Fear Twofold
We had gotten into a truck and Reeve, Nevina, Vincent and myself were heading to Edge to stop the soldiers. The ride was long and painfully silent as Reeve was in thought, Nevina was examining the cast around her left wrist, Vincent was starting at Reeve and I didn't to break the silence.
"Reeve who were those people," Vincent eventually broke the silence, causing all of us to raise our heads. I looked at Reeve, his face was pale and he looked incredibly worried.
"They were Deepground soldiers," Deepground? I've never heard of that before. "They are a group of superhuman warriors constructed by the former President of Shinra. His goal was to create an unstoppable army and not once let morality interfere."
"What about Soldier? Was one army not enough?" I asked.
"Apparently not," Reeve frowned. "Soldier were well known, and of course were infected with Mako and Jenova Cells, well the strongest ones were. Deepground were meant to be stronger than Soliders, stronger than Sephiroth. As I said the President would not let morality interfere like it did with Soldier."
"So how come ye don't 'ave a clue about it?" Nevina asked.
"I was the Head of Urban Development, I was only imformed on a need-to-know basis," He replied. "Deepground was to be kept a secret so there are few few records and only a few Executives were regularly informed on the project."
"Well that's a help, seeing as they're all dead," Nevina frowned.
"Apart from the President only Scarlet, Heidegger and Hojo were really in the know about Deepground," Reeve informed us. "And the transfer of power to Rufus happened so quickly I doubted he was ever informed about Deepground, which is exactly why I advised against you questioning him Angevale," I looked down at that comment. "All we know about Deepground is what we found in Scarlet's old files."
"What about Azul?" Vincent asked.
"Azul the Cerulean belongs to an elite force in Deepground known as the Tsviets. Think of them as Deepground's First Class Soldiers," Reeve answered.
"How do you expect us to take them out?" I asked suddenly. "When we faught Sephiroth three years ago we nearly died. If these Tsviets are all like Sephiroth we may not have a chance."
"We're not alone like we were, Angevale," The Commissioner told me. "But I understand where you're coming from," He then turned to Vincent, sighing. "Have you heard about the Junon disappearances?"
"I heard that around twenty or thirty people disappeared," Vincent replied after recalling the reports on it.
"We had decided to... reduce the actually number of those who were taken," I said slowly. "If we had told the truth there would have been massive panic that we wouldn't be able to control," Vincent looked at me with a blank expression. "Twelve hundred people vanished without a trace in Junon."
"Aye didnae ye dae an investigation as well?" Nevina interjected suddenly. Nevina was part of the research department in WRO. She may not have been good in a fight but her expertise lay in other areas.
"And we came up empty handed bar a couple of pictures of Deepground soldiers and rumours from Edge," I responded. "It's like the past is coming back to haunt us. There's constant screaming from Midgar and it's starting to unnerve everyone."
"Commissioner! We're receiving a rogue transmission on all wavelengths!" The driver yelled. Nevina spun around and turned on the screen. The transmission was very static and hard to see. It looked as though a man was sitting on... on a throne perhaps?
"At last... the time has come... to cleanse this world," He said. He was looking down, hiding his face from view. "The pure will be 'spared' for the cause while the tained will be hunted down and exterminated. They shall be slashed, strangled and slaughtered. Beaten, stabbed and crushed. Garroted and impaled. Shot and executed without mercy. The time has come to cleanse this world." He had started to laugh insanely which made my blood run cold. It clearly had the same effect on Nevina, who had turned paler and had goosebumps on her skin.
"Where could that signal have come from...?" Reeve wondered, shock over his face. We heard a bash against the truck and I stood up, holding Velvet Nightmare. Reeve opened the back of the truck, a hound pouncing at him but Vincent shot it.
"Reeve get back," I told him, aiming my gun and firing at a few of the hounds chasing after us.
"Wit did we dae tae piss them aff?" Nevina quipped from the back. I blasted flames at them as Vincent fired bullets into them with greater accuracy then I.
Eventually we cleared out the hounds attacking us but we didn't realise there were some that attacked the front and threw the driver off and we crashed, throwing Reeve and Nevina forward but Vincent and I out of the truck completely. I landed on my side and Vincent managed to stop his fall by putting his hands out in front of him.
"Ye alright doon there?" Nevina asked. I got up and rubbed my arm and leg as I had landed on my gun. Putting it away I nodded at Nevina.
"You two alright?" I asked.
"We're fine, but that's more than I can say for the engine," Reeve sighed. "A team has been dispatched to Edge and I need you and Vincent to continue there. Once the ShadowFox has been repaired Nevina and I will return to headquarters. That transmission troubles me."
"We'll go to Edge," I nodded. Vincent only shrugged but I didn't look at him.
"We contacted Cloud and Tifa, they're helping the WRO in Edge and I'm sure they contacted Christie as well," Reeve told me. "Just be careful, both of you."
"We will," I nodded again. "If we find anything we'll let you know. You two keep safe. Let's go." I turned around and started walking towards Edge. The way I could remember walking three years ago when we escaped Midgar and headed to Kalm.
