Violet Shadows (FF7)

40) Underground Cave

When I awaken, I've a feeling I'm not in Midgar anymore. (SEE WHAT I DID THERE? ;)) I also feel... Empty. Kinda lonely. Shadow? I can't even sense her presence anymore... It's not a bad thing, I just... I dunno, I'd be lying if I said I'm not gonna miss her. But after being trapped inside me for thirty years, she deserves to be free, I guess. I deserve to be free. To no longer be a demon hybrid, to have a chance to die old.

"She's awake, Captain!" And that certainly isn't Reno's voice... I look around the room, knowing full well that I'm on the Shera, in the sick bay to be exact. The place Shelke used to sit beside Shalua. Two soldiers peer into my room, Cid dozing in the chair by the computer. Well, not anymore. Now he's awake and ready to be loud.

"Vi? You alright?"

"Yeah," I nod, grimacing. "My throat hurts though."

"I'll bet. Reno said you were screamin' bloody murder."

"It hurt," I protest. "But she's gone, I think."

"Hey, no need to sound so excited," he huffs. "You miss her, don't you?"

"Kinda."

"Eh, you'll get over it. You are @-%+#$&^ Violet Crescent after all."

"I was not aware the word @-$# was in my name," I raise an eyebrow. He laughs, reaching for a bunch of stuff on the desk.in front of him.

"Here. Tseng told me to give these to ya, said some black sand or something came outta nowhere and made these," he hands over the weapons. Sacrifice, arrows, that little dagger... The sight of the worthless knife and my memories of it make me smile, studying the hilt. My smile fades when I notice engraving, the contrast lit up by some goldish color in the words. You're never too weak. I look over at the last, sighing heavily when I see it. You didn't have to, Shadow. I pick up Nightmare, keeping it in its sheath while I set it aside with everything else and lay back in the seat thingy I'm in.

"Right, well, I'm tired. Goodnight." Cid rolls his eyes and stands, grabbing my arm and forcing me to my feet.

"Why don't you call Vin? I'm sure he'd like to know what you've been up to, especially since he called while you were out and started blabbin' when I picked up." He chuckles. "Old guy's still worried about ya."

"Fine." I grab my phone off the table and scroll to the bottom of my contacts to find 'Vince Jerk. "He's probably out kicking Deepground butt."

"True," Cid laughs. "Cmon, yer two boys've been waitin' too."

"My two what?"

"Dave and Josh." He leads the way out, me following more slowly behind. Wow, I'm kinda loud when I'm carrying my own weight....

"They're still in the engine room. Callie put 'em to work on fixin' some stuff. Never knew yer ex was a handy guy."

"Yep, that's David," I roll my eyes, following him into the room. There my 'two boys' are helping out some woman with an accent from Rocket Town. Joshua notices my presence first.

"Mom?!"

"Sup," I lift my chin playfully. He laughs and squeezes the life out of me, his hug crushing every bone in my body. I wince and pull away from him, accepting David's more gentle embrace next. So warm and huggable. That's my Dave. He softly presses his lips to my forehead, drawing back slowly.