Rising Fear

I was driving really fast down to Kalm, feeling vulnerable as I had no weapons on me in this situation. Nevina was fiddling with her engagement ring and her necklace and bracelet, leaving her earring alone as we were hitting bumps quite often and the last time she done that she nearly tore her ear lobe off.

"Wit'll happen?" She asked eventually as we got closer to Kalm. "I mean I know the WRO will be there but wit about before then?"

"We clear them out as much as possible," I sped up when I could see helicopters and bombs. Nevina's fists tightened and she gritted her teeth. She had reason to be upset. She was born and raised here after all. She then screamed in shock.

"Watch it!" I swerved past helicopter fire and drove faster towards Kalm. The hood of my car was hit by a few bullets and I pushed Nevina down so she wouldn't get hit. I hit my breaks and stopped harshly, worried the car would tip over. I got out the car but then ducked as I spotted soldiers coming towards us.

"Nevina get out my side!" I snapped, throwing a large fireball at them and knocking them back.

I grabbed Nevina's wrist and pulled her out, grabbing on of the soldier's assault rifle and fired at them before they got up. I grabbed some ammo as well and then ran as more soldiers came after us. I took out my phone as we reached an empty alley, waiting for an answer.

"Reeve where are the WRO troops?" I asked, looking around for soldiers. They definitely matched the uniforms of those we spotted in Junon.

"We're on are way. Did you find Vincent yet?" Reeve asked.

"No, we just got here."

"I sent him a rendezvous, I'll send it to your phone, just stay safe," Reeve hung up and in a few moments he sent me a rendezvous on my phone map. I ran through the streets to one of the main market roads where there were booths and stalls. Probably one of the main festival areas. People were running from soliders and strange mutated dogs. I fired at them and got their attention to me.

As I fired the assualt rifle Nevina was keeping herself safe with her Telekinesis. I felt a small pulse in my head which brough me pain but I ignored it as it seemed to be hindering the soldiers as I shot at them.

"Okay that was feckin' weird..." She stated. "Usually my powers are shite."

"They're settling," I told her, firing at a mutant dog then reloading. "Vincent!" I shouted out, hoping he was in the area. I noticed a red flicker run down an alley and I raced after it, Nevina following me.

I could hear gunfire and found Vincent attacking the soldiers. I fired the remaining ammo from my assault rifle and took care of them from afar. Vincent turned towards us as Nevina picked up and tossed me ammo.

"Are you alright?" I asked him.

"Fine, where's Reeve?" Vincent replied.

"He'll be here soon, we'll take you to the rendezvous point," I told him calmly as I reloaded the rifle. "WRO should be with him. It's this way."

"Havenae seen ye a while Vinnie," Nevina stated with a wave. Yuffie and Cid usually called him Vince but they were the only people who used Vincent's nicknames. "So how's life apart fae bein' nearly shot tae death by all these weirdos?" As we walked, Vincent and I both had weapons out incase soldiers attacked us.

"Fine."

"I bet the answer would've been longer if Angie asked," I didn't respond, instead keeping my focus.

"Perhaps."


It felt strange walking through the empty streets with little incident. I tightened my grip around my rifle as I became more anxious. I suppose Nevina would be worse than I since she is unarmed. Her apartment isn't far but she said it wouldn't be smart to detour.

"We there yet?" She asked. I checked my map before shutting my phone and gripping the rifle again.

"Yeah, it should just in that building over there," I said, walking towards it before stopping. Something wasn't right.

"Angevale?" Vincent asked. I heard a helicopter... I looked up at the sky, seeing plane of some sorts that belonged to the enemy forces. Several soliders dropped out of it and approached us and the plane attacked us, firing bullets.

"Nevina! Get in the building!" I ordered, firing at the soldiers and grabbing their ammo before throwing a stream of flames at the aircraft. Vincent was dodging and firing his Cerebus pistol as well as climing into the roof tops to get a better shot at it while I took out the ground troops before attacking the aircraft. It was armoured heavily but the bullets were managing to peirce through the metal shell.

However when it started shooting rockets I panicked, jumping out of the way and taking cover under a stall. I reloaded the rifle and ran, firing at it the wings, taking one off with several bullets. Unfortunately when it lowered itself I tried firing into the glass window I was out of ammo for good.

It was aiming at me so I threw the rifle at the glass, breaking it and then ran off into the building.

"Vincent!" I screamed at him as he ran towards us as the aircraft started firing missiles. He dove through the door and smoke followed. Nevina quickly slammed the door shut and we all caught our breath.

"Well I never want tae go on the front line that's fer sure," Nevina remarked and I dusted myself off, breathing deeply.

"You get used to it," I replied, going to Vincent and dusting rubble off his cloak. "Reeve should be upstairs." I turned and led the two to the second floor.

The room upstairs was empty, which unnerved me again. I didn't have an assault rifle with me anymore. I kept lookout while we waited for a while until we heard a crashing noise. I formed a fireball and motioned Nevina behind me. A massive man walked towards us as Vincent aimed his gun. The man must have been nearly ten feet tall. His hair was blue and his eyes were yellow. I narrowed my eyes as he and a small girl approached us. She looked no older than ten.

"The Protomateria... hand it over," The girl said monotonely, her eyes turning from blue to bright orange. The fire in my hand grew stronger as the large man remained still. Behind them there were three soldiers who aimed their guns at us.

"Hail Weiss!" They yelled before firing at us. I threw my fire ball at one of them before running and grabbing the rifle as Vincent shot down the other two quickly. I aimed the rifle at the larger man, who smirked at Vincent.

"Challenge accepted," He was prepared at lunge at Vincent and instinctively I stood beside him, aiming the rifle at his head. The man grinned. "Eager to join in, aren't we?" Before he could do anything the girl collapsed onto the ground. We didn't lower our guns as the scoffed. "Luck is on your side," I wanted to pull the trigger but I didn't. He picked up the girl and looked at Vincent and I. "I am Azul... we will meet again."

He and the girl left and I let out a breath I wasn't aware I was holding. I looked at Nevina, who seemed more nervous than before. Before I could ask if she was alright we heard footsteps and Reeve along with a WRO soldier entered the room. I relaxed myself and nodded at Reeve.

"Are you all alright?" He asked. I nodded at him again before he looked at the bodies. "You were assaulted?"

"Aye but we're alright," Nevina answered. "That large bloke wis dead scary though."

"Who?"

"He called himself Azul," Vincent informed the Commissioner. Reeve's face seemed to pale at that name.

"Azul the Cerulean?" He asked in shock. "Of the Tsviets... then that can only mean..." I didn't like how pale Reeve looked. It was starting to scare me. He calmed himself and looked at us. "We'll discuss this later. WRO troops have commenced the rescue operations, Angevale I need you down there helping them."

"Sir," I nodded at Reeve. "What about Nevina?"

"I'll scream and distract them," She shrugged, pulling back her hair.

"We could use your help Vincent," I looked at Vincent as Reeve left the room.

"Reeve," The Commissioner turned around partially with a raised eyebrow. "I don't was it is you're planning, but I want absolutely no part in it." ... What?

"Vincent, you faught alongside us three years ago! We need your help one mo-" I felt my heart stop as Reeve collapsed to the ground, a soldier behind him. Without a second though Vincent had shot him down and I collapsed to my knees.

"Reeve!" I felt myself start to cry, however when we touched the body it fell apart, a small black and white cat with a crown and cape popped out of the body.

"Wit the feck Cait?" Nevina asked as she crouched down by the cat. "Wit ye daein'? Reeve no like getting out the Headquarters?"

"Naw, jist that we were never really good at fightin' hen," Cait Sith replied. "Now on tae ye Vince. Yer no really a bad bloke are ye? Ye act like ye don't care but ye come through fer us in the end," He looked at me as I was wiping my eyes. "Lass don't greet I didnae mean tae give ye a fright."

"It's fine... just give me warning next time," I replied, calming myself.

"Right, so how about we run those lads out of town then?" Cait Sith asked. "Of course I'll leave the methods up tae ye three so once yer done wi' that meet up wi' me at the front of the east church."


We spent a good half hour walking to the church square. Nevina ended up leading the way since she grew up here. She got us to the church in no time at all but another aircraft had found us there.

That was around forty minutes ago. We had faught it without help for a while and no soldiers were around to attack us. However when it started to use rockets and missiles as well as bullets we were in trouble. We had managed to damage it significantly before I ran out of ammo and Vincent was on the roof tops tearing it apart before soldiers arrived promptly afterwards. We though we were done for until a WRO truck shielded us from gun fire.

Reeve and several troops were in the truck. Reeve had been kind enough to pick up my sword and one of the Velvet Nightmares from my office before they had headed out here. After we defeated the soldiers it seemed as though a relative peace was upon Kalm. We had saved a lot of people in fact.

Now we were waiting in an alley way with a recovery unit. Nevina was helping us drive off the soldiers but one had grabbed her and broke her left wrist. I offered to heal her but my powers didn't even mend the cuts that much. She blamed it on my unnerved disposition and my unfocus and I didn't reply.

I leaned against a wall after getting my stomach banaged up from bullet wounds. A few went straight through and two were still in me. We managed to get them out quickly before any damage was done but I still felt a little woozy from the slight blood loss and the drugs were making me tired.

"Are you alright Angevale?" Reeve asked me. I nodded with a passive wave. I yawned and fixed the buckle and sheath around my waist, on my left side, then strapped my holster to my right thigh, placing Velvet Nightmare into it. "Once Nevina's finished receiving medical attention we must head to Edge." I looked at him, then to Vincent who was listening in.

"What's happening there?" I asked.

"We believe the soldiers are withdrawing to there."