Chapter 5: Come Out And Play

Monday 22nd October,
10:53a.m. Kalm Town Near the Outskirts

Vincent lifted himself up of the pavement were he had slept the night before, slung his bag over his shoulder and began to walk again. So far he had no evidence or idea where Yuffie had gone, as far as he could work out she had almost twenty-four hours on him now. She could be as far as the Mythril Mines by now for all he knew.
No one in the entire City had seen her; the City went on until all hours, throughout the night and no one has seen her. It’s as Vincent thought before; the people in this town can only think of themselves.
The only hope Vincent had was the word of two police officers that abused the English language to an extent that he only understood every other word. “F***” this and “F***” that. As far as Vincent could understand the two Policemen had heard something in the early hours of yesterday in an alleyway near the outside of the City, but the dozy idiots had ignored it and walked away. This could mean one of two things: Yuffie was in the alleyway, which means she has almost certainly left Kalm by now. The other possibility is that it wasn’t Yuffie; and Vincent had wasted all of yesterday searching for her.
Either way Vincent was behind her, way behind and this hadn’t put Vincent in the best of moods.
His once smart and respected blue Turk’s uniform had now become muddied and creased were he had lain in the street last night. It no longer was something he was proud of, it meant nothing to him.
As he walked through the City streets he felt everyone was watching him, they all knew who he was; he was Vincent; proud saviour of the planet, but that wasn’t how they saw him now. They knew Lucrecia was dead, murdered, it was all over the papers. And they knew who he was after; he wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in the whole city knew.
He decided to ignore the onlookers; he wouldn’t be able to get his job done if he paid attention to them.
Vincent needed to get out of this place and fast, he expected the Turks to be on his trail in a few hours or so, if not quicker, and there was one last place he had to visit before leaving.

11:03 a.m. Tifa and Cloud’s House
There was a knock on the door and Cloud rose from his chair; picking Cherrie up from his knee and placing her on the floor.
“ I’ll finish the story later ok?” Asked Cloud as he walked to the door.
“ Ok.” Replied Cherrie.
Cloud opened the door to find Vincent, standing, waiting, staring.
“ Hello Cloud.” He said.
“ Vince!” Cried Cloud grabbing his old friend and hugging him. “ What is it?”
“ I think you know.” He replied bluntly.
“ Yuffie?” Asked Cloud
“ Yuffie.”
“ I think we need to discuss this together, come in.” Responded Cloud. “Tifa, it’s Vincent.”

11:05 a.m. Kalm Town, Turk Headquarters
“ I don’t see why we have to wear all this heavy military gear, it’s not like Vincent’s really going to shoot us.” Complained Reno as he strapped on his bullet-proof vest.
“ Oh come on Reno, you look cute in it!” Giggled Elena.
“ Thanks for the complement Elena, but I wish I could say the same for you; makes you look a bit fat if you ask me.” Reno smiled almost apologetically and Elena scowled back at him, he replied with a laugh.
“ We need to wear the military stuff for one reason, Vincent’s got some heavy gun-power with him, we could be out for the count very quickly without these. And yes, I do think Vincent will shoot on us, he didn’t fail to retaliate earlier did he?” Said Elena knowingly.
“ For god’s sake!” Shouted Reno. “ He was mad. His wife had just been murdered; I’d be fucking mad if my wife died!”
“ Exactly.” Smiled Elena. “ He’s mad, he’s not acting rationally, we don’t know what the hell he’s going to do next. Which is why we need these smart vests.”
Reno gave up. He couldn’t see himself winning this argument.
“ Okay.” He started. “ I give up. I accept I may be wrong, but that still doesn’t mean I am proud to, nor want to; wear this stuff!”
The three Turks shared a short laugh before stopping, turning around and getting back to business; strapping on the vests and preparing ammunition and guns. However Reno tried, he couldn’t stop feeling there was a certain amount of tension between the three of them.

11:10 a.m. Tifa and Cloud’s House
After a few minutes of hugs and kisses and Tifa preparing the dining table for them to all sit around Vincent began to talk.
“ Lucrecia’s dead.”
“ We know,” Replied Tifa. “ It’s all over the papers.”
“ Yuffie killed her.”
“ Hold on a minute Vince, you don’t know that for sure.” Started Cloud, he could feel the anger inside his friend, it was hidden, but that was what Vincent was always good at, keeping his emotions inside. “ For what reason would Yuffie want to kill her for?”
“ I don’t know, that’s why I’m after her.”
“ What’s with the weaponry then?” Asked Cloud.
“ I do not wish anyone to stop me, these are merely precautions.” He replied, clutching the bag beside him.
“ But what do you think you are doing chasing her? Do you really think she killed Lucrecia? Do you really think chasing her is going to help the situation?”
“ I don’t know what to think anymore.” Replied Vincent, softly. “ The only person I have ever loved has died. Not only did she die, but she was murdered. Do you know what that must feel like?”
“ Yes, I do. I know what you must be feeling like, but I don’t think chasing Yuffie will help you.”
“ The what will Cloud?” Shouted Vincent. “ What will?”
Vincent jumped out of his seat and began to walk away; he almost left the house before Cloud grabbed his arm.
“ I’d be careful if I were you.” Whispered Cloud into his friends left ear.      “ Yuffie’s got a Leviathan materia on her. It’s mastered too.”
Vincent stood silent for a while as the tension increased. “ You what?”
Cloud sighed, “ We gave her the mastered Leviathan materia we kept after meteor hit. It’s hers anyway Vince.”
Again the silence began. “ I once thought you a level-headed, born leader Cloud.” Vincent began. “ But to give a murderer a mastered summon materia,,, Jesus! Do you know what the hell she could do with that?”
Cloud stayed silent.
“ I said what the Hell do you think she could do with that!”
“ A whole lot of damage.” Replied Cloud softly.
“ Damn straight!”
Vincent strode outside of the house leaving his cape blowing behind him.
“ We did it to help her out Vince! She needed our help!” Screamed Cloud.
“ Bull Shit!” Shouted Vincent back. “ You gave her the materia to piss me off! You didn’t want me to kill her! Well, do you know what? I will. I damn well will Cloud!”
Cloud went to reply but was answered with Vincent’s back and a calm reassuring arm of Tifa to hold him back. He realised it was hopeless now; Vincent had truly lost it.

4.00 p.m. East of Kalm Town
Vincent brushed his long, black hair out of his eyes and continued to walk on. After leaving Cloud’s house he pretty much figured that Yuffie must have travelled east, perhaps to Chocobo Ranch and then onto the Mythril Mines. Besides, it was unlikely she had gone west to the ruins of Midgar; the ruins had become saturated with monsters since the meteor destroyed the city. There was no way she had gone there, even with a mastered summon she wouldn’t stand much chance.
The path to Chocobo Ranch was a dangerous one; the wind was reaching speeds rivalling those in the Northern Continent. Vincent found himself hugging onto the mountainside rocks to keep himself from falling. That was another problem that the Meteor had caused; the whole area around Midgar had become a weather war zone, Kalm Town had built huge walls around the whole village to stop the winds from crushing it.
Vincent was thinking this was a lost cause, he couldn’t see himself getting to the Ranch soon, not in this weather, not ever. He stopped for a second and held onto the rock and wiped his forehead and looked to the sky. A rumble of thunder echoed against the walls of the mountain rock. This was not good.
As the first drops of rain fell onto Vincent’s long, black hair he began to run against the harsh winds, it wasn’t long before his feet slipped on his long cloak and he fell to the floor, smashing his head on a hard, cold rock.
As Vincent slowly slipped into unconsciousness, he could only picture one thing, one last thing he could always rely on. For his last moments of consciousness he pictured Lucrecia. But a second later, he realised he could no longer rely on anyone, no one at all.

When? Where?
It was dark; Vincent could only make out the image of the door that led to his conservatory, he fiddled with the handle but he was met with a clinking sound. It was locked. Kicking the door open, he walked into the house and surveyed the room; no one was here. He exited through the front door and re-loaded his pistol. There was a sound of someone falling over onto the pavement and screaming, then the footsteps picking up again. Under the light of the street lamppost he saw the faint image of a middle-aged woman running.
Intrigued, Vincent followed. The woman had run into a neighbouring house, Vincent following into a bedroom where the woman stood, in total panic and oblivion. Vincent raised his silenced pistol and unloaded a clip into the woman’s chest, blood sprayed around the room and there was no more screaming, no more fighting, just silence.
Vincent looked to the mirror beside the bed and saw the blood covering his clothes and face. The dark, red blood soaked his clothes and some trickled down his throat, he had swallowed the blood of the woman he had just killed. The blood of Lucrecia, the blood of his wife, the blood of his everything.
He grabbed his face by his hands and pulled them down his face and screamed a single, deep, eternal scream as he turned into Chaos.

Tuesday 23rd October,
6.37 p.m. ?
Vincent jumped up from his sleep and wiped the sweat away from his eyes, was it true, had he truly killed Lucrecia? Or was it just a dream?
“ Don’t worry.” Spoke a voice so soft; the sound of a pin drop would drown it. “ You’ve had the bad dream again.”
“ What?” Asked Vincent drearily as she placed a cold towel on his forehead.
“ I see you have forgotten again.” Laughed the young girl.
“ Who are you?” Asked Vincent suddenly noticing his state of undress and blushing.
“ I’m Cynthia.” She replied giggling. “ Although I don’t know why I’m telling you that. I could swear I told you yesterday.”
The girl had her blonde hair long and she wore a red bandana on her head. She looked around seventeen and had a slight build, her face was slightly muddied from perhaps work in fields of some kind and her jeans were stained green from the grass. From the look of the cabin he was in, Vincent could tell he had probably reached Chocobo Ranch, although not necessarily  by himself.
“ How did I get here?” He asked, placing his clothes back on while Cynthia turned her head.
“ We found you while searching the area for abandoned Chocobos, we saw you knocked out on the floor, we picked you up and took you back here.”
“ And you took my clothes off?” He inquired.
“ Well, I only helped. We couldn’t let you sleep in your clothes, they were sodden in the rain.”
Vincent stroked the back of his hair and stood up from the bed.
“ What were you dreaming about?” Cynthia questioned.
“ It, It was nothing, I, I can’t remember.” He stammered
“ It must have been pretty bad, you keep shouting in you sleep.”
“ I told you, it was nothing.” He replied, slightly annoyed. “ How long have I slept for?”
“ I guess about twenty four hours, give or take a few-”
That was bad, real bad. He had let Yuffie get further away from him and let the Turks creep up on himself.
“ Then where is my bag? I need to get out of here as quickly as possible.”
“ It’s in the barn. We were all pretty worried about the stuff in the bag, it seemed pretty dangerous, there were guns and materia. Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“ You could say that.” He replied. “ Or you could say I’m just very cautious.”
Vincent left the cabin without saying goodbye, he planned to collect his bag and then ride a chocobo to the mines nearby, he needed to catch up.
The barn was quiet except for the sound of the chocobos settling down for the night, by the side of the pens was his bag. He picked it  up and turned to leave, he was met by three blue suits.
“ Well hello Vince.” Smiled Elena pulling a gun to his head. “ What are you doing ‘round these parts?”
Silence.
“ C’mon Vince, aren’t you pleased to see us?”
“ I told you not to follow me. I told you not to p me off.”
“ Now Vince, that isn’t very nice.” Smiled Elena. “ We can’t let you kill Yuffie could we?”
“ Then what do you want me to do?”
“ We need you to come home. We can’t let you do something you’ll regret, we can’t let that happen.”
“ Why the hell do you care about Yuffie? And why do you care so much about me?”
“ Because believe it or not, we see you as a friend. If you kill Yuffie, we’ll have lost our friend.”
“ Just leave me alone.” Shouted Vincent.
“ I don’t think you understand Vincent. We want you to come home. We have a gun pointed to your head, not the other way ‘round.”
“ To hell with that!” Shouted Vincent. In a smooth motion, he flipped backwards and pulled his Death Penalty from his bag, aiming it at the three Turks.
“ Looks like we have a stand-off then!” Said Elena, surprised.
“ Not quite!” Laughed Vincent. He aimed the gun at Elena and shot. The spread of bullets meant all three of them were hit; they hit the ground screaming.
Vincent turned quickly and mounted the strongest looking chocobo in the barn. He needed to be quick, if the Turks were wearing bulletproof vests, only the power of the bullets would have knocked them out, they could only be out for a couple of minutes.
 

To Main Menu 1