- Slipping Closer -


The door hissed open in front of him, allowing Denzel to enter into the thick of the underground bunker. Shielded from above, the entryway was sunken beneath a heap of debris that had previously been Fort Condor. This was the current base of operations for the WRO. They were always on the move as the alien forces were constantly tracking them down. Denzel suspected that a few of them blamed him for the almost systematic way their locations kept getting discovered. Everyone knew he'd been close to Cloud.

Inside the bunker, Denzel walked through the corridors, passing by suspicious gazes of those civilians the WRO chose to protect. Anyone with specific knowledge of the alien lifeform was kept closely guarded and that meant mostly ex-ShinRa scientists who'd been involved with the first Jenova project and their families. Denzel took the stairs down into the basement and approached the guarded door at the end of the concrete tunnel. Makeshift support beams had been propped up to reinforce the damaged area. Two men with rifles stood outside the door, but they nodded at Denzel in a friendly gesture.

"Good to see you made it back," one of them said.

"Yeah, got the meds. He awake?" Denzel took off his backpack and withdrew the package of liquid.

"Mmmhm." The guard opened the door, then said, "Those guys across in Costa del Sol always come through, huh?"

Denzel vaguely nodded, not caring to mention the two scavengers he had to kill. The ship that had arrived from Costa del Sol in Junon had already been in bad shape, an easy target. Denzel should have arrived earlier to make sure there wasn't an ambush setup. He cursed himself for being so distracted earlier. Across the sea, the production of drugs that kept the alien influence away was constantly a concern. Everybody needed it, but there was only so much being made. Those closest to the front lines were priority, and that usually meant the WRO. And one very particular person in particular.

Stepping past the guards, Denzel entered the interior room. A simple bedroom with a warm yellow bulb in the ceiling that adjusted to mimic the daylight outside. In the center stood Elena, smoking a cigarette. Tseng sat awake in the chair, though he didn't move or acknowledge Denzel.

"About damn time," Elena snapped and flicked ash.

"There was a complication," Denzel replied, handing over the vials of serum.

The older blonde snatched the package from Denzel and pried one vial from the pack. She examined it briefly in the light, then nodded a thanks. Rummaging through a medical bag on the floor, she procured a needle and readied a dose from the vial.

"He doing any better today?" Denzel asked gently, shifting a bit with unease. Tseng's condition always made him uncomfortable. The man had been in Edge, very close to the crash site, when the first alien disruptions happened. When the calamity from the skies emerged, melding into a human form, Tseng had seen it. He'd heard its voice, seen its face, and he'd lost his mind. Unlike everyone else who'd been around the terrible thing that day, Tseng had survived. Barely.

"He has good days and bad," Elena responded with a sigh, pushing the needle into Tseng's arm. She lovingly looked at the catatonic man and brushed a strand of dark hair from his face. "Today was bad, though." She gazed down. "I fear he's slipping closer each day. And when it happens…"

When he turns, she means, Denzel thought. Everyone who came under the alien's thought patterns became hostile, violent, and ran off towards Edge, the epicenter of the calamity's strength. When they were seen again, they were changed. A construct of human parts and alien will. Elena couldn't allow that to happen to Tseng. She cared too much for the man.

"If it happens, I'll take care of him," Denzel finished her sentence, resting one hand on her shoulder. "He won't serve Jenova." They all called it Jenova, but truthfully that was only because there was no other word for it. Nobody knew if it was actually related to the first calamity. All attempts at studying it led to wildly different conclusions, as if the monster itself were changing over time.

"No," Elena straightened and faced the young man with a cold look, "No, I can handle it."

Sometimes Denzel forgot that she'd been a Turk long ago. They'd all been something else in the past, but she'd been a killer. A tactical bodyguard, a trained clandestine weapon. He released her shoulder.

"Is Marlene still here?" he asked, purposefully changing the subject.

Elena took a long pull of her cigarette while sterilizing the needle for next time. Tseng rolled his head to one side, but didn't speak. Denzel hated when the man looked at him. It was a pained expression, and Denzel always felt like he was being judged somehow.

"Yeah, I think so," Elena replied, smoke trailing from her lips, "But she was packing up. You may still be able to catch her."

Denzel acknowledged with a tiny nod, then departed, leaving Elena and Tseng behind. Each day the man slipped closer, she'd said. Denzel thought that sounded worse than hell. Tseng was conscious and cognizant of his surroundings, or so it seemed. He rarely spoke, but when he did it was in bits and pieces of angry dialogue that nobody could make sense of. Denzel had been under the willpower of Jenova once in his youth, back during the days of Geostigma, and that sort of helpless drugged compliance was something he still had nightmares about. Imagining that pull of Jenova's voice, that unnerving sensation to obey, was something he promised himself he'd never go through again. If it ever came down to it, he would kill himself. There was no way around it. But, as long as he had his own vial of serum, that would never happen. Every day, he injected a fresh stream of chemicals into his blood and that protected him from the stretch of alien infection. Being this close to Edge meant he needed it.

There was an opportunity to live across the sea, maybe in North Corel or Gongaga, safely distanced from the radiating terror from Edge, but Denzel had been involved with the WRO for as long as he could remember. It was where he belonged, fighting with everyone else, helping however he could.

Upstairs, he found Marlene nearly on her way out. The young woman had long brown hair tied in a braid down her back, secured with a faded red ribbon, and an overstuffed backpack over her shoulder. Through the assortment of people moving in the halls, he called out to her.

"Marlene!"

She turned and smiled once she spotted Denzel. She'd grown into a beautiful young woman. Inquisitive, daring, and smart, but Denzel still thought of her as his little sister. He always would, perhaps.

"Denzel, it's nice to see you. I feel like you're never around anymore." A smirk shone at the corner of her mouth. "Sometimes I get worried, you know?"

"I do most of the supply runs to Junon now," he replied, stepping next to her. Then he motioned towards her bag. "You heading down to Mideel?"

Marlene nodded and the smile slowly vanished. Her voice became low and sad, "You know Tifa is going to ask me…"

Ask if he'd been having those dreams again, he knew. Denzel had recently started having nightmares again, specifically of Cloud. Tifa seemed to think it meant something more. She'd become obsessive lately. Fearful of finally losing us, Denzel suspected.

"Tell her I'll try to see her soon, but no, there's been nothing new," he reported.

Marlene nodded then exhaled, disappointed. She glanced down at her watch. "Okay, well, I better get going if I wanna catch this airship out. Take care, Denzel. Hope to see you soon."

She gave him a kiss on the cheek then hurried down the hall, following the flow of people also heading towards the airship. Twice a day, small ships departed off the southern coast, stopping at the nearby islands before going to Gongaga then back again, moving people and equipment.

He waved goodbye and watched her go. He wished he could visit Tifa, too, but there was too much going on right now. So-called 'Jenovites' had been attacking supply lines in Junon with much higher frequency, and the WRO was formulating a plan to take-out the group once and for all. Their proximity to Edge remained the only deterrent. Free of Jenova's control, or so they claimed, the Jenovites were a group of people who lived in the ruins of Kalm. They hailed the calamity as their true god, worshipping it with fervor. They called themselves disciples and believed that if they consciously made an effort to live peacefully with the calamity, thwarting its enemies, particularly the WRO which meant to do it harm, then Jenova would spare them from its mind-numbing control. They groveled and purposefully protected the outskirts of Edge. But their recent raids of the serum coming through Junon made Denzel suspect they, too, were finally feeling the wrath of their god's power, regardless of how much they denied it. Nobody was truly immune.

An alert beeped on Denzel's phone. He was being called into the war room. The scouts on reconnaissance had just returned and there was news to be shared. A pit twisted in Denzel's stomach, a little turn of jealousy. He'd specifically requested to go on this mission, to get close to Edge, but Reeve had specifically forbad it. Nobody had said it aloud, but Denzel suspected it was because he'd been so close to Cloud in the past. His allegiance was always under fire since he'd froze up last year, and Denzel hated that.

He'd make them wait, he decided. Turning into the cantina, he decided to grab a cup of coffee first before heading downstairs. The warm brew wasn't exactly as good as the kind Tifa used to make him back in Edge, but it made him think of her still, and that's all he needed at the moment.