"Strike to kill, or don't draw at all."

"Sephiroth…" A bead of sweat slid down her nose, despite the chill. It wasn't that she hadn't heard her mentor's words, but the noble man who stood opposite her was…

"I-I can't fight a 1st, sir!" Her sword hand shook traitorously as she cringed from the steadfast blue gaze of Angeal Hewley. It was the first time she'd ever balked in combat, but this man was a first-rate member of SOLDIER, and she…

"Can't?" Sephiroth echoed coldly. "You'll be a 1st if you do as you're told, SOLDIER 2nd Class Arianna." He opened his phone and aborted the mission without even looking at the screen. His eyes were on her, his pupil; Arianna felt more sweat gather as the green stare shot through a dissolving set of blue eyes. Within seconds, the training room was bare and dark, lit only by the guide panels along the walls.

She sheathed the standard sword and began to pack her prep bag. Frustration and shame diluted her usual zeal for training. Everything had gone so perfectly at first. She'd tackled the train scenario without a single flaw, even singled out the bonus stealth unit—no other 2nd had so much as found that one! How dare she freeze up? "1st Class?" she asked quietly. "Is that my end game?"

"It's my intention, and has been since I took you as a student," Sephiroth replied, the edge in his voice disappearing. "Does that comfort you at all?"

Shocked, Arianna looked up at her mentor. Well-known for his incredible skill and equally strong reclusive aptitude, SOLDIER 1st Class Sephiroth wouldn't ordinarily be caught dead with a gentle expression that was now on his face. "You need to stop being such a brutal perfectionist," he continued. "The top priority of a 1st is to provide top-notch service and protection; how do you intend to give what you won't allow yourself?"

"Right!" The moment of reprieve from their conventional stoic relationship revitalized her, and Arianna snapped smartly to her feet, assuming an attention stance. "I'll be less perfect if that's what it takes, Sephiroth. If 1st is what you have planned for me, then a 1st I shall become."

The great SOLDIER turned so she wouldn't see his regret. "Good. Follow me, then." As he led his first and last mentee to the main hall of the training floor, Sephiroth wondered for the umpteenth time if he had been right in taking her in. She, the seventeen-year-old girl with the thinking of someone five times her age. Arianna was an abnormal to society, and she had been trained by a more experienced abnormal. He saw from the start how she'd looked up to him, incorporating his cold manner and pedantic efforts for accuracy into her daily living. The two of them even looked alike, although that was a coincidence no matter what the public might gossip. Still, there'd been no need for Arianna to grow her silvery, pin-straight hair down to the small of her back. No need at all, until she noted his own mane with silent admiration. Sephiroth sighed again. At least he'd managed to convince her to pin it up; such hair really was impractical.

"Where are we going?" Arianna had noticed that they weren't leaving the floor just yet. This was not routine.

"I want to show you something that will benefit your next step in becoming 1st Class," Sephiroth said, and guided her to a playback screen. There were many of these in the main hall, designed to allow aspiring SOLDIERS a chance to mark their own records of progress. It was another 2nd Class' recent training session, however, that Sephiroth inserted into the player for his pupil to watch. "Arianna, give me your impression of this young man."

Silently, Arianna regarded the energetic pace and flashy methods of the spikey-haired 2nd on the screen. Ironically, it was her own mentor he ended up facing at the end of the train scenario. She noted with grim satisfaction that he'd done little better than she—but that little bit of better still remained. Irritation gnawed at her as she peered down at the grainy image of this happy-go-lucky boy, but she was careful to remain professional when delivering her assessment to Sephiroth.

"There is zero attention to detail in his strategies," she said. "He swings his sword around more like a conductor's baton. He talks too much during combat. He is dangerously overconfident…"

Sephiroth nodded. "You paid close attention, I see. Now—" But Arianna wasn't finished.

"He smiles between skirmishes," she continued, irritation building with every word, "presumably to distract the enemy, but a poor decision regardless. He has punchlines. He attacked your simulation from the front. He doesn't know what he's doing, he…" She had to pause for breath. "In sum: he is annoying."

Sephiroth bit back a smile. "A candid critique, indeed. I'm afraid you'll have to get used to his oddities, though. That 2nd is going to be your partner in the final phase of training for 1st Class: an actual mission."

"Oh." She let the syllable drop dead. "I wish you'd given me such vital information earlier. I wouldn't have gone easy on his performance."

Her mentor actually chuckled. "I see. My apologies; I'm sure you would have preferred to be realistic about things." Arianna nodded emphatically; it was clear she was now calculating the chore of babysitting into the challenge of an on-field mission. "Let me give you his profile, then, and you can be on your way to the briefing."

"Already?" Arianna bit her lip and turned pleading eyes to Sephiroth, who immediately shook his head.

"I won't be joining you. I'm technically not supposed to involve myself with this." When she hung her head, "Don't worry. My colleague will be present part-time to aid your sanity. I'm sure you remember Angeal?"

Arianna lit up. Aside from the recent training fiasco, she respected few people more than SOLDIER 1st Class Angeal Hewley. Perhaps only Sephiroth himself had points over the broad-shouldered SOLDIER in her mind. "That is a relief," she said. "Why is he joining?"

Sephiroth allowed himself another chuckle. "The 2nd you just abrasively 'went easy' on is his pupil, also on the track for becoming 1st."

"Zack Fair," Arianna muttered. She was looking at the profile. "How unfortunate for Angeal. I'm amazed he's maintained his status of excellence with that handful to look after."

"You'll see for yourself how he manages," Sephiroth admonished her gently. "Who can say? You might even get along decently with your fellow 2nd." Or become friends, he hoped secretly, and separate yourself from my cold, cold shadow. But these things he would never—could never say to his dearest student. SOLDIER 1st Class Sephiroth didn't even wave as she left for her first mission, and Arianna didn't turn to look back at her mentor. But that was normal, for them. It was the only normal Arianna cared to know. As she walked for the briefing room on the Director's floor, she felt the support of her mentor's gaze against her back. No matter what Sephiroth thought of himself, that strength was warm to her.

So warm…

"SOLDIER 2nd Class Arianna Wayer, reporting as ordered!"

Sephiroth had hinted that her lovely new comrade had preempted her to the briefing room, so Arianna made a blindingly professional entrance. Standing in stiff salute, she confirmed the presence of Zack Fair with a fidgeting blur of spikes in the corner of her vision.

Director Lazard smiled. "Welcome, Arianna," he said. "And please, do make yourself at ease. This is a casual briefing."

"Of course, sir." She obediently slipped into a more at-ease position, not even deigning to look over at the other 2nd until she was ordered otherwise. "I apologize for my tardiness, Director," she addressed Lazard again.

The blond man shook his head. "Not at all; this has been a bit sudden for you, I think. I'm the one who should apologize." He stood, only barely her height and a little thinner. "Allow me to introduce you to your fellows in this excursion. You already know SOLDIER 1st Class Angeal…"

He dipped his head with a quiet smile as she saluted. "Good to see you again, Arianna." Angeal would sometimes visit Sephiroth when he and Arianna were training, but more importantly, he had been present when Sephiroth had practically adopted her in the darker days…Arianna shook her head, returning to the slightly less unpleasant matter at hand: Zack Fair.

"…and this is SOLDIER 2nd Class Zack Fair, on the track for promotion just as you are," Lazard was saying encouragingly. Clearly, he had the same rosy dreams of a friendship between them that Sephiroth harbored. Arianna rolled her eyes and forced herself to look directly at the young man for the first time. Appallingly, his outstretched hand was already invading her space.

"I'm Zack," he said, with a grin. "Pleased to meet ya!"

Even his face served to irritate her. It was obnoxiously handsome, angular but not too delicate, and armed with a friendly, enthusiastic smile. His eyes, of course, were mako-fueled blue—but even more blinding was the vibrant life that seemed to glow in them. This boy was…no, she could barely think the word…an optimist.

Arianna pulled her gloves on and took his extended hand. Then she squeezed until Zack yelped.

"Charmed," she said as he withdrew ruefully.

"You didn't have to practically break my fingers…"

"I really did."

Angeal and Lazard exchanged an exasperated glance as the two 2nds sparred with passive aggression and down-to-earth indignation. This briefing, their eyes seemed to say, would take a lot longer than expected.