A/N: Side stories focusing around Mary. This chapter goes with the Prologue and Chapter 1 of Doppelgangers, which needs to be read first, or you will be very confused as to what is going on. If you have read the other story, hopefully these side stories will give a better idea of who Mary is, and give you some more to read while waiting for more of that story. Let me know what you think, I'm new to writing.

Disclaimer: FF7 is 100% owned by Square Enix

(Prologue)

Mary sat on her bed, trying to convince herself to get up. It was the weekend, and the only time she ever got to actually sleep in. She was a morning person naturally, but everyone else liked to stay up late, and during the week she got less sleep than she needed, so she always slept in when she could. She had been awake for a few hours; just lying in her bed, trying to rest up for the hectic day she knew was ahead of her.

Her two best friends had convinced her to dress up as some video game character for Halloween. Mary wasn't much into games, but she didn't have any better costume ideas, so she went with it. Unfortunately, her character was a male; a very large, muscular male. Mary was not very excited; it would be just another day of getting teased for her natural masculinity. She was sure that she could pull off the character well, but wasn't so sure that she wanted to.

The costumes were almost ready; they had been working on them for a couple of weeks. Mary wasn't good at sewing, but she had done a large portion of the cutting of fabrics, and constructing the harnesses for herself and her smaller friend, who had a very similar costume. Now they just had to make sure that the costumes all fit, and dye their hair, and they would all set.

Mary was not too sure about dying her hair. She had done it many times before, but typically only a few shades different than her natural blonde hair. This time, she would have to dye it black. She wasn't sure that she would be able to pull it off. –At least it's not that awful red- she thought to herself. She had decided to go with a one night dye, since she was not very comfortable with it. Also, she had just recently gotten all of the dye out of her hair, and had finally gotten her natural color back. –Oh well- she thought –I can always just cut it off again if it doesn't go well-. Mary was never one to be too attached to her hair, as she would cut it really short without a moment's hesitation. Her hair had just gotten back to a normal length, after having a pixie cut for the summer.

Just when she was about to get up, she heard talking in the kitchen. It sounded like everyone was up, and having some argument about coffee. It seemed like that never ended, they were always arguing about the strength of the coffee. Mary didn't understand it; being a morning person she never needed coffee. She didn't like coffee either, and she avoided it like it was something evil. Though, she would often make it in the morning, before heading to her classes. She heard them mention waking her up, and start laughing at the memory of Alanna hiding in her closet at night. Mary shook her head. It annoyed the hell out of her that Alanna liked to do that. She always ended up almost hitting her friend in response, and so she felt bad.

Since everyone else was up, Mary decided she should get out of bed as well. She got up, changed her clothes, and brushed through her very messy hair. She made her way out to the kitchen, and grabbed some juice before sitting down at the table.

"Well good morning, sleeping beauty." Alanna said, turning from her pancakes. "We were just talking about you."

"Yeah, I heard. I've been up for a while now, you should know that." She replied. "When can we have the pancakes?" She asked.

"You can start now, just don't eat them all." Alanna replied. Mary stuck out her tongue in response, and got up to get herself a plate. When she went to sit down, she felt something latch onto her.

"Good morning, puppy. I was wondering where you were." She said, to the short blonde who was hugging her tightly.

"I was getting dressed. How are you today?" Piper replied, while releasing Mary from her hug. She then proceeded to go around the room, hugging each person, except for Morgan.

"I'm okay, got as much sleep as I could. I'm sure we are going to need it to deal with them tonight." She said, pointing to Ryu and Alanna. They both looked at her and stuck out their tongues.

"Hey, you agreed to it." Ryu pointed out. "You all agreed to it, so no complaining."

"And we are all just sooo excited." Morgan chimed in. Ryu elbowed him in the gut in response.

"You barely have to do anything, so shush. It's not too hard to put on a suit and some fake earrings."

"Yeah, at least you don't have to gender-bend." Mary said, and Piper nodded her head in agreement.

"Not that it's hard for you. You act like a guy most of the time anyway." Matti said. Mary just glared at him from across the table. She wasn't too mad though, she had completely expected that from one of them, she just wasn't sure who it would be that time. And with that, the argument ended, and they finished their
pancakes. Once the kitchen was cleaned up, they all went their separate ways to start preparing for the day.

Mary sat on her bed, pulling on her combat boots that she had bought. Right after she had finished tying the second boot, her back spasmed violently and she made a squeaky sound. "Ouch" she said. The spasms were nothing new, but they had begun to get more intense over the past few months. She had really been hoping that they would not be a problem that day, and so she had taken extra blood thinners the night before and that morning. It didn't appear to make much of a difference, as Mary got another spasm, and squeaked again.

"You okay in there?" Ryu asked.

"Yeah, just spasms as usual." Mary replied. She got up, and grabbed the belts they had made, and started putting them on.

"Well that sucks. Come in here, we need to do your hair." Ryu said, as she opened the door and pointed to the bathroom. Mary got up and followed, she still wasn't sure how she was going to look with black hair.

Once they were all done with their hair, having dyed and styled it, they made their way downstairs to finish putting on their costumes. As they turned the corner to the living room, Mary started giggling. Matti, who usually had short blonde hair, now had black hair. He had refused to wear the long black wig that they got him. He also had a small dot on his forehead, and was wearing a suit, that was just a little too small for him. He looked miserable, and Mary found it hilarious.

"Shut up." Matti said, as he sat down on the couch. When he looked at the group that came downstairs, he himself couldn't help but giggle. "If you weren't clearly a girl before, you are now." He said. "You really can't pull of sideburns or that thing on your chin." He said. The man-makeup they had used on Mary was quite hilarious.

"But at least the hair looks good. It looks more natural than the blonde, actually." Morgan said from the corner of the living room, where he was standing with his hands crossed in front of him.

"Whoa, Morgan. I didn't think you could pull it off, but you actually look a lot like him." Mary said. She didn't know much about the games, but she had seen pictures of all of the characters, and Morgan definitely pulled off his character, even if he was way too thin. "And nice earrings." She added. He just scowled at her, and then put his sunglasses back on his face. Ryu went over and slug her arm over his shoulders the best that she could.

"Hey, I like the earrings, yo." She said. She looked very much the sloppy Turk that she was supposed to be. Her hair had come out bright red, which was a very odd look for her, but it worked. "You don't look so comfortable there, bossman." She said.

"Yeah, suit is a bit small." He replied. Piper walked over to him and sat on his lap. "Just a bit?" Alanna said, from her spot on the couch. She was sitting next to Matti, in her red coat, with her long black boots, and a small book, which she had made a LOVELESS cover for. She was thoroughly enjoying herself, and she couldn't wait to go outside and use the boffering swords they had made.

"You look silly with black hair." Piper said. She had been very much against the wig, and that was one of the reasons he hadn't worn it. She wasn't very happy about the hair dye either. Matti looked at her, with his eyebrows raised, and then decided to drop it, while wrapping his arms around her. He wasn't too enthused about the costume, but he could deal with it for the night.

Across the room, Mary had another spasm, one that nearly knocked her off of her feet. Luckily, she was near the railing of the stairs, and was able to hold herself up. When she looked up, everyone was staring at her. She just shook her head, and they all dropped it. It happened so frequently, they were used to it. They all let it slide, and turned to Alanna. They had decided to watch her play one of the games, to help them get into the mood of their characters. Alanna got up, and turned on the TV.

Mary stayed where she was, even though she couldn't see the TV. She usually wore glasses, but with the costume, she had to take them off. It wouldn't matter where she was, she wouldn't be able to see, so she stayed in place. Within a minute, she felt another strong spasm coming on. She waited, knowing there was nothing she could do about it. Sure enough, a really strong one came. It was enough to knock her off of her feet, and then into unconsciousness.

When Mary was able to open her eyes, she could see her friends were also on the ground. "Oh, very funny, I hate you guys." She said, thinking that they were teasing her. She rolled over, as a wave of nausea and a migraine come on, and she lost consciousness again.

(Chapter 1)

Mary woke with a start, as Alanna kicked her in the stomach. After a minute of chasing her down, and some swearing, Ryu grabbed her pant leg and told her to calm down. With that, she did, and turned to look at the people on the other side of the room. Even without her glasses, and being pretty blind, she could tell that they were in trouble. The people standing in front of her looked very similar to the people they were dressed as. Only they were much larger, and scarier. She looked over to Angeal, the man whom she was dressed as. He was even larger than she imagined, and his arms were huge.

She went and sat on the back of Ryu's chair, still trying to see get a good view of everyone in the room. After a few minutes, her eyes were starting to hurt from the strain, and she then realized that she didn't have her glasses on. She started searching her pockets, not remembering where she had put them.

"Looking for something?" Tseng said to her.

"Yeah, um, my glasses. I can't really see without them. Have you seen them, they are purple and… oh, here they are." She said, as she found the pocket they were in. She was lucky that they weren't broken. She could see well enough to walk around without them, but she would get a headache after just a short amount of time.

The small group continued to sit around Ryu, while the other group discussed what to do with them. The SOLDIERS and Turks then came over, and introduced themselves. Afterwards, they were offered clothes and a shower. Mary blushed as Angeal handed her a shirt and a pair of shorts, and pointed her to the direction of his bathroom. Once she had her glasses back, she had gotten a chance to get a good look at him. She hadn't been too excited when Ryu and Alanna first asked her to dress up as him, but after looking at some pictures, and watching a video from the game, she wasn't too opposed. She did like the way he looked, and he was very muscular. He was definitely one of her types.

Mary jumped in the shower, just long enough to get clean, and got out. When she looked in the mirror, she was glad to see that the hair dye had come out, as well as the makeup on her face. She looked like herself again, and more like a girl. She had been very embarrassed when she realized that she had man makeup on once she woke up. She dried off, and put on the clothes that Angeal had given her. She was glad that they were loose; she much preferred loose clothing to tight clothing. She was larger than she would like to be. Even when she was highly athletic and active, she was still very large.

When she came out, she noticed that she was the first one back; not to her surprise. She was well aware of how long other people took to shower and change. It had taken a little while to get used to living with her friends, they had to figure out a bathroom schedule, and it was sometimes difficult. It was especially difficult between her and Ryu, when they had lived on campus with just Alanna. They both woke at the same time, and would fight over the shower. Ryu would take at least twice as long, if not more.

Mary stopped when she saw the confused look on the faces of the SOLDIERS and Turks. "Hair dye." She said, assuming that most of the confusion was her blonde hair. She continued into the room and sat down on the floor, leaning on the chair. Shortly after she sat down, the others started making their way into the room. Once everyone had returned, and they had explained why they looked so different, they all went to the kitchen to get some food. Afterwards, they were given blankets and pillows, and left alone for the night.

Thankfully, Mary felt herself falling asleep immediately. She always had a knack for sleeping anywhere. She had grown accustomed to moving that new places weren't strange for her, and she had also learned to sleep in chairs or on moving buses, or even on bean bag chairs. It didn't matter to her, if she was tired, she went to sleep. At some point in the night, she had woken up to find Ryu and Alanna missing, but they had all found them outside the door, and then they all went back to sleep.