⊰⊹Crimson ⍭ redemption⊹⊱ Vincent valentine x reader

Chapter 5: Seven Heavens

When you woke up the next day, you felt much more motivated than ever. It was needless to say that you had had the best sleep ever since you started this kind of life. It was 5 am, a force of habits. You prepared yourself as usual and then left your flat. You made your way through the slums of Sectors 5 and 6, arriving in Sector 7 two hours later. You had put to profit the time that you had to wipe out some monsters polluting the slums since you doubted that a bar would be open at 6 am. You went to look for the bar, finding it sometime later. It did not take too long because you were already quite familiar with the environment. There was a placard with the opening and closing times, it said that from Monday to Friday, the bar opened at 11 am and closed at 1:30 pm. 'Today is Friday' you thought, which means that you still had almost 4 hours to kill before it opened.

'Well, that's a lot, I guess I'll make good use of this time to do some monster hunting. I've heard that a lot of them have been spotted nearby.'

And so, you went to the location where they had last been seen, the entry sewerage of the slums. Sure enough, you did find some. But it was curious because there seemed to be a lot in the same place, all coming from the sewerage. Usually, there shouldn't be that many of them together, and this roused your suspicion. So, you decided to go and see for yourself what was in there. After making your way through hordes of wererats, you arrived in front of a strange big, disaffected room. A wall that must have separated it from the sewers was destroyed, making it easy to access the room.

'Hmh... That's weird, I wasn't expecting to find something like this here... But what is it?' You walked inside the room, examining it. It looked like some kind of abandoned laboratory. The view of the broken experiment containers made you quite uncomfortable. In the corner of your eyes, you noticed a faint green light. Curious you came closer, but when you did, the smell of it made your head ring in a painful way. You closed your eyes, rubbing the side of your head to try and ease the pain. It did not pass though, but after some minutes you managed to adapt to the pain, opening your eyes again. You looked at your environment again, feeling as if something in the atmosphere had shifted, it looked different and yet the same. Brushing it off as a hallucination caused by the weird smell. You decided that it was now the time to go back to the bar, you hoped that it would be open when you would get out. But the sensation of something being wrong did not leave no matter how close you advanced to the outside as if an invisible danger was lurking in the shadows. Suddenly your head throbbed harder and that is when you saw something or someone. But they disappeared as soon as they came, only leaving you the time to catch their flowing silver hair.

'If I am not going crazy then I don't know what this is... I've never had hallucinations before, is this how it is supposed to feel, or look like? I better hurry and get out of here.'

You sped up your pace, a feeling of relief flowing through you as soon as you arrived out of the sewer. It seemed as if what had happened wasn't even real, but you were sure of what you saw. You took a deep breath to clear your mind and went to the bar, surely enough, it was already open although still relatively quiet. Entering, you realized that there were no customers yet, apart from a dude with a machine gun instead of an arm, deducing that it must have just opened. You made your way to the counter, calling the bar woman.

"Hello, hum, are you by any chance Tifa?"

"Uhm... Yes, yes, I am! "She said, a look of surprise plastered on her face. "And you are?"

"My name's (y/n), Aerith told me to tell you that I come on her behalf... You know her, don't you?"

"Oh! Oh yes, she spoke about you yesterday, told me to be expecting you to drop by. She seemed pretty sure that you would someday, and well, looks like she was right!" Tifa laughed. She then motioned you to come to sit and started preparing a glass. "You look like you could use a drink. Don't worry, the first one's on the house. With or without alcohol?"

"Without, I am not a fan of alcohol." Your voice trailed down, taking the sit frowning.

As Tifa was preparing your drink, the guy came and sat beside you, staring. You ignored him before he broke the silence.

"So you're the lad Aerith spoke about, hmh, ya name sound's familiar, what's your job?" His voice boomed in the quiet shop.

At that, you finally turned on your chair to face him, and replied, "I am a mercenary." As you stared at him too.

He frowned and put his only available hand on his chin, as if deep in thought. Just as you were going to turn to your newly made drink that Tifa had put in front of you, his face lit up in realization and he shouted: "Yes, that's it! You're that merc! Ya know you're pretty famous 'round here? I'd never thought I would meet ya here." He laughed. "The name's Barret. That's Tifa, well ya already know this, but nothing beats a proper introduction, ain't it right?"

"I guess so." You shortly answered. You frowned a little as you focused on your drink. You hadn't planned to meet anyone new again today nor to make small talk with them. You hoped that Aerith would arrive quickly, or else this would soon become awkward. Not that they were annoying, but you didn't have it in you to keep up with Barret's loud voice. As if on cue, Aerith entered the bar hastily. Her face was grim and her agitation was enough for the three of you to know that something was wrong. As she came up to you, she stayed up and waved at Tifa who was looking at her with worry.

"Hey Tifa, I was wondering, did you get any news from Cloud in the past few days?" She asked worry evident in her voice.

Disconcerted, Tifa replied "No, I haven't, why? Did something happen to him?"

"That is what I am starting to think... He doesn't even answer my call. Can you try to call him? I have a bad feeling."

At that Tifa took her phone and dialed Cloud's number, putting the call on speaker for everyone to hear. The phone rang, but no one ever answered it. Tifa looked at Aerith then at Barret and you. "Do you guys think... that something happened to him?"

Barret groaned and huffed, "This idiot." As everyone looked at him with raised eyebrows, he added, "Well, before he left, I caught him in some sort of trance state. 'Tried to discuss it with him, but to no avail. Warned him to be careful, guess he didn't listen."

"And you let him go like that?" Tifa frowned too.

Barret shrugged, "Didn't think 't was that serious. He's a big guy, 'am not his father."

As Barret talked, you analyzed Aerith. It was obvious that you couldn't talk to her about yourself now, and this foreign feeling was coming back again, this want, need, to help her. You sighed, guess this really is going to be a whole journey instead of just a quick talk. Not that you are surprised. After all, if this is to be the journey to discover yourself, it was quite obvious that you wouldn't just sit and talk with this girl. Finally, you stood up and declared to the group, "Guess we should go and look for him then."

At that, Tifa turned to you, "We?"

"Yes, we, I have a feeling you may need additional help in this. I also have my reasons, plus I have nothing to do as of now, and I already started doing your Cloud's job at protecting Aerith. It doesn't cost me anything to continue for a bit."

And before anyone could protest, Aerith clasped her hand together. "That's it then! Let's go find Cloud!" She exclaimed happily, although worry was still evident in her voice.

"Or save him." Added Barret.

"I'd rather not think about this possibility just yet..." Tifa muttered.