Test Conditions
At half-past two in the morning on the last day of February Vincent Valentine was perched on the roof of the Sector Eight Mako reactor, watching the mayhem unfolding in the Sector beneath her with inhumanly keen eyes. AVALANCHE had infiltrated the Sector through the sewer system and was raising hell, seemingly at random. The avatar of Chaos leapt from her perch and hopped down across the rooftops as she caught sight of her target: Amber, a newbie Turk and knife-user on her first day in the field, accompanied by Reno, younger half of Cloud's 'Crazy Redheads'. Her tenant had told her that these two would be leading her to the source of the odd presence she'd been sensing at the edge of her range lately, a presence of summon-like power that was oddly akin to her own.
Chaos had also told her that the true source of that power was the banished summon Zirconiade, who the herald of OMEGA wanted to approach for raw materials for the sword he intended to forge for Cloud. Vincent had decided against even attempting to interfere with that particular project: Chaos was approaching other summons with single-minded determination and successfully persuading them to part with various bits and pieces. He had already conned Odin out of one of his killing blades, obtained a fistful of fangs from Typhoon, Vincent's own preferred summon, a cauldron from Hades and several horns from the Kujata summon he'd found –and later left– out near the Bone Village archaeological dig on the Northern Continent.
While she was out on her own little trips Chaos had also obtained fangs from both Ifrit and Bahamut courtesy of Genesis on a quick visit to the Banora hideout as well as a lock of hair from Shiva, Sephiroth's summon of choice. The herald of OMEGA also had plans involving Ramuh, Titan, Alexander, Phoenix and even the Chocobo summon that was hidden somewhere out near Choco Billy's farm. She had also heard her tenant muttering something about Round Island, but she would have to take Sunshine the gold chocobo to get there and the bird was currently winning obscene amounts of money at Golden Saucer, so that trip was postponed until the end of the racing season.
Vincent had not the faintest idea how Chaos could possibly forge a sword from the disparate bits of summon he was collecting but she knew better that to ask again. She was not stupid in the slightest but her tenant's ramble about resonance, resistance, blessings and WEAPONs had made no sense whatsoever. All the rogue Turk had been able to pick up was that the blade Chaos intended to create would be imbued with the power and intent of the Planet, making it unbreakable and impossible to wield for any save its maker or intended owner. It would also be impossible to lose, just like her son Sephiroth always had Masamune to hand. The blade would have other properties too, but Vincent didn't know what those would be; Chaos didn't seem too sure either on that point, but he wasn't bothered by the uncertainty. He just said it would have 'what the little wolf needs to flourish'.
Which led her back to her current situation, chasing Reno and Amber all over Sector Eight and watching them get beaten up by a man she recognised as being AVALANCHE member Shears, waiting for the two Turks to lead her to Zirconiade. Vincent ghosted closer after the terrorist escaped and lurked in a nearby alley as a rather battered Reno answered his PHS:
"Reno speaking, yo."
"This is Veld," Vincent's superhuman hearing picked up from her hiding place. "AVALANCHE is headed for Junon and the operatives plan to assassinate the President. You and Amber will go to Junon and protect President ShinRa from any and all attempts on his life until more reinforcements arrive."
"You got it boss, yo," the scruffy Turk replied, idly twirling his EMR as Amber downed a potion and dusted off her jacket. "Come on Amber," he added as the line went dead and he hung up, "we got a helicopter to catch, yo."
Vincent flitted after the two still slightly battered Turks, keeping to the shadows. She had a helicopter to stow away on.
After the helicopter landed in Junon Vincent swiftly made her way up to the very top of the recently finished Mako cannon and settled down to wait. She honestly didn't care whether or not President Shinra survived AVALANCHE's assassination attempts, but from her lofty perch it would be easy to home in on the host of the largest fragment of Zirconiade as soon as whoever-it-was drew on the summons' power. Then Chaos would come out, summon Zirconiade forth and beg, bargain or con more sword materials off him. Vincent herself had not the faintest idea how someone could possibly call up a summon from an incomplete Materia, but Chaos said he could do it and the herald of OMEGA never lied to her. Play fast and loose with wording, distract and dissemble, yes, but he never actually said anything that wasn't strictly true.
The rogue Turk had asked her tenant how it was possible, but the quasi-summon had just confused her by saying that the trick to all magic and Spells lay in hitting the right Mako harmonic, which didn't make sense to her at all. Since Vincent currently couldn't be bothered to tease a more coherent explanation out of the herald of OMEGA she just settled down to wait for time to pass as the sun slowly rose higher in the morning sky.
Around noon the Mako cannon was overrun by AVALANCHE operatives, none of whom noticed the black-clad, red-caped avatar perched silently on the very top of the control tower. Not one of this batch of terrorists was the person Chaos was waiting for so Vincent did not bother to interfere with what they were doing, even when they started turning the cannon so it was aimed towards Midgar. If they actually got the point of initiating the firing sequence she would intervene, but not before.
Cocking her head to get a better view of the ground, the red-eyed Turk spotted a very familiar figure standing not far from the tower's base, talking on his PHS: Veld. Vincent had known her old partner had assumed leadership of the Turks shortly after her supposed death but hadn't really seen much of him since getting out of her coffin. Her former lover had aged gracefully and was still an excellent Turk in spite of losing an arm at Kalm back when it was firebombed four years ago. The arm had been replaced with a prosthetic, one that could be armed with Materia, which made Veld very hard to catch unawares. Vincent hoped she would not be forced to reveal herself to her former partner just yet; she knew he'd been married since her own apparent death but he still had a special place in her heart. True, she was currently dating SOLDIER second-class Kunsel as Draculina and starting to fall for the silver-tongued young man of Wutai descent, but Veld had been the only good thing in her life up until Sephiroth. Vincent still missed the easy camaraderie and implicit trust she and her partner had had between them.
He is talking to the little worm, paradox mine, Chaos murmured in her mind. The little worm desires that our little dragon come to Junon and retake the cannon.
So, President Shinra –who really was a worm to Vincent's way of thinking– was ordering Sephiroth to come and kill the AVALANCHE operatives. Overkill possibly, but would it interfere with Chaos' plans?
It will not. Our little dragon will draw out the one we seek, enabling me to confront them. Fear not for your little knight, my vessel; I will not harm him or his minions.
Vincent found it ironic that the herald of OMEGA considered the head of the Turks to be his vessel's knight in shining armour.
A few more hours of patient waiting later Vincent saw Sephiroth enter the Mako cannon's superstructure and sensed the awakening of the odd power-shadow she'd been waiting for. Swiftly descending the outside of the command tower as she sensed the avatar of Zirconiade's clash with her son, Vincent granted control of her body to Chaos, drawing back to watch the inevitable confrontation.
Dragon-like wings furled, the herald of OMEGA slid through a window, down the open inner frame of the tower and dropped into the fight in progress on the main command floor, pinning the individual he'd been waiting for to the metal walkway. The shield around his target was bypassed completely; Chaos was a greater power than Zirconiade and the feeble protection this thief was using was nothing to him. Across the room the little dragon lowered his blade and the baby Turk his vessel had been shadowing stared at him in shock as she tried to staunch the bleeding from a brutal wound in her leg.
Chaos ignored his audience, attention focused on the woman he'd just captured, she who held within her the master fragment of He who will Burn the World.
"Greetings little firefly, vessel of Zirconiade. We have business to discuss, your lord and I."
Vincent and a touch of Chaos; Turk Amber is 'Knife' from Before Crisis. Anyone care to guess what will happen next?
Oh, and what do people think of Veld's nickname?
