This chapter was a little rushed due to me leaving and not being able to use the internet for a week ;_; I tried to finish this chapter as fast as I could, but still make it they way I wanted. Despite all this, I still hope you continue to enjoy and take interest in the story.
Your reviews and PM's are always welcomed, good or bad.
With that being said, enjoy my children.
Chapter 2:
"Sazh! Sazh, over here!" The girl flailed wildly, over exaggerating her hand gestures as she tried to catch the man's attention. He had seen her in the corner of his eye: Red hair and a childlike grin that stretched from ear to ear. The more desperately he tried to dismiss the girl, the more she blatantly yelled at him.
"Yoo hoo! Mr. Grumpy pants, you can't ignore me!" This time the girl giggled; slapping her hand over her mouth to restrict the excessive laughter emitting from it. Sazh let out a noticeably pent up sigh and placed his large dark hand over his face.
"Vanille what is it now?" He proceeded to try and make his way to his car as quickly as he could to try and beat Vanille to it, but his efforts were futile. She stood behind his car as a sign of defiance; crossing her arms and giving him that one and only Vanille look that showed she meant business, but in all honestly she knew it left him irate- something she fancied doing.
"You can't get away that easy mister!" She spoke with ferocity in her voice and a slight 'hmph' at the end that was audible. Sazh again sighed heavily and laid his head on his car door; feeling as if it was his 'sane place'. He spoke slowly to par on her level that he believed was close to mental stupidity.
"Vanille, we go through this every day. Call me Mr. Katzroy; I am your teacher after all."
There was no emotion present on her face and it occurred to Sazh that she might have not heard it. It wasn't the first time that she had appeared to be listening but in reality was in her own dimension—not world, but dimension. Vanille might have had the mindset and personality of a 5 year old, but when it came down to it, Vanille could conjure up more than what she originally brought to the table.
Sazh on multiple occasions had been fairly impressed with her work when it came down to formulating maps and charts on what present day Gran Pulse could appear like. With so little information and hardly any background knowledge about it (she never paid attention), it seemed as if she was recreating it from memory. Everything she ever drew or doodled seemed so detailed and extravagant; it would leave him utterly speechless. Her boundaries substantially exceeded her peers tenfold when it came down to creativity and on occasions like those he couldn't decide on whether or not she was an idiot, or a complete genius.
Vanille abruptly let out a laugh and Sazh was all the more dumbfounded. Every time he was around Vanille it felt like all the energy was being sucked maliciously out of him and it reminded him just how old he really was. He couldn't fathom how Officer Oerba who was the polar opposite of Vanille was married to her in the slightest. He never questioned it in its entirety however, not if he wanted a round house kick to the face.
He shivered at the thought and went to go into his car again.
"Bye Vanille, I'll see you in class." Vanille stepped out from behind his car and waved happily and carefree as she watched his car drive off in the distance.
As soon as Sazh was out of sight Vanille began to get a gut feeling that wouldn't go away no matter how much she tried to ignore it. It festered within her and it felt like she was going to throw up. She began to pray with her fingers bound in a specific way that her mother use to do when she was a child. The uneasiness swayed within her and rocked her unsteadily. Something was going to happen. She could feel it in her bones, and it wasn't pleasant at all.
...
"What in the world is that?" Lightning crouched down closely in an attempt to analyze the thing or supposed human lied out before her on the concrete ground.
"Looks like someone who forgot their insides were supposed to stay in." Fang hovered over Lightning, trying to get a better angle of the person on the ground. Lightning gave Fang a more than displeasing look and caught the eye of the Chief.
"Lightning, Fang… I see you've seen our victim." Chief Amodar tilted his head toward the person, not being able to directly look at or even remotely near it.
Chief Amodar was a hefty daunting man who seemed to have the strength of Fang and the more than apt observations skills of Lightning. He was light skinned had stood average height but none the less when next too, made an average man cower in fear. In his prime Chief Amodar was a machine; he always put work first and never had time for anything else. He drilled that moral into his officers and on occasion, some would obey; two being of course Fang and Lightning, his favorite officers out of all.
"If victim is even a justifiable word." Lightning stood up and marched toward the chief. "This goes beyond a case of victim and assailant, Chief. This person didn't get killed-didn't get shredded to bits and pieces by the psychotic hands of a person. They were hunted down and obliterated by a monster."
"She's right you know." Fang interjected and crossed her arms smoothly. "This person wasn't just killed, they were hunted for sport."
Chief Amodar looked at them both questionably.
"What makes you think that officers?"
"I got it from here Lightning." Fang waved her hand at Lightning indicating Lightning didn't have to elaborate further.
"First of all Chief, the person had some type of injury before making their final plummet here." Fang pointed to the spot where the victim was laying.
A vast pool of dark red blood surrounded and engulfed the body and splotches of it were occupying spaces around it. The blood was still fresh and not all of it had clotted up on the person; new formations of blood seeped out in various places and seemed remarkably endless. The alley way had a more than ominous aura and the area had a pure metallic smell that left the feeling of death lingering in the air. It left goose bumps on the forensic team making their way to and from the scene. If anyone had a choice, they wouldn't come 10 feet near the crime scene.
"Where's the indication Officer?" Perspiration was beginning to become evident on the armpits and forehead of the Chief.
"Now now, don't be hasty, I was just getting to that part." Fang turned her attention to the beginning of the alley way. "The blood trail shows that our unlucky vic here had been hitching it for a while before they got here." She made her way quickly to the beginning of the alley way were dawn had just broken and cars were somewhat visible on the street. The chief was hot on her heels and she continued none the less. "If you look at the blood splatters all along here," she pointed at the entrance to the alley and the sidewalk adjacent to it. "You can see that the blood here is more abundant then your typical 'I just got hurt, I'm going to bleed out' and points to a more 'I've been hurt for a while, and the bleeding is getting worse' type of scenario." Chief Amodar looked dumbfounded at Fang as she smirked in triumph.
"Your sense of humor in this situation astounds me officer."
"People have different ways of dealing with situations. Mine is me just being a smart-ass sir." Fang strode passed the Chief who shook his head in agreement.
"If that is true, then I want you and Lightning to follow the blood trail as far as it can go and where ever it leads. I don't want anything to go unnoticed and I'll have you both follow this up until you find me something, even if it takes you all night." Chief Amodar was gazing at Fang with authority but gentile concern. The idea that the blood trail could lead to a deadly ending unnerved him for his officers, but being put in danger was in fact part of the job description.
"I got it I got it. No need to get your big boy pants in a bundle." Fang snickered while the Chief looked mentally exhausted.
"Officer Fang, earlier you said 'first off', did that mean that you had a second reasoning?"
"You bet your hind I do. If you actually looked at the body Chief, there's a bullet hole about this size." Fang made a minuscule gesture demonstrating the size of the bullet with her fingers. "Only certain types of guns can make such a small and unnoticeable hole, and only certain wielders can fire it and hit a precise spot where it doesn't hit any of the vital organs but still bleeds out to their sadistic needs." Fang hadn't turned around to face the chief, and stared aimlessly at the crime scene before her.
She was observing Lightning who was observing the crime scene. Lightning was combing the scene, pointing out spots that the forensic team carelessly missed; details that shouldn't have went unnoticed and viciously reprimanding them as she went, reminding them of the viscosity of their situation: there was a malicious being who committed a grave crime, unforgiving by Etro and they had to stop them before another attack happened .
"Officer Fang, your point is?" Chief Amodar had brought the conversation back to Fang and Fang sighed annoyed.
"It's a dog's weapon Chief, a military mutt." She spit out the last word like it was a toxin poison.
"Whatever you do don't tell Lightning. I don't want her being involved in the military anymore than she already was." Fang had a gentle undertone but an undefiable demeanor that even the Chief wasn't about to disregard.
She walked off casually back to Lightning.
...
"Can anyone tell me one of the main reasons that Cocoon and Pulse are still on more or less bad terms even after 200 years?" Sazh looked over his herd of 152 students, analyzing their faces and body posture. He enjoyed calling on students that he deemed had no plausible idea what the correct answer was.
He knew all their names and patterns. Strong eye contact indicated some people knew the answers while at the same time for certain people it meant they were bluffing and had no clue whatsoever.
Vanille had a particular indicator.
She sat in the dead middle of the lecture room and Sazh always kept an eye on her out of fear of her doing something ridiculous or outright idiotic. When Vanille knew an answer—which was rare—she would jump up and down and yell without embarrassment,
"I know I know! Pick me Sazh!"
Whenever she would present herself in such conduct he would steadily lose his patience with her and instantly remind her that he was and not 'Sazh', but . Even outside of class he dreaded when she called him Sazh; it made her forget she couldn't call him it in class. He preferred respect in and outside the classroom.
When Vanille didn't know an answer however, it became painstakingly obvious. She would try and hide her face behind anything she could; figuring Sazh wouldn't be able to see her, even if she was dead center in his vision of sight.
"Vanille, you look like you know the answer, please indulge us." Sazh smiled sweetly on the outside, but he was secretly enjoying watching her squirm.
Vanille took her bunny folder that she had in front of her face and set it slowly down on the table. Serah was sitting to the right of her. She gave her a slight encouraging smile.
"Heh heh." Vanille let out a nervous laugh.
"Well Mrs. Oerba?" Sazh stood staring right at her, almost as if he were looking into her soul.
She swallowed and tapped on her folder as if the answer was just going to pop into her head.
"I believe…" She started to say that they were both probably big dummies and fought over something silly, but interestingly enough remembered a conversation Fang and her had at dinner not too long ago about Pulse. It stuck out like a sour thumb in her memory.
"It was because Pulse began researching and conducting experiments on the human genome." Vanille sounded unsure and the look on Sazh's face made it almost quite certain she was wrong in her answer, but she continued none the less.
"It wasn't even the genome itself that put Cocoon on edge, because the genome is in all of us and it isn't bad or dangerous." She could tell that she was ranting and it didn't make sense, but she remembered clearly it was what Fang had told her and she was going to say it no matter what.
"They began altering the genome. They had a philosophy of enhancing the human race and making us not only more dominate and powerful, but they wanted to completely restructure us to the point where we would become invincible and not even human anymore. Cocoon feared that Pulse was becoming too corrupt and that eventually they would collapse the Cocoon government due to this ideology and experimenting. Cocoon labeled the experimenting as inhumanly and wrong in all aspects in the eyes of Etro. To this day Cocoon keeps their eye on Pulse due to the fear that Pulse government has figured out a way to make a serum for the genome project, despite having Cocoon military in Pulse to keep an eye over them." Sazh looked dumbfounded and it didn't help Vanille figure out if she was off base or not.
"So that's what I think." She giggled a little and Sazh threw up his hands in defeat. She had unknowingly defeated him in his own game and proved herself intelligent in the eyes of her worst doubter.
" Mrs. Oerba is absolutely… right. Somehow she's right. Serah did you give her the answer?" Sazh shouted in despair in the direction of Serah and she shook her head in awe at Vanille. Vanille sat calmly with pride and a sense of relief that she had gotten in right.
Fang saved her once again.
...
"Ok on the count of three we bust threw the door guns blazing. I got the people on the right and you got the ones on the left. If there are more than we anticipated than we'll just wing it and figure it out once we cross that bridge." Fang whispered to Lightning as they made their way to a warehouse a couple blocks from the alley way.
Fang's expertise on tracking aided them well, and lead them on a short journey to a sketchy building that looked more than run down and abandoned. It was enormous and was left to rot in its entirety. Graffiti was evident all over the outside of the walls ranging from neighborhood gang signs to weird kid like pictures. The old sign was still visible on the tallest point of the building but it was faded to the point of ineligibility.
Fang and Lightning had found a door on the side of the building, the only one that wasn't bordered up with wood and metal. Blood was fresh on the door and even on the bottom of it that lead steadily down the stairs and along the pavement. It wasn't as thick as in the alley way which was a tell tale sign that Fang had been correct in her assumption.
It had lead the two to this defining moment of the prevalence of good and the wholehearted righteousness of justice that both women could feel; the blood pumping steadily and rapidly through their veins and the unsteady heartbeat in their chesst.
"Fang, there was so many things wrong with your statement just now." Lightning gripped her gun tight, turning her knuckles white and nodded at Fang firmly.
Fang smirked with anticipation.
"One… Two…" Fang kicked the door hard with her right boot and Lightning screamed,
"THREE." They busted in as Fang planned but not guns blazing. What laid before them was something that they truly were not anticipating.
"Well I'll be god dammed." Fang breathed out solemnly.
"You can say that again." Lightning was wide eyed at what they had unknowingly stumbled upon.
They'd done it now.