MAN, I UPDATED!!11!! I am seriously sorry, but apart from being quite busy and trying to sign into University, I am also totally addicted to Viva Pinata and Naruto, so I had no time to write whatsoever .; But I did have quite sometime to ponder, so I think I finally got the basics of the plot figured out. Anyways, I hope you like the chapter, I, actually, quite like it myself(happens RARE). As usually, free cookies for reviewers, milk is also available. Cheers!
Silent Edge
As soon as the night took over the day and the darkness covered the city of Edge with thick blanket Vincent slid out of the window and softly landed on the ground. He could have used the door but he had heard Vince and Yuffie downstairs and walking out in the night would bring up a lot of unnecessary questions. Especially since Vincent did not quite know himself why he wanted to go away. It was, perhaps, his nature of a loner, violated by the need of working in the team, which was calling to him and pleading for solitude.
Edge, as Vincent had noticed before, seemed as dead as the last time he was here, during the Tsviets Crisis. A grim smirk crawled on his face. Reeve and his organisational skills, as mighty as they were, could not fight against people fears. Many of them decided to abandon Edge forever since it seemed to repeat the fate of Midgar, The Damned City, as they called it. Vincent could not blame anyone. Second Jenova Crisis, the Tsviets… Masses feared for their lives, many lost relatives and people dear to them during both incidents.
"Perhaps our attempts are in vane…"he whispered and with grace made a jump that took him on the roof of a nearby house. "Perhaps we should have allowed the planet to do what it wanted…" he jumped on the other rooftop, wind blowing hair out of his face. "And perhaps it is the very existence of humanity that sickens the planet." As a giant bat, his cloak widely waving in the air and face illuminated by moon that was weakly peaking from the clouds, Vincent was changing one rooftop after another without any goal. It was just this feeling of freedom, being not tied to anything and not seeing anyone that seemed to calm him down and wipe the gloomy mask away from his face. Edge was huge. Not as huge as Midgar but, as fast as Vincent was, he still did not make it to the outskirts. Once, years ago, he used to love megapolises, being born in one he felt uneasy and pressured in the small villages such as Kalm or Mideel. Being stationed in Nibelheim more then thirty years ago seemed like undeserved punishment of some sort. He was angry, he demanded the possibility of being transferred anywhere but that sorry place. Especially since Verdot, his team mate, got himself a nice cosy workplace in Midgar, back then a rapidly growing centre of Mako Industrialisation. If not for Lucrecia, his time in Nibelheim would be one never-ending torture. If not for Lucrecia, his life now would not be one never-ending torture.
"Petty. Petty and childish." he muttered under his breath referring to the memories of his riots and countless letters to the Department of General Affairs, Lucrecia stayed out of the question, Vincent's mind was refusing to blame her for anything that happened and all the guilt, was it hers or not, was automatically put on Hojo's account. The very thought of Hojo made Vincent cringe and he abruptly stopped, chilly breeze stroking his cheeks. Even out of the grave that abomination to science makes people to remember his name. When one thinks there can be nothing more, another Deepground appears. Or another Sephiroth. Or…
A sudden movement somewhere to the left made Vincent freeze and slowly turn around. He hated haste, besides his senses were twice as better as of any human so it would not be difficult to dodge a sudden attack if one would come. Another shadow, now to the right, slid rapidly between two houses and disappeared in the darkness. He was being surrounded. Vincent could have supposed those were monsters that were freely roaming in Midgar and sometimes set their foot in Edge but the monsters were never about secrecy and stealth pursuing, plus his intuition was telling Vincent the trackers were humans. Apart from AVALANCHE and WRO the city was empty. And even if it wasn't, who would possibly go out in the middle of the night?
Three more shadows slid past and Vincent, without a second thought, darted forward. He wanted to reach the main square. There was plenty of open space, as Vincent preferred to stay on the wide areas with clear view; his agility and speed were his best weapons and the enemies, who could not follow his movements from the cover had to reveal themselves giving Vincent another advantage. From the corner of his eyes Vincent saw several silhouettes fastly changing their direction and tightly following his trail.
The best idea, perhaps, was to shake them off and then simply return to "Seventh Heaven" pulling the face as nothing had happened and calmly contact Tseng; however Vincent wanted to test the skills of his possible enemies, he did not want to risk and endanger his friends.
After several minutes of fast running the buildings had abruptly ended giving place to a big elliptical square with a giant monument in the middle. Vincent shoved his cloak aside and swiftly jumped down, making fast spin in the air and dragging Cerberus out of the holster. For a second the still silence had been disturbed when the soils of Vincent's boots touched the ground and everything got quiet again. Quickly he stepped in the shadow of monument and scanned the rooftops. Empty.
"Not so smart after all…" he whispered and lowered the hand with the gun a bit. And then it came. The moment Vincent had noticed several tall figures coming out of the shadow, he felt Chaos once again roaring inside him. It was twitching, eager to come out. There was someone here, someone else, not the people that were approaching him. Someone who did not reveal himself but kept watching. Vincent could feel Chaos' hatred. The stinging pain pierced his heart and made it to skip several heartbeats. Vincent cringed and dropped the gun, which had never happened to him before. Stumbling and trying to keep balance he reached out to Cerberus when a heavy boot kicked it out of his sight. Vincent raised his head and his eyes met with bright blue ones of a person that was now towering above him. The stranger now got joined by the three other people. Vincent slowly looked around; every movement was bringing him terrible pain and he was afraid to loose the grasp on reality and be unable to defend himself. Another scream of Chaos made him moan and fall to his knees. The strange people did not make a single sound, they did not gloat, did not talk to each other… The only sound that could have been heard was Vincent's uneven breathing. Several seconds passed and Vincent felt the air moving, the shadow that he saw on the pavement had raised hands that were now clutching the hilt of the sword. With the great effort Vincent rolled away, making the sword collide with the ground. It was pure luck, Chaos did not stop for a single second and rolling away from multiple projectiles was not an option. As quick as he could, still clutching his chest, Vincent shuffled in the direction where his gun was pushed by one of the strangers.
All of four people slowly were walking in his direction; he could see satisfied smiles on their faces, identical smiles on completely identical faces. The light breeze was playing in their reddish hair and was twirling the folds of their crimson-red leather coats. The fierce blue eyes were softly twinkling in the darkness, such eyes Vincent had seen before. The signs of Mako infusion.
He shot, once, twice and though his hands were trembling and weak Vincent managed to hit one of the attackers. Without a single sound the bleeding man fell on the ground and almost immediately his body turned to a glowing whirlwind of the Lifestream that dissolved in the air. The situation was pure nonsense. Who were these people, what did they want from him, why were they after him?
Another attack of Chaos and Vincent felt as if he was falling on the pile of soft fluffy pillows.
"Darn… it…"
The next shot had missed its target and the Cerberus slid out of the hand of its owner, the strangers raised their swords and before Vincent fell in the deep welcoming darkness he heard the metal colliding and could swear he saw a crystal white wing beating in the air and a tall shadow sliding between him and his attackers.
A/N:.Duh... Vincent cannot always be all kewl and Rambo-like. Plus Chaos is PAIN. And it seems really disturbed by the presense of several particular people.
A/N 2:. Mmmm... White wings... I love white wings... They are soft and fuzzy, like the wings of an angel.
