Epilogue Two
Vincent
Vincent clutched as his dislocated arm, stumbling through the mountainous terrain and towards Corel. He wasn't sure how, but he knew that the town was once more repopulated. It was a feeling. He had to get there quickly, and spread the word. Everything might depend on it.
As he approached the town, he began to make out elements of Wutaian samurai, Rocket Town militia, and the combined force of Cosmo Canyon, Corel and Gold Saucer. The people looked battered, but happy. The sounds of victory came from them all, celebration and cheer of what Vincent could only assume was the defeat of the Tali Hishna. How little they knew that victory was the furthest thing from what had happened today.
As the ex-Turk approached, people began to recognize him. Half cheered at the sight of him, glad to see their 'angel' returned to them. The other half asked where his wings were, asked if he was all right. Vincent ignored them, moving forward, looking for Cloud.
It didn't take too long to find the Soldier. As word spread of the 'angel's' arrival, Cloud heard it and came looking. The two met up in the middle of the shantytown, and the ex-Soldier moved to intercept Vincent.
"You're alive!" he called. "I take it you killed Dweir?"
"No," came Vincent's response.
"What?" Cloud asked, shock covering his face. "What happened?"
"We need to talk somewhere private," the ex-Turk said.
Cloud looked as if he were about to protest, then apparently thought better of it and merely nodded. "I'll take you to the medical tent. Barret and Red XIII are resting in there. Both took bad injuries during the fight with Veishan."
Vincent nodded. That was to be expected. "Is Veishan dead?"
Cloud gave Vincent a cold look. "Is that all you have to ask? 'Is Veishan dead?' Of course he's dead. But that's not what you should be concerned about."
"You're right," Vincent said as the two of them stepped into the medical tent. "It isn't. Dweir-"
He stopped as he looked at his surroundings in the tent. Red XIII lay on a cot, bandaged up and his eyes staring blankly at the canvas wall. Barret lay in a bed next to him, a breather mask over his face, bandages covering the socket where a shoulder followed by an arm should have been.
"What happened?" Vincent asked. "Will… they be all right?"
"You should have asked that first," Cloud said bitterly. "But yes, they're going to pull through. Red took some Mako poisoning, but he'll recover in a couple days. Barret's not doing so well. Veishan took his arm. The doctors have looked it over, and the Rocket Town engineers even came down and checked him out. They said they might be able to outfit him with a new artificial arm, but they're not sure. That kind of operation was only done in Midgar, and with the state of that city… well, they don't have a specialist, or even plans on how to make an artificial arm like the one Barret had."
"What about the arm he used in place of the gun-arm? Will that suffice?"
Cloud shook his head. "It's make-shift blue prints to them only. That arm hooked into Barret's elbow. He's missing his entire arm now. The whole thing would need to be replaced."
Vincent drew in a breath and nodded. He regretted not thinking of his companions first, but other things mattered right now. "Cloud… we need to talk."
"About what?"
"It's about Chaos. And Dweir."