Capitulo Cinco

Disclaimer: Most of this story is property of Square Enix. The only things that aren't are my original character, Harper, and the plot for this fan fiction. In no way do I claim ownership of Square Enix's work.

Chapter Five:

He was tired of this: another city, no results. Nothing at all had Vincent found, and he was out of places to look…almost. And by now, his reason told him, she's probably dead. The only city he had left was Midgar.

Of course, he did know how dumb he had been when all of this had first began. Instead of rushing off as he had done, he should have analyzed the crime-scene more. Probably there was nothing there to help him, but perhaps it would have helped himself to mentally not beat himself up over not being thorough—even if only in one area.

Midgar was where Vincent was headed next. If he was lucky… Why did he even want to continue? She probably was long dead. Why search for only a body? A body's not a person.

Shoving those thought aside, Vincent turned his key in the lock. It was before shop hours so it was normal for the door to be locked; but, unlike everything else he had seen over the past few months, many things were changed. No one was there. The last day on the tear-off calendar was dated four days ago. There was no note left at the bar: no one was expected to come back. Odd.

Cloud's door was slightly ajar. Vincent, on his way outside, pushed it the rest of the way open and stepped inside. The room was bare. "Cloud…"

"Tifa went with Barret to look for him," a small voice said.

Vincent turned, suprized that he hadn't heard her approach. "Marlene?" A boy about her age stood beside her. "You're staying here alone?"

"No." Marlene took hold of the boy's hand and pulled him a little forward. "This is Denzel, he moved in a few days after you left."

"Denzel." Vincent looked at him again. His brown hair shaded his forehead, on which rested one of Jenova's remnants: geostigma. Vincent had seen it more and more in both children and adults, though it was more common in the children. While searching, he had learned what he could about the stigma: it wasn't a pretty situation, and there seemed to be no cure.

Denzel looked at the dark man when he said Denzel's name.

"I'm Vincent," he could think of nothing else to say. From the look in Denzel's eyes, the stigma was hurting him then, and badly. "I'm sorry."

Denzel understood and nodded before holding and hand to his head.

"Marlene," she looked to Vincent. "What's happened?"

She was about to answer, but Denzel asked abruptly if they could sit down. Vincent took them to the back patio where the kids sat and he began looking for…anything. "Cloud went to the church after you left, and brought Denzel home with him."

"My parents died a while back. Since then, I've managed, but this is the first house I've lived in with people I can call family since then," Denzel said.

"I'm sorry," Vincent put in.

"Don't be," was Denzel's answer.

"Anyway," Marlene went on, "a week or two later, Cloud just left. I wasn't here when he left, and neither was Denzel: Papa took us to Costa del Sol for my birthday. When we got back, he was gone, and Tifa was moving all his stuff. Then, a few days ago, she and Papa told us to go stay with the neighbors, that they were going look for Cloud." That was the end of the story, and Vincent had once again found nothing. Judging from the way Denzel didn't ask any questions, Vincent assumed everything had already been explained to him about Harper.

"Tifa said to give you this," Denzel said as he drew a piece of paper out of his pocket, "if you came back." It was Kadaj's note. "She said Cloud said to read it again, that maybe there was something you were missing."

Vincent took a seat across from the two. "Thank you." He didn't see what could be there. It was clear what the intended—Harper's death…or was that it? " 'We've come to dispose of our sister,'" he read. "Dispose…"

"Throw away?" Marlene asked.

"…Maybe…" Gogaga and Corel were the junk-heaps of the world, along with Bone Village. Maybe there were things he overlooked in those places. "Are you two alright with the neighbors until Tifa and Barret get back?" They nodded. "Thank you." With that, he left.

Cloud couldn't help missing the house in Edge—a city growing around the slums. In Edge wasn't right though, the 7th Heaven wasn't in Edge, but it wasn't in Midgar. It was between them. The cliff he was on was a few miles away from either city. The old rusted buster-sword had yet again been kicked out of place. He replaced it, saying nothing, and got back onto Fenrir. His phone held no messages. He really was useless…

The delivery service he had tried to start had failed, pretty much miserably. They lost more money than they made, and when he left he told Tifa to do whatever she wanted to do with Strife Delivery Services. She said it would still be there when get back. When she said that, he wanted to say, "If I come back." He was useless. He could help no one. He…couldn't even help himself. He couldn't decide it he would go back.

With Sephiroth gone, and Shinra put back in its place, what was there left for a Soldier to do? …

But he wasn't a Soldier, was he?

"The smell of the sunken sub isn't so bad once you get used to it," Harper said to a beady-eyed rat that was sitting across from her, just looking at her. His buddies were busy knowing at her ropes…or what was left of them anyway. Hours (or maybe minutes—it was hard to tell) after Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo had left, the overly-large rodents inhabiting the Gelicka had chewed through the ropes: Harper's first stroke of good luck, though she hated rats. The second stroke was the finding of a sword still slotted with materia, which was wonderful because Loz had not neglected to take hers. After that find, she was fully armed, and had a means of cooking things (fire materia); though what there was edible…who knew, but she hadn't died yet! Drinking-water had been a problem—there was none—but somehow she solved that problem too.

The only thing left, was boredom…now being satisfied by talking to rats.

A/N: Please review!