ill – influenza or something, but Sarah was too bogged down with work, no thanks to Rufus Shinra and his unscrupulously strict rules on paperwork being in on time, you know, general office related bullshit. She'd told him no, sadly work was just too much at the moment. Perhaps she could go and tend to them on Sunday, her day off? She could hear the forgiving smile in Cloud's voice as he'd told her no, that would be okay. He understood, he'd ask Tifa instead. Tifa wouldn't have a problem with doing him a favour...

Damn it to hell, if only she'd said yes, Tifa wouldn't be lying almost dead in a pool of her own blood.

Almost dead, but would it be better if she were? You saw those injuries Sarah. The gouges in her skin, like someone had dragged their fingernails down her like they would on a chalkboard. The chunks of flesh stripped from her face, those bite marks...human fucking teeth torn through her neck like she was nothing but a piece of meat...

What kind of sick fuck did that to a person? Sarah shuddered violently at the thought. No, it was better that she was still alive. Zee, the twenty one year old forensic scientist had told her that if they got her to the medi-unit straight away, there was a strong possibility she would make a full recovery. She would be heavily scarred, mutilated even, for life, but she'd still be here, she'd still be on Gaia with the people who loved her.

Sarah knew that there was no way in hell she could live with heavy scarring like that. Let people call her shallow, it wasn't the superficial markings she would be worried about. It was the memory of the attack that those scars would bring, they'd always be there to remind Tifa of the horrors she had been through tonight. No, Sarah couldn't live with that. She knew what she would do, she'd put a gun to her head, pull the trigger and -

'Captain Fair?'

Sarah turned around at the sound of the young male's voice. It belonged to Brad Jenkins; a rookie who had only just turned eighteen. He stood expectantly in front of her holding a clipboard in his left hand, which was shaking slightly. He looked tired, dogged; dark circles ran under his eyes, his handsome face wrought with concentration and what Sarah thought looked faintly like fear. He'd only been in Edge Security for a week. This was his first taste of action.

No wonder he's shivering...I wouldn't have wanted this as my first case...

'Can I give you the incident brief to look over? I need to know if it's okay.' He stared at her nervously, chewing his lip as he waited for her response. He hoped dearly that his first ever report would be up to Edge Security's high standards.

'Ah yes - our lovely Chief would blow a nut if heaven forbid someone should hand in a bad report -,' Sarah paused, smirking a little. Rufus Shinra was a good enough boss, she supposed, but his strange, almost fetish like fascination with absolutely perfect paperwork was incredibly frustrating to everyone that worked at Edge Security. In fact his fascination with this boring office task had been the source of his nickname : The Paperman. Reno had come up with that nickname. He'd also suggested on a drunken night out that Rufus was so obsessed with paper that alone in his office, when everyone had gone home, the blonde haired Chief would sit hunched over his desk, and jerk off over mounds of crisp clean paper like a twisted, sweaty maniac. The look on Rufus' face after that little quip...it was a wonder Reno hadn't been sacked by now.

No Sarah, not now. Now is not the time to think of that...

'Sure thing Brad,' she said, her smile ebbing away into the her usual look of stern professionalism. 'Hand it over.'

The plastic clipboard felt cool in her hand. She relaxed her body slightly, standing on one hip as she took the pen out from the metallic clip on top of the clipboard, and chewed it slightly as she read aloud.

'Victims name...to be confirmed by next of kin...Age...to be confirmed...Nature of attack...'

Sarah skipped that part. She'd already been through the nature of attack with too many people tonight. It was beginning to make her feel sick.

'Reported by...Reno and Rude...'

She felt a spasm of pity run through her body when she read Rude's name out loud. She was all too aware of how Rude felt for Tifa. Shit, the guy was in love with Tifa.

They'd been waiting by the church when she'd arrived with the team; she'd already had a missed phone call from Reno but had decided to ignore it, thinking he may have been drunk or heaven forbid, in need of some night time company (which usually involved her staying on the phone until 4am talking to Reno until he fell asleep – mostly when he was drunk). But when he'd phoned the station instead, and reported a body...

She'd felt so guilty when she approached them. Reno looking paler than usual; Sarah boiled that down to worry for his friend, but Rude...Rude was a different story. Not only did he look ashen, his usually tanned skin drained to a sickly mixture of very light brown with tinges of green at the cheeks, he looked positively terrified. Sarah had sent them home, telling them to briefly talk to Brad before they left. But looking at the report in which Reno had told Brad that they were adamantly sure Tifa was dead when they got to her, she felt unsure. If they had bothered to check the body, which was standard procedure in a case like this, they would have found the pulse like Zee had done straight away. So why hadn't they checked the body?

Sarah bit her lip as she read on. Something about this didn't seem right to her.

'Next of Kin...not contacted,'

And again, a feeling of dread washed over her. No-one had called Cloud. Shit...

'You positive next of kin has not been contacted?,' she asked Brad, who yawned loudly as he shook his head. His brown, curly hair wobbled slightly as he turned to look at her.

'No – I didn't think,' he said suddenly, a rush of apology escaping his lip as he turned to face her.

'It doesn't matter...' Sarah replied casually, though now she had something else to worry about. If no-one had phoned him, she would have to. Looking around, she noticed the rest of the team had gone home; the medevac copter had taken flight without her even noticing. She glanced at the watch on her wrist.

2:00am

Oh, fucking fantastic...

'Brad,' she said firmly, the young man turned to face her again. He was afraid she was angry with him for making such a rookie mistake, but he relaxed a little as he realised she was smiling at him, even if it was a faint smile.

'You can go home if you like,' Sarah said thoughtfully. In all honesty, she was glad of the company but she hadn't realised that two hours had passed so quickly. 'I can finish the report up for you, I gotta contact Cloud so it'll be easier for me to fill in the rest...'

Cloud...man, this is going to destroy him. After everything he's been through the past few years...he doesn't need this. I don't need this...no-one fucking needs this.

Sarah watched as Brad nodded at her; his sleepy, kind brown eyes seemed to smile at her as he spoke.

'Sure Captain...as long as it's no trouble.'

'No trouble at all,' she said.

Brad gave her a small wave as he walked away. Sarah watched as he hitched the collar of his Edge Security jacket up around the nape of his neck, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He walked casually, but Sarah would bet any amount of money that as soon as he got out of Sector 5, he would break into a run.

'Hell, I'm gonna fucking do that too,' she murmured aloud as she reached into her pockets for her cell phone.