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Chapter 3 - Special Assignment.
How could she have let herself get in this situation again? She cursed inwardly for about the tenth time so far since she turned down the corridor. Reno, a new recruit, delighted in causing her no end of problems. Along with his new best friend, Rude, they could never quite take the job seriously enough and as their field commander, this was very much her problem.
This was the third time the pair of them had managed to land her in hot water and now the Department head, Director Verdot, wasn't happy with her at all. She had now emerged onto the main floor of the level used primarily by the Turks and moved towards the director's office. Swallowing down the rising lump in her throat Meia willed herself to stay calm and focused. There was only so much trouble she could be in surely. Taking a deep breath the young woman placed her finger on a black pad beside the door, and an intercom put her through to Verdot,
"Yes?"
"Meia. Reporting as requested Sir"
"Enter"
The door hissed open for her and she stepped through. Verdot was an intimidating man who expected the best from his agents and wasn't one to suffer setbacks. Especially when they kept occurring. Even if it was exaggerated claims formulated by her young colleagues who had a habit of placing all blame solely on her. Steeling herself, she walked up and stood to attention before him, staring at the wall straight ahead...not daring to make eye contact.
"I assume you know why your here"
Meia nodded
"I've received reports that you have failed another mission. Is this true?"
Meia swallowed hard. A large lump had suddenly manifested in her throat, "No sir. Not entirely" She said, daring to be bold though every ounce of courage was needed for it,
"You didn't apprehend your target during your last mission. Again. By my reckoning that doesn't constitute a successful mission" Verdot replied dryly.
She could feel his hard stare looking right through her. She had to keep her cool, "Sir, I assigned my comrades to guard the entrance to the building while I infiltrated in an attempt to flush the target out. When I did so, he was using a hostage, a small girl, as a human shield. I gave pursuit and radioed the situation ahead to the Turks guarding the entrance. But it seems..." She paused, "my transmission was not heard for some reason. The target overpowered them, they were taken by surprise. They couldn't gain the upper hand and the target escaped, despite all attempts to follow him"
Meia knew full well the reason her transmission wasn't heard. Reno and Rude weren't taking their assignment seriously and were distracted by whatever they had decided was more important at the time. She wouldn't mention this unless she was asked, however. Despite her two inexperienced colleagues proving themselves to be a perpetual thorn in her side, name dropping was dishonourable in her eyes; she wouldn't lower herself to blame others all the time and shirk responsibility as, after all, it was her job to develop these fresh recruits into seasoned agents.
Verdot leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together, resting his hands in his lap,
"As it so happens…" He began, his tone a little softer now, "I have an infantry witness to back up your story. He said your two comrades weren't focusing. That they were easily overpowered and they proceeded to yell at each other while the target escaped"
Meia suppressed the sense of relief she felt,
"But the fact still remains that you failed your mission. I know you try your best Meia, given the circumstances, but it still goes on your record. Although I sympathise, I'm taking you off active duty and assigning you to some rigorous training"
Meia couldn't help but look crestfallen. Taken off active duty. This was a blow to her confidence right now,
"Don't worry; I'll be dealing with those two rookies shortly. You'll find all the details of your training in your quarters. Take your assignment seriously. Work hard and come back stronger, understood?"
Meia snapped to attention, "Yes Sir!"
"Good. Dismissed"
She nodded and left the office, heading for the elevator. Once inside she slumped against the back wall and groaned. This was humiliating. She hated being given assignments that involved Reno and Rude because things like this always happened; she always ended up taking the flak for those two. She stormed out onto the lobby and jogged down the steps and outside, heading towards the residential building reserved for Shinra employee's.
In her room, placed on her bed, was an envelope containing a set of orders;
You are hereby assigned special training duty for the duration of two weeks. You are requested to report to the 49th floor of the Shinra building at 09:00 hours tomorrow. Dress appropriately. Your uniform is not required.
She glossed over the statutory company disclaimer at the end of the letter and sat down on her bed. The 49th floor. Wasn't that the SOLDIER floor? Wonderful. She was to be run ragged until her throat bled and her lungs were coughed up. This was going to be hard. There was no way a Turk could keep up with an enhanced member of SOLDIER. She knew they would be leagues apart. Meia fell backwards on her bed. Maybe she'd only be assigned to a couple of 3d class rank 7's, as some kind of project. If she concentrated she could cope with that.
The next morning, Meia set her alarm to wake her earlier than usual. She was determined to make a good first impression. Rolling out of bed at 06:30 she donned a tracksuit and headed for Shin-ra's indoor running track. She usually ran throughout Midgar but the cities weather was becoming increasingly worse as they headed into winter. Freezing cold sheets of rain and hail were currently descending from the heavens, thundering against windows and roofs in a deafening torrent.
She had the track to herself this early in the morning and she ran her usual indoor distance before heading to the canteen for a breakfast of fruit, cereal and toast. Meia took her time and thought about her upcoming training. She couldn't help but feel nervous about it though. Popping another melon ball in her mouth, she tried to imagine what kind of things she'd be put through. Running? Assault courses? Sparring? All of these and more were a possibility. SOLDIER training was tough for them, but for a mere Turk who hadn't undergone mako infusion and genetic modification...it would be hell. Still, Meia wasn't one to shy away from the challenge.
She finished her breakfast and headed upstairs again to take a shower and change. She pulled out a sturdy pair of navy blue cargo pants and a soft grey speckled fitted t-shirt to wear. She usually wore her hair down, but she didn't like distractions while training, so she twisted it into a high pony tail and secured any wayward locks with pins and clips. Her hair was jet black, long, straight and cut into a choppy, playful style. Meia wasn't one to go for impeccably groomed, flowing tresses that you saw in all the magazines. This style was much easier to handle. And much more fun, she thought to herself.
It was 08:42 now, so she pulled on a blue zip up hoodie, left her room and headed back into the Shin-Ra building. Stepping inside the elevator, she swiped her ID card which prompted a list of floors she was eligible to access to appear on a touch screen pad beside the doors. She gently jabbed the icon for floor 49 and the lift doors closed, beginning her ascent. Meia took the time to compose herself one last time and try to get rid of the fluttering feeling that was manifesting somewhere in her stomach. Eventually the lift jolted to a halt and the doors pinged open, permitting her to step out and begin her two week special assignment.
She began walking down the corridor in her usual, confident stride, passing a few 2nd and 3rd class SOLDIER's as she went. No one came forward to greet her, so she decided to take a seat on one of the benches under the central windows and wait. Only a few more new faces walked past and, clutching a coffee with a file tucked under his arm, Lazard, director of SOLDIER. He nodded his head and smiled a pleasant "good morning" to her before disappearing down the corridor to the elevators.
He had emerged from the briefing room, Meia was sure, and she watched the door for any more signs of movement. A Second emerged and headed off in the opposite direction, and another seemingly in a hurry to catch up with the guy in front. Then a First. Someone she recognised. He wore a long red coat and was followed by another. A First as well but she didn't really know his face. Aside from the rather large sword on his back, he didn't choose to wear any personal equipment so he didn't really stand out. Finally, someone she definitely recognised stepped out. Aside from his trademark long black coat and gleaming, personally commissioned pauldrons, his flowing long silver hair made him pretty unmistakable. She watched them a few more moments before something clicked and a sickening lurch in her stomach made her realise...could she be assigned to them?
Sure enough, the older looking First nodded his head towards her in conversation with the red coat and they both looked her way before all three made their way over to where she sat. Now, the senior Turks were on the same rank level as First class SOLDIERS but as she stood up, she still had to fight the urge to stand to full attention and salute. Their reputations were slightly intimidating,
"Good morning," The black haired SOLDIER smiled and reached out his hand, "you must be Meia, the Turk, right?"
She nodded in response and grasped his hand in a firm handshake,
"Well, I believe you're assigned to us for some personal training so...My name is Angeal..." She released his hand,
"This is Genesis..." She shook the red coat's hand next and he gave her a gentle smile,
"And this is Sephiroth..." She went to present her right hand, but he held out his left. Feeling a little sheepish she swapped hands and grasped his left hand with hers. She looked at him and was straight away startled by his eyes. They were by all means unique; bright glowing teal and a slitted pupil, but they were familiar...she could swear she'd seen them before. Sephiroth gave her a slight nod and they released hands. She didn't want to say anything about the night before either, she was happy to assume he simply hadn't heard her…
"Right, come into the briefing room and we'll go over what we've been ordered to cover" Angeal led the way and she followed.
A day earlier…
"Are you serious Angeal?" Genesis drawled
"I'm afraid so. Apparently she needs extra training and Verdot seems to think additional Turk training would be too soft" Angeal replied, still scanning the personnel file on 'Meia LeSait'
Genesis played with the fastenings on the top of his boot, his feet crossed and firmly planted on the briefing room's smooth wooden conference table. He sighed,
"I was hoping for a few more quiet days to go over my screenplay. Alas! It will have to wait" He pulled out his much adored copy of 'Loveless' and began pouring through it, "What with reports of Wutai spy's all over the place and assignments, I'm having trouble sticking to my deadlines" He carried on, to no one in particular. Sephiroth remained quiet, leaning on the table to the right of Genesis with his arms crossed.
"What do you think?" Angeal asked him a few moments later. Sephiroth pursed his lips and bowed his head slightly before speaking,
"I think Verdot is crazy if he expects a Turk to keep up with us in training. This seems a little unfair" He paused, "Maybe that's the whole point... What exactly did she do to warrant this anyway?" He got up and moved behind Angeal's chair, resting his hand on the back and reading the file over his friends shoulder.
"Hmm...Stuffed up a few missions apparently" Angeal replied after a mouthful of tea. Sephiroth let out a soft 'hrump' and straightened up,
"So why us?" He said,
"Do we really have anything else better to do at the moment?" Angeal said with a soft chuckle, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms, "Don't even think about skipping out either, you need all the distractions you can get right now"
Sephiroth said nothing and simply looked away. He suspected Angeal had noticed the change in him of late. Though he should have known really…
"So...Seth..." Sephiroth winced slightly. These two insisted on abbreviating his name though, mercifully, they didn't use the one that made his skin crawl. 'Sephy' he heard receptionists and secretaries say when they thought he couldn't hear them. It drove him mad. As if any of them were on nickname basis anyway…
"What did you go off to sector 5 for the other week?" Genesis continued, glancing over his book,
"That's none of your business" Sephiroth replied, flicking a long lock of hair back over his shoulder. Angeal laughed.
"Oh come on, you can tell us we wont laugh"
Sephiroth fixed Genesis with a cold stare. Since when was visiting the city he lived in something to be suspicious about? Or to poke fun at, "Why do you want to know?" He replied, looking away again, "As far as I remember I am allowed to leave this building, Genesis"
Genesis closed his book and chuckled. Sephiroth was getting irritated; The necklace he found was nothing to do with them. But he could avoid a lot more bother if he just came clean about it,
"Fine. I found a necklace back on that Wutai job Angeal and I was assigned too. I got it checked out and sold it" He took a step towards Genesis and fixed him with his eyes. His friend regarded him for a moment before replying,
"What? Are you sure you didn't steal it? Why would there be a necklace lying around a military base? It could have been some poor mans prized accessory with his best materia in it" Genesis replied some what theatrically, uncrossing his legs and rested them on the floor again. Angeal could see Sephiroth's jaw getting tense so he decided to step in,
"Now now Genesis, don't wind him up. What he does in his free time is his business."
Thank you Angeal, Sephiroth thought to himself and he strode out of the briefing room, leaving those two to their own devices. It had of course occurred to him that the necklace was exactly that; a military accessory. But, he reminded himself, that was no materia set into the pendent. Just a polished jewell. Plus the fact it was a know piece made by a craftsman left no dispute. Sephiroth really had to stop second guessing himself. Another side effect of his disrupted mental patterns he though with a scowl.
He decided to stay in his room for the rest of the day as he made his way out of the building. He cared for his friends dearly but as of late his mood was quick to sour. It was almost definitely related to what was happening to him. Once back home Sephiroth had managed to improve his sleeping habits a little, but now it was harder and harder to feel rested. He was by no means harassed or visibly sleep deprived still, but he didn't feel himself. He had contemplated going to see a doctor but if he did, that piece of information would almost certainly make its way back to Hojo.
Sephiroth scowled at the lift controls a moment before jabbing the button to his floor. How he hated Hojo. The man was cold and lifeless and only lived to inflict pain and misery on people. His test subjects were his 'babies' but he never referred to them as living things. Just toys. 'Specimens' was his favourite word.
It was the same with him. Hojo hardly ever called Sephiroth by his name but still treated him as his pride and joy. Sephiroth knew for some reason he had taken extremely well to the SOLDIER treatment and that was why Hojo fawned over him so. But Sephiroth couldn't forget what the man had subjected him too when he was a child, how he was treated.
Not like Gast. Gast had been brilliant. Gast treated him like the human boy he was. Sephiroth clenched his jaw and walked out of the lift, his expression now slightly somber. Here he was thinking about the only man he'd felt close too as a child again. Why did it have to be him. Why couldn't Hojo have disappeared.
Sephiroth sighed and crossed the lobby to his apartment, opening it with his card and stepping inside. He had to stop thinking like this. It was helping no one. But as he undressed from his uniform and changed into comfortable lounging clothes he couldn't stop thinking about Gast. Where was he? dead, according to Shin-Ra. According to Hojo. Sephiroth didn't know what to think. He just vanished one day when he was still very little, leaving him alone with Hojo. That was all he could remember. He couldn't recall exactly when he came to live in Midgar, only that when he did the experiments began. The treatments. No, all he could remember from when he was a baby was Gast, as if his mind desperately clung to it in an effort to comfort him, though all Sephiroth felt was loss.
Sephiroth shook his head and tried to snap himself back to reality, opting to brew a pot of tea before settling on his sofa with some files and his personal pad to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to unwind with some research.
...
...Se...ir...
…Sephir...h...
His eyes opened slowly. His mind was still foggy, drifting in that nowhere space when you didn't know if you were still dreaming or awake. He blinked a few times. It was dark. Sephiroth? That was his name, wasn't it? He blinked again and brought a hand up to his face. Slowly the fog cleared and whoever was calling to him was soon forgotten. Just another lost dream. He rubbed his eyelids gently and rested his hand on his forehead.
His television was on and tuned into the news, which he listened to for a moment. Seems reports of Wutai spies in the cities were unsettling the locals. Small-scale blackouts were being reported, supposedly to serve as distractions but people were not to worry; Shin-ra's security dept. and the Turks were there to protect them. He must have drifted off while reading again. He sat up and gathered up the files that were in danger of slipping off his cotton covered stomach. What was the time? He opened the small notebook laptop on his coffee table. 17:41. Next he looked at his phone and opened the mail that was flashing away at him;
Going out for a few drinks. You in?
G&A
Not tonight he thought. He wasn't in the mood,
No thank you. Have fun.
He keyed in the message and watched it send. Not content with spending most of the day sedentary, he decided to head off to at least get some training in, opting to swim laps as it was a very efficient form of exercise.
As with all of Shinra's training facilities, the pool was very large and modern and open to employees only. If he wanted too, Sephiroth could order everyone out of it leaving him free to swim in peace. But he figured he'd share it. His mood wasn't that dismal. It wasn't too busy anyway from what he'd seen on his way past the vast glass windows. Only a few fellow SOLDIERS's, a few men and a woman.
He chose a quite spot in the changing areas and pulled off the clothes he was wearing to change into a simple pair of swimming briefs. He was by no means shy about his appearance, but he didn't like people looking at him too much. Which they had a habit of doing when he swam. He surmised it was due to his physique being quite impressive, which was merely a fact not a brag. Still, some people had no shame.
Sephiroth fumbled around in his bag for a hair tie and slipped it over his hand. Dragging his fingers through the long locks framing his face, he yanked and gathered them high at the back of his head and scooped the main mass up to join them, securing the whole operation with the tie. He grabbed his pair of eye goggles and made his way out to the pool.
Fifty lengths later, the pool was mostly empty except for the woman. She was still going strong. He finished up his current lap and hauled himself out the water to take a breather, hardly making a noise as he climbed up and sat down on the side. The goggles wrapped around his head were beginning to get sore so he yanked them down around his neck and rubbed the red marks that began to appear. They vanished almost immediately. He watched the woman swim her laps. He thought he recognised her but now he was sure. She was one of the Turks sent to collect them in Wutai. He couldn't recall her name, however. The lights flickered ominously as he watched her a little while more before replacing his goggles and sliding back into the pool.
He hadn't swam more than three laps however when a mild emergency occurred. A blackout. He pulled up halfway through his stroke and removed his goggles again. They were tinted and he was virtually blind in the dark wearing them. On the job indeed, Sephiroth thought, treading water. Then there was a soft splash and a watery thud, followed by a lot of cursing,
"Arg! Son of a bitch..."
He looked towards the sound...
"Hello? Are you still in the pool too...?" The woman called out to the darkness. Sephiroth nodded, before realising that his standard response wouldn't work in the dark,
"Yes. Are you hurt?" He swam to the side of the pool he thought was the closest and pulled himself out and onto his feet. It may have been pitch black but, thanks to his unique eyes, could see better in the dark than most people. He could make out edges and shapes and that was good enough for him. He just had to be careful not to slip.
"A little, lights went out as I was turning. Hit my head..." came her reply. "Are you ok…?"
"I'm fine. Best to sit on the side until they come on again"
"Yea...good idea"
He heard what he presumed was her getting out. She seemed fine so he headed off to the showers to wash the chlorine off himself. He heard her try to say something else to him but he didn't feel like standing around and talking, dripping wet, cold and exposed so kept walking and didn't respond…
So the next day when he shook her hand, he hoped she wouldn't bring it up. She didn't, merely peering at his eyes for a few moments. She seemed content with letting it go. Or maybe she'd forgotten about it. Sephiroth studied her as she was led into the conference room.
Meia had an air of familiarity about her. Not because he's seen her a few times now, it was something else, something subtle like déjà vu. Frustratingly though, he couldn't work out where the feeling was coming from. Following after, Sephiroth was just about to dismiss the thought when a reoccurring set of images reeled through his mind, conjured up by seeing this woman. He watched her as a child's giggle echoed in his thoughts and when he looked at her face, the feeling of familiarity grew until he was almost sure he knew her. Then, as suddenly as it came, the feeling was gone again leaving Sephiroth utterly confused. All he knew was now, there was a certain sickly feeling in the bottom of his stomach. As if he had done something terribly wrong.
29/02/2016
