So, almost four months since the last update. That is terrible of me, especially with the cliffhanger I gave you. I will try to get the next chapter up faster, now that I actually have some sort of plot mapped out (yeah, I had no defined plot before this chapter). But now things are gonna get interesting, if I may say so. Enjoy!
"Well the analysts confirmed it," Reeve stated to the five other occupants of the room "What we have been calling the Crater or Northern Cave for years is actually what's left of Cocoon."
"Vanille... I'm so sorry," the small auburn haired girl said to the young redhead.
"Thanks, Shelke," Vanille flatly replied. She took a glance around and saw that Reeve, Rufus, Cloud, and Nanaki were at a loss for words for her. They occasionally threw her a glance that said they wanted to say something but they did not want to offend her by moving on with the conversation but it was driving Vanille crazy just standing there in an incredibly uncomfortable silence "Look, everyone, I'm okay. I was born on Gran Pulse or whatever you call the world now," Vanille flashed them a cheerful, but fake, smile "So can we move on, please?" Rufus gave her a shallow nod before speaking.
"So Jenova wasn't actually from a different world. She was from Cocoon," The Shinra executive mused aloud.
"How do you figure?" Cloud asked, in a much more respectful tone than any other time he spoke to Rufus.
"Well supposedly when Jenova wiped out the Cetra, humans were almost wiped out as well. So in theory, there were several different versions of what happened during Jenova's campaign and overtime those stories merged. Then as it get passed down through generations and translated, details are either lost or exaggerated."
"You're saying what we know of Jenova is false?" Nanaki inquired.
"Exactly. Though, not an intentional deception, just a..." Rufus trailed off as he tried to think of an appropriate metaphor.
"Two thousand year old global game of telephone," Cloud finished.
Silence descended upon the group after Cloud's comment. None of the room's occupants were sure how to move on with the conversation. After a minute of complete silence, Cloud suggested going back to Edge to Vanille. The redhead agreed and Nanaki went along with them back to the city just beyond Midgar's borders.
Reeve, Rufus, and the former Tsviet, Shelke, watched the black helicopter carrying Cloud, Vanille, and Nanaki, take off and disappear over the edge of the mountain ring. The three turned to head back inside the base for warmth but as they reached the door, it flew open to reveal a young cadet.
"Sirs!" he said, short of breath, with a fast salute "We found something big you need to see!"
"Why didn't you radio us?" Rufus asked, minor irritation in his voice.
"We tried, sir." the cadet replied sheepishly.
"Oh, I must've left my radio in my office," Reeve said with a chuckle, Rufus rolled his eyes "Anyways, lead on, cadet."
The three men proceeded to the lift to get to the bottom of the Crater and Shelke followed out of curiosity. As the group of four stepped out of the lift, a large group of W.R.O. hired archaeologists dispersed to allow their superiors to see the discovery. The object in question is a very large white hand that looked to be made of steel. The palm of the hand is a dark gray color, has gold tube looking structures on the knuckles, and small bent spikes on the fingertips. Examining the large hand sent a chill down Reeve's spine as it looked as if it was reaching for something.
"Any idea what this is?" Reeve asked the the group, not knowing exactly who was the one in charge of this discovery.
"Other than a very large hand?" A sandy blond woman remarked "No idea. But it seems to still be connected to something," reeve nodded slowly.
"Alright, I want everyone working on this and regular progress reports."
"Yes sir!" the entire group of archaeologists said together then immediately resumed digging up what belong to the hand.
Upon their arrival at Cloud and Tifa's home and bar, 7th Heaven, life quickly returned to as normal as it got for Vanille and the AVALANCHE members. Cloud resumed making deliveries, Vanille returned to helping Tifa around the bar, and Nanaki traveled back to Cosmo Canyon.
Several days after returning to Edge, Vanille decided to take a day off and explore the gray city just outside of Midgar. The redhead's journey took her down many streets with small shops and houses on either side. She took a break at a clothing shop with large windows and numerous colorful, and rather revealing, miscellaneous articles.. Vanille dug through a rack of hot pants, short skirts, and leggings, all meant to suit the hot and humid season currently enveloping the Midgar area but found nothing she liked. Just a few minutes later, Vanille was holding a black top, almost identical to the pink one she wore when she was a l'Cie, against herself and a voice suddenly appearing behind her surprised her.
"I think that would look great on ya," Vanille dropped the shirt on the table she grabbed it off of and spun around to see the owner of the voice. The owner had unruly vibrant red hair, goggles on his forehead, red crescent shaped tattoos between his eyes and temples, an open black suit jacket, a white dress shirt with a very large tear through the front, another white dress shirt over his shoulder, black suit pants, and boots that were mostly covered by his pants.
"Oh, uh, thanks!" Vanille cheerfully replied "What happened to you?" she asked, referring to the large hole in his shirt.
"This? Nothin' serious," the man replied along with a shrug "Just got snagged. You lookin' for summer clothes?" He stated more than asked.
"Yeah. It's just so hot now."
"That's the Midgar area for ya. Also gets damn cold in the winter," He spat, before his blue eyes lit up "Not from around here, are ya?"
"No, not really," Vanille replied as she folded her hands behind her back and started to slightly rock on her heels.
"How long ya been in Edge?"
"A month-ish?"
"Don't get out much, do ya?" the red haired man asked with a smirk and chuckle.
"No, I've been really busy. Work and stuff," Vanille reply passively but with a smile.
"Now where would a cutie like you work in Edge?"
"Seventh Heaven,"
"Oh, I didn't know Tifa was hiring," the suited man sounded very slightly surprised.
"You know Tifa?" Vanille asked before she could stop herself. The redhead wanted to slap herself for asking such a ridiculous question but only kept her smile up.
"Everyone knows Tifa," the man chuckled "Best, uh, bar in town," Vanille had a feeling he was not really making a comment about Tifa's business "Anyways, what's your name?"
"Vanille," she answered with a light bow.
"Reno," he reply with an exaggerated bow, playfully mocking Vanille "Now excuse me for a sec while I go buy this shirt and stop making the cashier think I'm about to take off."
As Reno stepped up to the cashier Vanille grabbed a few items she had taken a liking to and stepped into the checkout line two places behind Reno. After paying for her new clothes, she spotted Reno standing outside the shop holding a phone similar to Cloud's to his ear. The redhead stood behind him and briefly considered attempting to scare him but Reno glanced over his shoulder at Vanille then kept his back to her.
"Yeah, yeah... luv ya too, buddy," Reno's voice was thick with sarcasm "See ya when I see ya," He flipped the phone shut and dropped it in his pants pocket before turning to Vanille "Hi. Kinda surprised you're still here."
Vanille shrug in a way that Reno thought was downright adorable.
"I dunno. You seem friendly enough so I thought I would give you a chance."
"You're quite trusting," Reno sounded very surprised to Vanille.
"I'm a great judge of character." Reno only chuckled in response to Vanille.
The duo started walking vaguely in the direction of 7th Heaven, making idle chatter along the way. Vanille was happy to finally meet someone that seemed to be just as friendly and cheerful as herself. As they rounded a corner, they both saw something unnerving. An older man was sitting on a bench with a newspaper in his hands and it was the contents of the front page that made the duo nervous. Along the top of the page sat the large print black headline:
WRO and Shinra secret,
Cetra or Jenova?
And directly below the large words rested a full page picture of Vanille. The redhead turned to Reno with a worried glance but the man with vibrant red hair pulled a baton out of his jacket and flicked his wrist to make the baton extend to full length. Vanille could swear she saw a spark race down the steel weapon. Reno took hold of Vanille's arm and began to half drag her. He snatched the newspaper from the older man as they passed him. Vanille was both protesting and begging to be let go the whole way back to 7th Heaven.
Cloud was sitting at the bar, enjoying a grilled chicken sandwich made by Tifa, when the door flew open and slammed shut. The blond did not even flinch at the noise, thinking it was just his middle aged pilot friend, Cid Highwind. The sound of the blinds being let down alerted him to the fact that something was amiss. Slowly turning, to ensure nothing fell on the freshly swept floor, his eyes found Vanille and a man he never really cared to be around. The current second in command of the Turks, Reno. But before he could even draw his sword, Tifa came out of the kitchen.
"Vanille? Reno!" Tifa's voice raised a fair amount when she said the Turk's name.
"Before you kill me, look," Reno tossed the crumpled newspaper over to the bartender.
Tifa unrolled the crumpled ball and set the semi-flat paper on the counter. Cloud almost inhaled a large piece of bread upon seeing the front page, then turned a glare on Reno. The Turk visibly cowered under Cloud's gaze.
"You. Explain." Cloud threatened. Vanille almost thought it was funny that Cloud was pointing a half-eaten sandwich at Reno but the large sword on the blond's back quelled most traces of humor.
The caped gunslinger stood on the beach of New Bodhum gazing up at the pale moon and the crystallized hollow world just to the moon's left. Silvery light from the moon made Cocoon glow as if it were something sacred and blessed by the gods themselves. Vincent, from what the he learned from the former l'Cie, knew there was nothing sacred about Cocoon to those outside New Eden. He slipped Cerberus out of it's holster and flipped it open to check the amount of ammo in the three cylinders. Satisfied that Cerberus was fully loaded, Vincent slid the tri-barreled revolver back into the leather holster and turned his crimson gaze back to the horizon. The first light of day pierced the sky to reveal a new day, the first day of Lightning Farron's freedom.
Going into the courts, Vincent doubted Lightning would be found guilty of the crimes. The only evidence to connect the pink haired soldier to the murders was the boot print of her, and many other CETRA women, size and the tiny amount of blood from Vincent's clawed gauntlet. Lightning's lawyer's strategy had been a simple one, attack Vincent's credibility and accuse him of framing Lightning. The jury had been convinced that Vincent was an old Cocoon l'Cie and despised Lightning because she was the heroic Pulse l'Cie that destroyed the Sanctum. The gunslinger was glad that Lightning was let off the hook, angered by the fact Jenova had yet to reveal herself and that Chaos wouldn't say anything actually helpful, and just a miniscule amount of sorrow because the former l'Cie started shielding themselves from the gunslinger.
But all that aside, today was the day the killer was supposed to strike again and Vincent decided that since Colonel Amodar had given Lightning a few days off to relax from the stress of the trial, he would keep an eye on her. As expected by the caped gunslinger from the future, the day came and went without event. Around noon of the next day, while Vincent sat on a rooftop observing the former l'Cie in Lightning's backyard, the gunslingers phone, the one given to him by the CETRA, vibrated.
"Vincent," he said into the phone, not taking the binoculars away from his eyes.
"It's Colonel Amodar. Do me a favor and bring Lightning to the base, I have to cut her vacation short. And in case you're wondering, I have her CETRA phone."
"Yes sir," Vincent ended the call and leaped from the rooftop.
He did as he was told and proceeded to Lightning's house and informed her of the call from Amodar. None of the former l'Cie were particularly thrilled to see the raven haired man but they didn't protest to his presence. Together, Lightning and Vincent made their way to the New Bodhum CETRA base and up to Amodar's office.
"Sorry about cutting your vacation short, Farron," the Colonel said upon seeing the duo.
"No worries there, sir. I was getting restless."
"Now about why you're hear. We lost contact with New Palumpolum yesterday."
"What?" Vincent just about shouted.
"Why didn't you say anything yesterday?" Lightning sounded very close to yelling at Amodar.
"It's not the first time we lost contact with one of the other cities. Usually just a passing storm or malfunction but contact is always reestablished within a few hours. We already sent a team to investigate, but we lost contact with them in the city."
"So you want me and a team to go in?" Lightning asked.
"Exactly. I'll let you choose who to take," Colonel Amodar stated as he hand Lightning her CETRA phone.
The pink haired soldier promptly called home to recruit Fang and Snow, also telling Vincent to meet her on the landing pad. Before too long she arrived in uniform with two squads of four CETRA soldiers in tow. Fang, dressed in the same outfit she wore as a l'Cie, and Snow arrived shortly before the final departure preparations. Just a few minutes later, the shuttle Lightning requested lifted off the ground and began speeding towards New Palumpolum, the only new city that had taken a neutral stance as the people had taken it upon themselves to gather raw materials and produce resources such as steel and fuel. Vincent sat quietly and listened to Snow, Lightning, and Fang, theorize about what they might find and the other soldiers exchange friendly banter. The trip took nearly three hours, which Vincent did not mind seeing as how he spent the greater part of three decades in a coffin. As they drew near to the city, Lightning was called up front by the pilot, and twenty minutes later, the shuttle landed with a dull thud.
All twenty passengers stepped out of the shuttle and observed the buildings closest to the landing zone while the shuttle departed for a CETRA outpost relatively near New Palumpolum. Once the shuttle was far enough way to no longer be heard by the group, complete silence crushed them. Not one sound met their ears. No people, no vehicles, no airships, no birds, not even insects. Suddenly, however, several bursts of gunfire and an explosion, all somewhere deep within the city. All twenty members of the group exchanged a mixture of nervous and grim looks before Lightning stepped forward and turned to face them.
"Squad three," eight of the sixteen CETRA soldiers saluted Lightning "You will head north to City Hall. Squad two," the other eight soldiers saluted "You will head southeast to the CETRA emergency shelter. You three," Lightning said to Snow, Fang and Vincent "Are with me. We're going to the CETRA base."
Two hours later of silently making their way through the deathly quiet city, occasional off in the distance gunfire and the rare explosion to keep them company, Vincent's group happened upon a disturbing sight. An entire city block had been heavily damaged by what looked like a war. Buildings were burnt and bombed out, dead CETRA soldiers and mangled vehicles littered the ground, as well as just as many civilians and civilian vehicles, but not one sign of an enemy. Lightning and Vincent could tell that the CETRA troops had been trying to protect the civilians, as most of those bodies were behind the CETRA firing line but the fact that there was no enemy corpses concerned Vincent and the three former l'Cie.
"What the hell happened?" Snow finally asked, having just recovered from the shock of the sight. No one answered since they did not have a response. Lightning's communicator beeped and the pinkette answered quickly.
"Farron... What? … One second," Lightning pushed a button on the communicator, switching it to speaker mode "Say again, Sergeant."
"That gunfire we've been hearing, it's what's left of the CETRA forces. We met up with one of the groups on our way to City Hall, they're saying the New Sanctum is behind this."
"Continue towards City Hall, Sergeant. Put your comms on silent and try to send updates regularly."
"Yes ma'am," The communicator went quiet after that.
"New Sanctum did this?" Fang asked through gritted teeth "I'm going to tear them apart."
"Not the only one," Lightning replied, sounding just as furious as the huntress.
They continued through the silent streets, stepping over and around the bodies littering the ground. As they came up on an intersection, the sound of glass crunching made them duck behind a wall of cars. The four of them carefully looked through the windows of the vehicles and saw a group of six soldiers round the corner, all bearing the emblem and colors of New Eden, and New Sanctum by extension. All in all, the uniforms were just the PSICOM uniforms with a different palette. Every inch of the soldiers was covered by the outfits but something about them made Lightning uneasy. When the group of six New Sanctum soldiers stopped and looked, in unison, directly at where Lightning, Vincent, Fang, and Snow were hiding, it made them more than uneasy.
Two soldiers grabbed a car close to them and threw it at where the four were hiding. Easily dodging the massive projectile, the three former l'Cie and the gunslinger from the future rolled out into the open and took their chance. Lightning and Vincent both took aim and placed a bullet between the eyes of one soldier each bringing it down to a four against four fight. The four remaining soldiers charged at them, dodging the bullets Lightning and Vincent were sending their way. As the first enemy soldier reached the four from New Bodhum, the lead soldier slammed his fist into Snow's gut, sending the large blond through the plate glass display window of a diner across the street from them. Lightning and Fang, and Snow if he was still conscious, were stunned by the display of power, but not stunned long enough to leave themselves open to attack from the two of the soldiers. Vincent shot the soldier that charged him in the chest and the New Sanctum soldier did not even flinch from the wound, even though the bullets tore straight through the man's chest. The lack of response to the wound let the soldier launch Vincent into the side of a van, causing the vehicle to bend into a wide V shape.
Lightning slashed at the soldier closest to her but he sidestepped the attack and attempted to punch the pinkette in the jaw. She dropped and rolled to avoid the attack and slashed at his legs but he was already soaring through the air at a height no mere human could ever achieve. Lightning and Fang were starting to believe they were fighting l'Cie, or worse, Cie'th. Vincent on the other hand, had seen Cloud perform very similar feats of strength, leading him to believe Jenova was actually the first being to create SOLDIER operatives. Fang tried to impale her enemy several times already, but he was simply too fast for her and she had a wide effective kill range around to prevent the enemy from getting too close. As he was still recovering from the hit he took, Vincent saw Fang's opponent grab a streetlamp and tear it right out of the ground, then twirl and hold it like a spear, which made Fang falter for a moment.
Snow came out of the diner at a full sprint and tried deliver a bone shattering punch to the back of one enemy soldier's head but he moved at the last possible moment, grabbed Snow's arm and threw the large man straight into Vincent, who had just gotten back to his feet. The soldier fighting Lightning had taken out his combat knife and was trying very hard to plant it in the pinkette's leg but she was just able to defend herself, which relieved Vincent somewhat. The soldier with the streetlamp spear was swinging at Fang, but being a spear user, the huntress was able to dodge all the attacks which also rendered her unable to fight back. Pushing Snow off himself, Vincent got back to his feet and threw himself into a fight with two of the soldiers. Using the martial arts he learned while in the Turks, and some moves he learned from Tifa, the gunslinger was able to keep the two soldiers reasonably occupied but he knew the other two of his group, Snow was already too beat up to continue, wouldn't last very long. After a spin kick, which missed, and firing a round at one of his opponents, which also missed, Vincent heard a sickening crack and the crunch of something slamming into a vehicle.
"Fang!" Snow and Lightning shouted together, answering Vincent's question.
He turned to attack the enemy behind him with an upward swipe of his claws and just over the shoulder of his target, he saw the streetlamp wielding soldier hurl the weapon at him. The soldier between the gunslinger and the ridiculous spear dropped to the ground and the jagged end of the streetlamp ripped through Vincent's torso, spattering the ground in blood. He saw Lightning and Snow's jaws drop at the sight but Vincent did not feel any pain, he felt power start to rush through every fiber of muscle in his body, his blood boil, and bestial roar erupt from his throat.
Lightning was speechless as she watched the caped gunslinger yank the streetlamp out of his body then in a flash of light, become a creature that looked to be somewhere between a Cie'th, Eidolon, and demon. His wings drew Lightning's attention, they were the black ribbed, tattered red webbed wings from that image Primarch Darius showed her all those weeks ago. Snow's attention was drawn to Vincent's now shining gold eyes and the bright blue shine coming from his heart. The demon that was Vincent, raced forward at a speed that no eye could track and grabbed the first soldier it found then ripped his head off his shoulders. The demon turned back to the enemy that had been behind Vincent and the soldier took up a ready stance before the demon vanished and a bus came crashing down on his head, creating a large crimson splat. Lightning's opponent forgot about her and charged at the demon with the knife ready, the demon smirked at him as he suddenly appeared in front of him and shoved the hand with golden claws through the soldier and dropped a chunk of his spine on the ground.
The soldier that had thrown the streetlamp spear turned to start fleeing. The demon pulled it's clawed hand free of the other soldier, raised his free hand and a strange looking gun came into existence. A black beam with a white aura raced from the gun, hit the fleeing soldier, and obliterated him. Not a single trace of the last soldier was left. The demon lowered it's arm and walked over to Fang, who had been unconscious the whole time. Holding it's blood stained hand out towards Fang, the blue shine from it's chest intensified until Fang drew a deep breath and coughed. The huntress opened her eyes and shouted in surprise, bringing Lightning and Snow out of their shock.
"What the hell is this?" Snow shouted as he carefully made his way towards the demon.
"What kind of monster are you?" Lightning asked, Vincent could hear the fear in her voice.
"This," the demon reply as it gazed into its blood covered palm "Is a curse," the demon's wings flapped once and in a flash, Vincent was back "It's called Chaos."
"It?" Fang asked as she stood up "That damn thing is you!"
"It is a part of me. Just one of my sins to bear," Vincent said back, looking at the ground so he would not have to deal with their fearful stares.
"Is that thing dangerous?" Lightning asked, making Fang look at her as if Lightning had asked the dumbest question in history.
"It's the harbinger of the end of the world. It's the most dangerous thing to ever exist," Vincent answered honestly.
"Sounds like my kind of weapon," They all heard Lightning say, even though she did not move her lips.
The four turned to face the source of the voice and were met with an even more astounding sight. Another Lightning stood on top of the overturned bus, she was wearing an identical uniform but her hair was straight and hung to her thighs, was silver in color, and her left eye held a bright red glow. Vincent, now at the back of the group, mouthed one word purely out of surprise. Jenova.
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