Chapter Two: Childhood Friends
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own characters. Everything FFVII belongs to Square Enix. Please enjoy and let me know what you think, good or bad I don't really care =)
The Market was crowded with people though it had an empty feeling. Kituna noticed the shifty figures that huddled by or inside the small shops and stands, offering great deals on seemingly priceless objects and trinkets. She also noticed it was just polished garbage.
"Hmph, they're selling junk as if it's jewels. And the people buy it? They don't even need it." She was incredulous to their stupidity.
"They are made to believe they want it to have something their poorer neighbors don't. I believe it's the roundabout 'competing with the Jones''. We can't do anything about it and they are happy in a way." He contradicted. "Now, no shopping, we are going to Shinra remember."
She glared at the blonde through her metal mask. "Of course! I'm the one who insisted we go there. But first, if you remember your own suggestion we must see a calendar to know the exact date and what we are going to be walking into when we make it to Shinra." She looked in the nearby shop, her Mako eyes pinpointing the flip calendar in the back office behind the counter. It read 'January 1, 1986'
She relayed the date to Rufus. "Then he has already become the first 1st Class, that was a few years ago. But his friends will be undergoing the missions my father appointed them concerning the rebels who have based around their hometown of Banora. If we hurry we should be able to catch them on the SOLDIER Floor." He waved her toward the large doorway that led up to Sector 7.
Getting through the doors was simple enough, although the Infantrymen's eyes followed Kituna as she fell into step behind Rufus' right shoulder. Her eyes never left them either until they were in the Entrance of the Shinra Building. "They are suspicious of me."
"Should they be?" he grinned. "To be honest, I'm not sure I'm not. You did kidnap me from my office during an emergency."
She inclined her head slightly to show her small amusement through her emotionless mask. "I was that emergency, my mother had granted me the power to break through the Mako encasement I had been stored in."
"You must've been put in there for a reason, Shinra wouldn't have…"
She interrupted. "It wasn't Shinra at first, it was the Human race who were afraid of my people."
"The Cetra? Why were they afraid of their Mother Race?" his brow knitted in confusion.
"I am only half Cetra, the other half is…something else." He looked at her imploringly. "You don't need to know, Sir. They were afraid of the power I would have. They were afraid of my parents, all because of the Jenova incident." Her voice was laced with fury.
"What Jenova incident? How do you know about her, she's classified." He had to lower his voice, glancing around at the businessmen in suits to make sure none had over-heard their conversation.
"I may have been restricted of movement in the Mako, Sir, but I heard and felt everything that happened on the Planet. Everything! Every new life and every death, everything that happened to that life and why. Remember that when I come to you with information, and when I request it." Her voice had cracked mid-sentence, calling the attention of the sales woman who was walking around to SOLDIER members and Infantrymen who weren't on assignment handing out free samples of potions. Rufus saw her coming over Kituna's shoulder and jerked his head for her to turn to see the on-coming concerned woman.
"Is everything okay? Sir, maybe your friend would like to sit down…oh!" her eyes widened like saucers when she saw Kituna in her coat and mask. Clearly she had thought to see the face of a sad woman standing beside her President's son. "I'm sorry sir, I just thought I'd heard a distressed…well…" she smiled awkwardly at the black metal mask with weird markings of gold around the edges, then scuttled off in her tight knee length suit skirt and size too small heels.
"She thought you were a girl. You can't sound like a woman while under cover of a SOLDIER 1st Class, got it? The only women who work for Shinra are the clerks and scientists. Not as combatants." He then pulled her toward the elevator and pushed the button for the SOLDIER Floor. "Now, we will intercept Genesis and Angeal in the Briefing Room, according to the schedule of my PHS, they should be reporting there now. I'm to meet them and accompany them."
Kituna took in the muscular yet still slim man beside her. He wasn't fit to be going anywhere where combat was involved. "Why?"
He sighed. "This was how my father got me toughened up for his position. It was hard, and thanks to you I have to start over apparently. This was the hardest assignment he had sent me on, the others were okay, but there is more I'm going to have to go on from here." he ran his hand through his short cut blond hair. "But I survived before, and," he perked up at a sudden thought, "I'll have you to help with the worse stuff, the monsters that nearly killed me and all. Plus you can see it as a chance to get buddy with the boys. Win, win situation." He finished with a broad smile.
Kituna rolled her eyes at his foolish worries. He hadn't been that close to death before. She had felt the whole fight herself; it was only a few of those chocobo looking mountain birds. She shrugged and rolled her shoulders, prepping for the meeting of the next First Class of SOLDIER.
080
Rufus sat opposite Kituna beside Angeal on the copter ride to Banora, leaving his First Class escort to sit scrunched up beside Genesis. She didn't know where to put her hands the whole flight, she finally settled them in the pool of her lap since every time she rested them on her legs her left hand would slide to Genesis' right thigh, making Kituna blush a vivid red beneath her mask. Of course, Genesis didn't seem to mind, he didn't know she was of the opposite sex although he was too engrossed in his red leather bound copy of Loveless. His favorite literature she remembered. She also remembered his assumptions of how it fit his own life and drove him to leaving SOLDIER and causing suffering to so many. Angeal grinned over at his childhood friend and nudged his foot with his own booted foot. "Genesis, we're almost home, why don't you get your nose outta that book? Certainly you can't wait to see your parents after our training?"
The brunet looked up from the cherished volume to grin at his childhood friend. "Angeal, I am most excited to see my parents, but this piece of literature is very gripping if you'd give it a shot."
The darker laughed and waved the thought away. "And become an addict to a fictional world? No thank you. The play was too sad anyway, I don't know how you can read a story of a ruined friendship over and over like you do." The other chuckled. "It's only as real as the mind wants it to be. Who's to say what is fiction and what is reality? And the Gift of the Goddess…it's tempting to find if that holds some truth to it." His vivid blue eyes fell on Kituna, or A as she was to be called when dressed as SOLDIER. "A, what do you think? Are you familiar with the work?"
Kituna knew all about it. It was true that the Gift of the Goddess, the power of Minerva, was very much real although it was not a power of raw brawn but of a well-balanced brawn and brain with grace, wisdom and humility. She considered telling this to the two friends but remembered that Genesis had become obsessed with this Gift, placing his life in the tragic story's place. She nodded and said in her deepened voice, "I am familiar with it, but much is to be considered on the topic. Truly that story itself is false as no one has claimed the Gift but there is, as we know, speculation on what the Gift means. I for one believe it means finding one's own strength in his weaknesses and humanity. The Hero succumbs to pride while the captive forgets the world when he trades duty for love and the other gives in to ambition and jealousy of his friends and anger at what he sees as abandonment." All three men were looking at her as if she had sprouted another head, eyes wide and mouths open. She cleared her throat and shrugged. "'It isn't a fate one should covet or obsess about in my opinion."
Genesis nodded with a smug grin spreading across his face. "Well, the Gift of the Goddess, infamous in mystery as it is, shall be mine. I will become the best SOLDIER and deemed a hero when this war is over. Wutai will fall by my blade." He added with a twisted grin that he shared with his friend. "By our blades you mean? I hear your father had a custom blade made for you for when you become First?"
Genesis nodded. "It will match the red leather coat my mother made for me last time I was home for the same occasion. But it is only a rapier I hear while yours is a buster, weight usually wins out in a close sword fight. The mighty Sephiroth himself has a rather long katana he acquired not long ago from a retired swordsman in Wutai while on a mission there. Six or seven feet I think the newbies were saying…I wonder what he's compensating for." He gave a wink to Kituna who blushed. Was he suggesting…? Men were strange conversationalists for sure. She rolled her eyes but gave a dry chuckle before looking ahead at Rufus who was fighting to keep his face straight at her discomfort. She'd show him she sneered to herself. "Well, with you even considering his compensation, you yourself must feel challenged by him? What are you compensating for?"
Angeal and Rufus both burst into raucous laughter as Genesis choked and turned bright red. "WHAT? N-n-nothing, nothing! Shut up, both of you!" he stammered, kicking Angeal's leg. Kituna grinned to herself and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry Genesis, I'm sure your just fine down there." The other two burst back into laughter, only stopping slightly when the Banora White trees became visible as the chopper began its descent over the hills.
