9 PM, Midgar...
Thunder rumbled through the streets of Midgar, illuminating in yellow. The Deepground agents took cover behind any building and rubble they could find, avoiding the elemental projectiles that both Yuffie and Weiss cast at each other. The young ninja, while bleeding through her injuries, continued to evade the larger man's slashes and gunshots. There were moments where the attacks grazed her face ever so slightly, so her face had minor injuries.
She tapped her index and middle fingers on her armband, where her equipped materia were, activating the fire element and casting it directly at her opponent. To her dismay, he evaded the blast and came right up to her face. She didn't have time to get away, so she received the sharp end of one of his gunblades in her abdominal. Her shirt turned red from the wound, while her body went into shock from the attack. The man placed his leg on her lower abdominal and pushed her off his blade with force.
Her body drops to the ground, continuing to bleed out of the gaping wound. Her breathing went rapid from the shock, she was scared, scared of what will happen next. While her vision started to fail her little by little, she could still see Weiss as he towered over her small frame. The tip of his gunblade lightly brushed over her thin neck, marking where his next strike will be. 'I don't want to die, I don't want to die.' Her thoughts screamed as her vision darkened. Suddenly, everything went dark, and with it, her consciousness faded.
~.~.~
"Sir, wait!" a new soldier cried out as they arrived at the location, Weiss recognized them as one of the ones assigned to the labs.
"What is it now grunt, I have an intruder to eliminate." Weiss huffed annoyed, he hated being interrupted.
"S-Sir, the professor s-suggested that we use the intruder for the experiment."
'So the good old professor was watching the fight, nice of him to do so.' the thought came to him, yet it didn't bother him, they had their differences, but both wanted the same thing in the end. Weiss got quiet, contemplating the suggestion. His gaze wandered back to the bleeding woman under him. She did demonstrate a durable power of Will that they so desperately needed. And all the previous test subjects died as soon as Chaos was introduced. Basically, it was worth a try, they had nothing to lose by using the intruder as their little pawn.
He leaned down and grabbed onto Yuffie's frail body, carrying her over his broad shoulder with ease while her blood ran down his skin, yet he ignored it. The soldiers all tensed up as he turned to look at them.
"Get her weapon and follow me. the rest of you, get back to work." His commanding voice got them all to scramble and obey. In mere seconds, the field was empty of soldiers. It was just him and his prey now.
"You got lucky woman, you might of use to me yet."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Gaia's landscape rapidly changed below him as the airship raced across the night sky. The shimmering blues of the ocean, nor the luscious greens of the forests occupied his thoughts at the moment. From his perch on the outer deck, far from the hustle and bustle of the bridge, his feet dangling off the edge in mid-air while one hand holding on to the vertical guard rail which was keeping him from falling off. His long hair flowed with the cold wind as the Shera advanced to the ruins of Midgar.
"We're reaching Midgar air space in T minus 30 seconds." Cid's voice boomed through the ship's megaphones. The announcement didn't help ease Vincent's concerns at all.
The Ex-Turks' grip tightens around the guard rail, if he had wings, he would have been there faster. But he sadly did not have access to them anymore. He had to be patient and trust that Yuffie won't be reckless. Though, if he were to be completely honest, she was the most reckless woman he had ever met. Instead, he hoped that she wouldn't pick a fight with Weiss. Her skills could efficiently deal with the average Deepground grunt, Weiss, on the other hand, was way out of her league. His train of thoughts was interrupted, but the gradual appearance of Midgar right below him.
"Vincent, We're he-" Vincent didn't need to hear the end of the captain's sentence, his over-eagerness had already caused him to jump overboard.
Freefalling through the sky, his crimson eyes made a quick swipe across the ruins. His sights resting on a clearing close by which looked like a good starting point. After that was decided, he closed his eyes, focusing his energy, channeling his beast form.
As the channeling continued, his body doubled in both size and muscle. Grey colored fur grow out across his whole body, turning into a werewolf basically. Using this limited transformation, he quickly reached out towards the high rise close to him, his claws digging into it effectively lessening his descent. From there he jumped down from building to building till his feet reached solid ground. He took a few minutes to calm his rapidly beating heart, taking big gulps of air helped normalize it slow and steady. When it finally did, he stood up, and his form reverted back to his normal human state.
Vincent involuntarily shivered, the transformation always felt weird for him to use outside of combat, mainly because during a battle situation, he wouldn't be focusing on it like he was now. Shaking his head, he refocused on the rescue mission.
His sights served the area carefully. No guards, no scouts, and no sign of anyone being in this location, yet. To his knowledge, he landed in the old Loveless Avenue in Sector 8. Once the entertainment district of Midgar for the upper plate residence, now it was reduced to a pile of rubble and bricks. He wasn't that far from the old Shinra building for that matter, but that's not the location he needed, he would most likely find his partner near the outer limits of the city's edge. His cell phone interrupted the silence, stopping his planning.
"Vincent here, Anything about Yuffie?"
"Sadly, I couldn't get a hold of her. I tried, but it suddenly cut off."
"What about location?"
"Somewhere around the central highway."
"On it." Vincent immediately hung up on his boss as he rushed through the broken streets. His metal boots barely making a sound from the speed he was going. As the crumbled buildings slowly phased out of his path and a much more spacious area took over. A handful of Deepground agents came into view, a nuisance that must be dealt with if he wanted to know where Yuffie was.
They didn't have a chance to react to him as he shot them down one by one, right in the head from where he stood, they fell to the blood-soaked ground at this point. Then only one remained, the agent tried his best to find him. But Vincent was never in his direct sight, He was running, hiding and bouncing all around him, he couldn't take proper aim because of it. The frightened soldier soon faced Vincent's gun aimed point-blank to his forehead, the cold muzzle touching his exposed forehead skin with force.
"Drop your weapon, and I won't shoot you." Vincent's order was obeyed, the clank of the agent's gun echoed in the spacious area. His eyes never breaking contact out of fear of dying.
"Where is she?"
"Wh-who?"
"The ninja sent by WRO, .she?"
"H-her, th-the boss already dealt with her. We already got rid of the body."
He felt something in him snap, the words he heard felt unreal to him. Was he surprised? Angry? Upset? He couldn't describe what was going through his head right now. His hostage had taken the opportunity to escape the caped man. Yet Vincent didn't give chase, he was still stunned from what he discovered.
At one point, Vincent's arm dropped to his side ever so slowly. The Cerberus dropping to the pavement, making a slight clank noise compared to when he disarmed his target. But he wasn't aware of what was going on around him. The ringing of his cell phone finally snapping him back to reality.
He reached over to his phone slow and shakey, he took a quick glance at the caller ID before his thumb clicked on the answer button. He took a deep breath, steadying himself before attempting to answer.
"Vincent... here."
"You're worrying me, my friend. What did you discover?"
"...I can't find Yuffie, the grunts say... Weiss got to her."
"And you believe she's?" He didn't want to say it either. Both he and Reeve didn't want to admit that she was gone, not without seeing it for themselves, of course. This was Yuffie after all, it just could happen, could it?
"I'll keep looking for her, I need to verify it."
"Noted, You have 3 hours though, I don't want to lose you too."
"Understood."
After hearing the hung up tone, Vincent gave himself a few minutes to collect himself. Taking a few breathes, steadying his pulse and nerves. Carefully composing his thoughts before finally slipping his phone in his pocket. As he stooped down to pick up his gun when he realized that there were remains of a cell phone, yet he couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to. Seeing no point in studying it further, he ignored it and took his weapon and left the area to start his search for the Wutai woman.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
10 PM, WRO Head Quarter, Parking lot...
Not soon after his call to Vincent did Reeve receive word of Kunsel and Sith's arrival reach him. He stopped all his paperwork and headed to the vehicle garage to meet up with them. Following him was a medical team followed suit just in case any of the three needed medical attention.
As they entered the garage, they were just in time to see Kunsel trying to persuade their little guest. The poor girl was crying her eyes out inside the van. Sith was trying to sooth the girl with an old beat-up choco doll. But nothing seemed to calm her down.
"What seemed to be the problem?" He asked the two, the medics had already started looking over the new arrivals. Kunsel tried reporting to him as the team was doing their work.
"She just woke up as we parked, so she's probably in shock."
Understandably, a little girl, her age would be scared after waking up in an unknown location. Thankfully, one of the medical team members was able to calm her. Though now that he got a good look at her, she had a striking resemblance to either Zack or Aerith which he found strange since none of them mentioned having a kid. Also, She was very young, so she wouldn't have been born before they have passed initially.
"Sith, go to Shelke to get the data you got from the Deepground computers. We need to know who this little girl is."
"Roger that." The robotic cat bolted out of the garage, he was either glad to be out of the loud area, or he was perturbed about the little girl.
"So... I take it that you don't know anything about Yuffie either, Kunsel?" He asked, still worried about the young ninja, but all he got from his agent was a shaking head. He can only hope that she was ok.
