Years passed.

Time flied faster than anyone would have thought. Things changed and so did the people. In Edge everything calmed down. The Shinra Electric Company was still extracting energy from the Life Stream. But, Rufus Shinra was smarter than his father. He made the people from Edge trust him little by little. He made himself seem as a savior. Surprisingly, it worked.

In Seventh Heaven things got normal. Tifa became very busy with the bar. It turned out that it was a success. Marlene and Denzel were teenagers. They were troublesome and were teasing each other a lot.

Cloud tried his best to talk and socialize more. Still, the only person whom he could talk to freely was Eloise. Vincent , Cid and Barret already became regulars at the bar. AVALANCHE was a strong and tight family. Eloise came to understand that on her own skin.

Eloise. Eloise Fair didn't change much. She was still keeping her heart closed, just in case. For her, no one was important enough to let in. She was cold and scary but she was improving slowly. Her personality was already changed. It was impossible to become that light hearted girl that she used to be. Reno and Tseng were the two men who knew that the best. They met her when she was playful and happy but that was such a long time ago.

However, Eloise had her own issues. She trained Cloud after Zack died. She trained him like she was trained; harshly. She used Sephiroth's methods. In the end, Cloud killed Sephiroth. She ran away and deserted right before Sephiroth awakened. She didn't want to see him or get involved. It wasn't her fight. However, Cloud found her a few years ago. They were having problems with the Geostigma. Thankfully, it passed and they were all fine.

There was one thing that she couldn't ignore, though. The last battle between Cloud and Sephiroth was giving her headaches.

"You don't have to fight me Eloise. I am not your enemy. I taught you everything you know. I didn't kill your brother, I didn't kill Angeal and most definitely I didn't take Genesis from you. You don't have a reason to hate me. I was your mentor. I was the first one who gave you what you always craved, respect." Her eyes widened after she heard his words. He was right.

"You took lives, Sephiroth. You started the crisis. You started the pain" He shook his head lightly.

"You still don't understand, do you?" She looked a little taken back. What did he mean? His face was just a few inches from hers. She could feel his breath on her face.

Truthfully, she didn't understand. What hurt the most was that he was right. He always encouraged her; he was always there for her when they were in SOLDIER. He was her mentor. Against what most people were thinking about Sephiroth, she didn't have anything bad to say about him. Throughout SOLDIER, he had been her support. He gave her the sword, he helped her control her energy and he taught her everything she knew about fighting.

"But you died, as well" The brunette sighed and leaned her head against the window.

Cloud made a promise to Zack. He promised to take care of Eloise and become her brother in his place. He did that, even if it happened later. He practically dragged her to Seventh Heaven and somehow he emotionally blackmailed her into living there. Or that was how it looked from her point of view. Since she wasn't paying rent and she had to earn money somehow, she became a waitress; kind of. Well, she was doing anything she could to help Tifa.

It wasn't what she imagined. Drunken men were very annoying and she had some difficulties with people getting too close. The bar was full most of the time and she wasn't allowed to beat the customers.

Reno was another annoying brat. However, he was the only one who could get a smile on her face. No matter what, he was her oldest friend. They were both really young when they met and they bonded quickly. That bond was the same. It was impossible to break it because Reno wasn't giving up on their friendship.

Another annoying thing was her broken heart. Tifa and Yuffie found it vital to make her fall in love, again. That was impossible but they tried anyway. The poor victim was Vincent Valentine. He was a good fit for Eloise. After they found out more about his past, Tifa realized just how good they were together. Eloise did find it a little easier to be around Vincent. They were both experiments of Hojo's; monsters that lost a lot in life. But, they weren't in love with each other. They didn't even like each other that much. They were just made under the same circumstances.

Regarding her last meet with Hojo, she couldn't forget one thing: the Deepground incident. She could swear she felt something familiar down there. She couldn't quite point out what but it was there. The mako energy inside her body was making her tremble with anticipation. She knew Hojo did something before he got killed. She just had to get a few answers out of Rufus.

"Hey, Eloise! I need you to go serve some customers, please! Two beers and one shot. They should be at Table 5!" Eloise came down from the eerie and nodded. It was easy to give beers and snacks to people. Moreover, the bar wasn't open by day. That left Eloise to do whatever she wanted.

"Hey, girly! Why don't you come and sit with us, tonight?" The man reached out for her hand but she moved out of the way quickly. However, that drunken man was still talking bullshit behind her back. She rolled her eyes and ignored him completely. That was the only way to keep chill.

That was what she had to do. Give the orders to the customers. It was her job. She couldn't help but wonder when she became a civilian. She was part of the army from the moment she became a teenager. Marlene and Denzel were always so playful and always had so much energy. She was curious if she had been like that before, as well.

"Are you alright, Eloise?" She blinked and put the plate down. She was fine. "Can you stay behind the bar? I'll take the tables" She was thankful. Tifa knew how annoying it could get.

It was safer behind the bar. Eloise was quick in making drinks. However, she wasn't good in making conversation.

"So, this girl. She's an escort but she asked me when I will leave my wife for her. I don't even know what she expects me to do. I mean I-"Those kind of stories came often. Men were always looking for trouble. Eloise became good at blocking their voices out. It wasn't her business what that man wanted or not to do.

"Two beers here, yo!" Her head snapped towards the redhead and his bald partner. Reno was a regular at Seventh Heaven. He winked at her and made a cheesy face. She rolled her eyes but escaped from that troubled man. "Did I save you again, Eloise?" He leaned on the bar to get closer to her.

"Yes. Thank you" She was still not talking like she used to. Well, it was fine. Reno was talking for all three of them.

"So, I talked to Shinra about some things" He moved his eyebrows up and down.

"I'm not going to work for him" Reno scoffed.

"It's only for errands! Like Cloud! You can choose which one you want to take. Besides, your fighting abilities are getting rusty" She stared blankly at her old friend. "Consider it. It's better than working with people, right? You love it when you fight. That won't change" She sighed.

Reno had been trying to make her and Rufus become friends. In the first place, that was not going to happen because the two already talked before. Eloise knew that Rufus wasn't his father and had a different mindset. However, that didn't mean anything. He had to prove that he was different. He probably had a lot of people he wanted assassinated. She was the perfect person to do that for him but she wasn't going to. She wasn't going to protect Shinra.