Real Strength Comes From Within {Vi X Reader}

Chapter 7: Words hit Harder to Hate

"What's that sound?" You ask quietly as Vi kneels on the ground to fold up the parachute. Thanks to her, the landing had been pretty gentle, but now you have to trudge your asses all the way back into town. 

You'd landed in the far back corner of Scrap Boulevard, and it was incredibly dark at this time of night. You hate to admit it, but you're actually sort of afraid of the dark, so you wouldn't be surprised if the scratching noise you heard was all in your head.

Vi pauses for a moment and looks around before shaking her head, "I don't hear anything."

Vi continues to neatly fold the fabric while you look around the seemingly empty clearing. It's incredibly faint, but you're almost certain you can hear something to your left making a scraping noise against the rocks. You swallow hard and try not to make a fuss, I mean Vi is with you, what's the worst that could happen?

"Ready?" She asks standing up, the parachute in hand.

You nod, "Yeah, let's go." You're more than happy to get out of here.

You follow Vi in the direction of the front gate, eyes darting around anxiously. The scraping sound is gone, but the silence it left behind is deafening. The hair on the back of your neck prickles and between your footsteps and Vi's, you can just barely hear the crunch of dirt behind you. You immediately whip around to face whatever it is that you're now certain is trailing you.

You're lucky you trusted your gut, because just as you turn, a strange, sickly looking monster leaps towards you, jaw wide open, teeth glistening in the faint light.

 Without hesitation, you turn to the side and land a strong kick into it's chest, sending it backwards with a thud. At the same time, Vi spins around, pulling her gauntlet from her back.

"What the hell is that thing?" You ask breathlessly with your fists raised. You watch as the monster gets back to its feet, snarling.

Vi doesn't answer and rushes towards the unknown creature. You watch the fight ensue, unsure whether or not to join in. Vi looks like she is handling this just fine on his own, and besides, she seemed to think you were useless at fighting anyways.

It doesn't take long before the strange, dog-looking beast is unconscious. Vi stares down at it and slides her gauntlet onto her back before looking back at you, "Looks like you were right."

You shrug, unsure what to say. 'I know' sounds a little too cocky, and a simple 'yeah' too dismissive. 

Before you've thought your response over for too long, Vi peaks again, "I should have trusted you back there." She begins walking in the direction of the gate again.

"It's fine." You finally reply, falling into step behind her, "I don't think you needed to be worried." You point out, considering how easily she had overpowered the monster, "If I'd been by myself, it would have been a different story."

Before meeting Vi, you generally thought of yourself as being pretty decent at sword to sword combat. To be fair, you were nowhere near as talented as Lightning, but you felt you could certainly hold your own. 

Your confidence in fighting had taken quite a hit since joining the splinter cell, though, as Vi was constantly making backhanded comments about your abilities to the others.

 Vi scoffs, "You'd have been just fine." You look at her incredulously.  She has to be kidding. "I wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of a kick like that." She continues, looking down at you briefly before pushing open the gate leading into the down state of Chrysalis.

You step past her and wait for her to shut the gate before you continue heading towards the bar. You don't reply to her last comment, because you honestly just don't know what to say. That was probably the nicest thing Vi has ever said to you or about you.