Hello! Sorry that this has taken a hot minute to get set up, but here I am! With another update! I am continuing writing, and all that good stuff, but I am only able to write on certain days and not for a very long amount of time so I am sorry in these delays. Enjoy this chapter, I don't on these characters save for the OC.


God, my head hurt. My shoulder ached. My back felt like it had been struck by a train. Nothing felt right upside up and nothing really felt concrete, either. It was like my world had been knocked out of perception. My eyes struggled to keep themselves open and I really could hear much of what was transpiring around me – if anything even was transpiring around me. I tried rolling my shoulder, the one that wasn't killing me (the right one), only to be met with a sharp crack in my spine, and then a release of pressure.

Was it like... just jammed or something? I guess it's better than being broken.

I struggled to a sitting position before getting sushed – I think it was a shush? - and gently pushed back to a plush surface – not a bed though, I thought with slight disappointment.

I haven't slept in almost two days, come to think of it.

"Hey, you need to take it easy, you've been out for almost two days!" came a bright and cheery voice, the humor evident as well as the concern, "But, for real though, are you feeling okay? You had your head hit pretty hard, Miss...?"

I finally made my eyes focus on Miss Lockhart, meeting her wine colored ones with my own took effort far greater than when I was ever hungover.

"Weathers, Maria Weathers..." I choked out.

"Here, I've got water for you, drink it slowly though, I don't want you to get sick," she sounded so nice, very caring. It's been a long time since I've been around someone like that.

I gladly took the glass and sipped on it while Tifa chatted to an older man, salt peppering his gray beard. I remembered those eyes, they were sharp and cowardly at the same time! How could that be? I averted my gaze when I noticed the man eyeing me – if he was ShinRa, I didn't want him knowing anything about me. If he was in cahoots with the thieves raiding Midgar, it would mean the end of me. To my dismay, however, he stood from his position at the bar to join Tifa at my very painful side, checking a patch I hadn't realized was on my head.

"Well, now, Vincent's definitely took a good chunk out of you, ma'am. Speaking of which, Tifa, I'm going to check and see if he's up. Pressing matters need to be discussed, you know," the man's voice was smooth and deep, and rather pleasant sounding despite his shady appearance. My eyes widened at the name though – was he here? How did he take a chunk out of me? So many questions, but my throat was still in pain and the glass was practically glued to my lips, so that would have to wait just a hair bit longer. Could it really be the same Vincent?

"I know, Reeve, I know," she said with a deep sigh to Reeve's retreating back as he clamoured up loud wooden stairs. Tifa's eyes traveled back to me.

"Maria, right? Can you talk now?"

"Y-yeah, I think so, yeah I'm okay now," I stammered just the slightest, having not spoken to a lot of people in the past two years (the festival really started that stuff up again), my vocal abilities weren't the greatest around.

"Great! So, tell me, what brought you all the way out here for medical help when most of your wounds were already half-way healed, huh?"

"Uhm, well, I just can't go to a doctor. They don't really... sit right... with me."

"That so? Sounds like the lot of us for sure."

"The lot?" My eyebrow, the one not covered by a thick patch of bandage, arched itself the best it could. How many people stayed in this shabby little dive?

"Yeah, uhm," for the first time Tifa lost the grin and I could see a pained look cross over her face before continuing, "just, friends who've really grown to be my family is all! Now, let's take a look at that face, shall we?"

I nodded slowly, a crick in my neck making its presence known. Tifa pried the glass away from my hands, set it on a table nearby, and peeled the tape from my forehead. It wasn't too bad, just a little stinging, nothing really.

"He really did do a good number on you, hun, there's still some bleeding going on," she murmured.

"Still? What do you mean, still?" I looked out the windows, the sunset bright and beautiful against the new city.

"Maria... you've been out for two days. So's Vincent, but that's the usual with him..." Tifa looked up the stairs only to turn right back to the door when the bell rang. A tiny gasp followed.

Two days? Well I guess that fixes the sleeping problem...

"Tifa, is she awake?!" I saw a brown braid swish from the nape of a little girl's neck, brown eyes bright and gleaming and innocent. "What's your name? I'm Marlene, and I live here, too!"

There went my eyebrow again. I hadn't been around a child in damned near... twenty years? Yeah let's go with that.

"Well hello there, Marlene," I urged my voice to not crack, "My name is Maria." I managed a smile in the middle of Tifa applying a final Cure materia to the wound. My head stopped swimming a hair, and I gave the young girl a wink to her delight.

"Tifa! Is uncle Vincent up yet?"

"I'm... not sure. Reeve is up there. I want you to check on Denzel for me though, ok?" There was that softness again, the woman looked very young, too young to have a girl who was at least ten. Unless something tragic had happened... Marlene only nodded happily before dodging into a doorway beyond the bar and popped back out with a bowl and rag.

Did this place really double as a hospital this often?

"I think you'll be alright for now, Miss Weathers," she applied a fresh bandage before heading towards the stairs, "Get some more sleep, I'll wake you up when the night starts so you can get into a real bed okay?"

Oh lord help me.


"So... you want us to..."

"Well, originally it was to aide in keeping the monsters at bay while construction is underway with the new highway systems, but now there are much more pressing matters at hand. I can dispatch a unit of WRO troops to handle those in the mean time," Reeve put all of his weight of his elbows, which were resting on his knees. "These... bandits have been raiding the area around Midgar for months now and -"

"Why not contact me sooner?"

"You never responded to my letters, Vincent," his voice low, warning. The burn in my side and the healing broken collar bone allowed him to be brave, but had it been tomorrow, he wouldn't dare be as brave as he was. And for good reason, I'd suppose. Despite my efforts to clean up after my thirty year slumber, I still seemed rather intimidating. Using my good arm, I raised myself to an incline and looked at the man I once deemed a enemy.

"So... we are going to hunt down thieves."

"We have reasonable suspicion that they have access to parts of ShinRa we have not been able to access – and who knows what is left in those ruins, Vincent," at that he lowered his gaze to the floor. I know what he meant. Monsters – not the natural kind. Half-human, half-monster beings, fused species, regular old chimeras, straight out of a mad man's fairy tale.

And somewhere in that mess is where I sit.

"Originally I was going to ask both you and Cloud to go, since you both have had sufficient exposure to Mako and seem to have a decent resistance of it. As you can see, though, he's been absent from everybody's life as of late... even the children's," he continued on, talking about how tired Tifa looked, so on and so forth.

The pitter-patter of little feet hit my ears before they did Reeve's, and Marlene's brown braid flew by the door, disappearing only to reappear with a bright and beaming smile.

"Uncle Vincent! You're awake! Are you feeling better?" she called from the doorway, leaning on it slightly but never actually set foot inside the office Tifa had set me up in. Even though the young girl had grown fond of me over the short years, she was still timid of me thanks to Cid's stories of a vicious temper. I nodded in reply, and she smiled once more before bounding off to her previous destination.

"Thankfully, now that you've decided to show your elusive head, now we only need to find Cloud. The Mako levels are already startlingly low, but I don't want to risk Yuffie or Tifa falling to Mako poisoning as well," Reeve voiced. His concerns were valid – Cloud was used to higher dosees of Mako, and though it was unclear as to whether or not I was ever subjected to high doses of the substance, my chances of pulling out scott-free or beating a case of Mako poisoning were higher than that of my comrades, for sure.

"I'd go anyways," a different voice from the doorway made itself known. Reeve's head and my own shoot towards the source, showing one of our strongest allies with dark circles under dulled maroon eyes.


The two men looked only slightly taken aback – surely they didn't think that I, someone who destroyed Sephiroth and aided in saving the world, would actually sit there and take not going because of some dumb Mako. I mean, come on, who were they?

"That is out of the question!"

Now it was my turn to be taken aback. While the voice dripped with the severity normally convyed in Vincent's speech, it clearly was not my sullen comrade. Instead, Reeve had stood with enough force to send the stool he was on toppling over. As sudden as the outburst came, though, it subsided, and Reeve had the stool righted and his rump back on top of it in less than three seconds.

"I... I apologize, Tifa. The levels of Mako in Midgar are down surprisingly low, but I just don't know if we can push it with an individual who has not had a fair amount of exposure already in place. The long-term affects might be... severe. Do you understand?"

"I'm still going."

"Reeve..."

Vincent's voice came out as a whisper, a fractured ribcage keeping him reaching a full volume.

"It might be for the best... I'm sure the WRO has... something that can protect her from the Mako. We will obviously not find Cloud here, Reeve. And... if you're right about those bandits... these grave-robbers... the more of us that go... and the faster... the better chances we will have," he finished with a exhausted sigh and let himself fall back down on to the mattress.

I crossed my arms over my chest. Of course it was for the best – why wouldn't be? Besides, Reeve definitely wanted at least two people going, and he didn't have the time to wait around for Cloud to show up again. I could hear the head of the great Organization sigh, hopefully in defeat, and stand up.

"Very well, Tifa. I have some phone calls to make. I'd wake our other guest up, if I were you though," he said, nodding towards the blackened sky, "You need to open up for business, I'll help you out once I'm done with my calls. Sound good?"

I nodded, a smile on my face. It had been a while since I felt excited, and this time it was just a little... excursion. But something was nagging in the back of my head, something telling me that this excursion was going to turn into a serious adventure. And that realization made me smile more as I lead the way down the stairs to wake up our latest addition to the makeshift Edge Hospital. To my surprise, though, the small woman was already up and moving around... kind of. She still had a stiff air about her, and I had tried my best to get as much of her healed as I could – Vincent refused any Cures I had held for him – but some things just took time any ways.

Materia was weaker in nature now than it was at the height of the ShinRa corporation, and that took many by surprise. Most individuals thought that with the full restoration of the Lifestream, maybe magic would be more readily available... maybe humans would even be able to learn it themselves.

"Well well! You're not supposed to be up yet, missy! But I'm glad you are, because I've got to open in about an hour and a half and I don't want you to feel overwhelmed by the customers, got it?" I put a hand on her shoulder, but Maria jumped and shied away slightly. At first, I thought that maybe it was the one that Vincent had struck, but no, she was just that startled.

"I'm sorry, y-you startled me," she smiled a little, mauvey lips curved up ever so slightly, one higher than the other in a lopsided grin.

"I'm surprised you're up, to be honest."

"Eh, well, I feel the same actually...," she trailed off, eyes landing on Reeve outside the windows. He was on the phone, one hand in his pocket, the look on his face both concerned and excited at the same time.

"Reeve didn't wake you, did he?"

"No, I never really went back to sleep," she pried bright eyes away from my newest comrade and instead locked them onto my own garnet ones. I was taken aback by her sudden forwardness, the few short conversations we had were her stuttering with faltering words and movements, like she hadn't been around people in a long, long time. Now, the woman stood as straight as she could manage, with a sense of danger about her. She still had to tilt her head up to pierce me with sharp, Mako blue eyes, but she did so nonetheless and very effectively to say the least.

"Who struck me down two days ago?" her question echoed in the room, even though her voice had not raised in volume. Maria's smile had not faltered, and it took me a moment to realize that maybe, just maybe, this was how she always appeared. Dangerous. Dangerous, and alert, and on edge, and constantly feeling for danger – like an itchy trigger finger, ready to fire at any moment.

My theory proved somewhat valid when a creak was heard from the stairs, and both our eyes shot to see Vincent limping down the stairs. He still clutched his side, and he still looked exhausted, but the man had always been restless and it was probably trying his patience to keep him cooped up so long.

"My apologies, it appears that I did. It was, however, an accident."

Just like that, the air of danger was gone, and I wasn't sure if it was because Vincent inherently made me feel safe, or if Maria was truly frightened by Vincent's dishevelled appearance. The color drained from Maria's face, her eyes widened quite a bit, and for a moment, I saw Vincent pause in much the same manner before he limped down the last three steps.

"If you don't mind, Tifa, I'd like to have a word with your guest?" came the rumbling baritone.

"Sorry, Vince, but I really do have to get to open... take it upstairs, will ya?" I really did feel bad, but at the same time I was exhausted from the workload of these past two days. Tending to Vincent, Denzel, and Maria was a bit much, so much so that I had been asking Reeve to man the bar at night. I smile and patted him on the shoulder right as Reeve walked back in from his phone calls.

"Ah, and the third is finally up and moving around!" Which one Reeve was talking about, I wouldn't know, since Maria and Vincent had been 'up and moving around' for pretty much the same amount of time. The two also held a look of confusion but eventually brushed it off. "I've good news, Tifa! I just got off the phone with Barret and Cid, as well as Nanaki! They're all on their way to help with the search efforts. Cid, however, insists he can only help watch the children. He's bringing Shera, you know, so I'm sure that he won't -"

"How did you manage to get a hold of Nanaki?" He has no thumbs? He can't hold a cell phone?

"Specially made collar! Acts like a walkie-talkie," Reeve sounded awfully proud of himself then, his chest even puffed out a bit.

"Have you heard from Yuffie?" I missed the younger ninja, and I definitely could use some more oestrogen in the room.

"She... will be late. She didn't want to risk a huge bout of motion-sickness, so she is coming by boat instead."

"I... somehow feel like that won't be any better," came Maria's small reply. Vincent was still holding his side, slightly behind her, and almost awaiting her to follow him back up the stairs. "Uhm, w-will you be a-ble to walk up there alright? You seemed to have a bit of a hard t-ime..." she turned to look Vincent in the face, all traces of the power I saw in her Mako infused stare gone.

"I will be fine."


I swear to anything that would listen, I asked him if he wanted help like six times. Instead, he just told me to go wait in the room on the left, at the top of the stairs. And so I did, and it still took him an additional two minutes to catch up to me. I sat on a cushioned arm chair, curling up my legs and letting the afternoon draft from his open window send shivers down my spine. He now sat on the mattress, head against the wall next to the window, mouth slightly parted. There was no blood, the clothes I' last seen him in weren't there. Now he was just in a long sleeve shirt and sleeping pants. I guess Tifa had changed him at some point, or maybe he had himself, who knows, I'm just glad I didn't have to see the damage I had dealt him.

Seeing him, after so long, it felt unreal. To actually look at him, not just recognize him in passing and receiving a pit of dread for it, was something else. This man should be old. He should have grandchildren on the way. He should have a wife or a dog or both. Then again, I guess so should I, but we all know that wouldn't have happened.

"I'd like to apologize for Kalm -"

"There is no need. I know it wasn't... the best way to go about things. But there wasn't much else to do, you were on your way and no matter you did they would have caught up to you," dark eyes locked with my own bright ones. I could see his eyes narrow in suspicion, and I squared my shoulders off, raising my chin in attempts to make the most dignified air possible.

With a quick intake of breath, it was now or never, and so I asked.

"Is it... is it really you?"

Confusion flooded those red eyes, and while there was no mistaking Vincent Valentine for anyone, it had been decades. I could someone not recognizing me – anyone from those days had either died or moved on in their life to the point where memory was as fleeting as a bird.

"I could... ask the same of you." A line formed from my lips, his dumb word games ticking at my patience.

"Why... why are you here?"

"I could ask the same of you." A sigh.

"But you didn't. I did. So now, Vincent, I'm asking you. What are you doing here? I come back from ShinRa headquarters to find you dead – for good, dead. Because don't think that they didn't make me help them mutilate you, help them bring you back the first few times that you died on that fucking table," I was standing now, "Thirty years, Vincent. I've been moving on for thirty years from that fucking place! That hellhole, that nightmare on earth that was the bane of everything good. Of you, of me, of your father... of Lucrecia. So forgive me if I come in here, on the run for my life for the umpteenth time this decade, and get a wee bit spooked by the fact that I find a man I haven't seen in ages... who died... standing in front of me, right as rain," I clutched my sides, "You can't just... do this to someone, y'know?" I sat back down, not bothering to look towards Vincent. I kept my eyes on my feet, clad in socks that I didn't own, and my legs that were in sweats just a bit too big for me. A sinking feeling of guilt washed over me – I was never a rash person, and I rarely raised my voice. Whenever I did, like now, I was drowned with oily guilt. Its not like he could really help it.

"You lived in Kalm. I've stayed with you for the past few months, doing odd jobs in the town for money," Vincent spoke after a minute, and I looked up, confused. Hair way overdue for a haircut fell forward on his face, looking down into his lap. His arm clutched to his side, albeit looser now.

"Huh?"

"I lived with you, I did odd jobs around Kalm, hunting monsters, helping carry groceries, building things. What's more, you wre old, as you should be. Your husband died two years ago with Meteorfall. You were a world-class dancer, a student at the finest of facilities. You retired only when you had kids. Your eyes are brown, not green, and Sophitia Enders, nor any human, could ever use magic without the aide of materia yet you had no weapon on you that night. Yet here you are, sitting in front of me, talking about things no one should ever utter. So you tell me, Sophie, who are you?"

The guilt washed away to confusion and fear, little boats of anger riding the waves with uncertainty. What in the hell? What is he going on about? I opened my mouth to speak when I heard a click, the familiar cocking of a gun. In a blink's time, steel was against my neck, three cold barrels biting into my skin. The decorations on the barrels must have had teeth on them, as the sharpness tore into my skin and left little drips of blood. I heard a soft groan come from my old friend, blood staining the shirt he was wearing at an alarming rate. I wanted to run, but this was Vincent, surely he wouldn't do this?

I struggled for air to breathe and to speak, "Please, don't do this, you have to believe me... I... I'm... it's me, Vincent, Sophie, we had picnics and did dumb shit and I should have gotten you fired at least twice and killed once!" I did get you get killed once. Red eyes flared with anger.

"Who was the woman at Kalm, then?" The gun was taken from my neck briefly only to reappear at once.

"Vincent... I... I don't know, probably an agent from ShinRa, excommunicated or retired or tasked with being me until the end of her life. I don't know why, I didn't have a family. I never stayed at the school I left when I heard Lucrecia was close to giving birth and then..." I didn't want to finish, I didn't like saying the part that came next. It was a shitty time, it was a shitty feeling.

"And then?" Vincent was leaning with one hand on the chair, the stain on his shirt growing larger with the passing seconds. The gun pressed further, causing breathing to be painful.

"Y... you're choking... m-me-me..." I said, feeling my oesophagus twist around the gun, trying to settle back into a normal setting yet still accommodating the obtrusion. "P-pl-leas-se!"

"Vincent!"