"Hey!" Zack shouted, waving his arms in the air in an attempt to catch the attention of the stranger. A moment later, it occurred to him that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to draw the woman's attention.

Mao's eyes opened slowly, she glaring sideways at the strange man. She didn't stop moving, instead kept walking. There was some distance she had to walk yet; distractions would only mean that it would take her even longer to reach Edge and that there would be even more of a chance of Cloud Strife being there. She didn't like him, never had and never would. Yeah sure, the entire world called him a hero, but that didn't mean he had the right to act like he had!

"Hey." Zack's voice came from right beside Mao now, the ex-SOLDIER falling into step right next to her.

"What?" Mao glared sideways at him, scowling. Sil let out a "WARRK!" directed at Zack, causing the male to look down at the bird.

"Hi. Do you know the quickest way to Midgar?" Zack's cheer would not be deterred by a glare, definitely not!

Mao stopped, turning to fully face the stranger. Midgar? Is he some sort of wanna-be treasure hunter? There's nothing there anymore. Her face remained impassive. "It's just beyond Edge, if you don't mind walking. We don't rent chocobos to treasure hunters so you'll have to walk." She adopted her most professional voice and started walking off again.

"I'm not a treasure hunter! I-"

Mao cut him off "Then what do you want with the Midgar ruins? Most sane people would want to be going to Edge, especially since LOVELESS is playing, yet again."

Zack made an annoyed face, she'd cut him off! How dare she! "Interrupting people is rude!"

"Well then, I guess I'm a rude person." Mao snapped, short tempered.

"That's not nice. I just want to find my friend." Zack's constant cheer had returned.

"Let me guess, Cloud Strife, the World's Hero?" Mao started walking again, mismatched eyes scanning her surroundings.

"How'd you know? I haven't seen Cloud since-"

"Since when? What lie are you going to use, Zack Fair?" Mao picked up Sil, curling the chocobo into her arms.

"How did you know my name?" Zack paused, confused, then jogged to catch up to this strange girl.

"Where I was born, one learned all about you and your fellow First Class SOLDIERs. We were punished if we forgot even the tiniest detail. He… was a stern teacher." Mao quickened her pace; wanting to lose Zack so he wouldn't ask her any more questions. She wasn't too far from Edge now, and the girl broke into a run. Damn… why'd I say that? Now he has no reason to leave me alone.

Her hair fell into her face, the shiny black strands blocking her vision. "Shit!" She cursed aloud, glancing back to find Zack keeping up with her. With little warning Mao halted, just in time to keep from running into a black chocobo. Zack ran into the bird, but it was sleeping and didn't wake up.

"Hm… I'll get some extra greens for you, don't worry." Mao muttered, looking at Edge. "You'll find Cloud somewhere in there, probably." Mao glared again at Zack.

"Thank you." Zack nodded at Mao and took off running.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Mao relaxed now that Zack was gone, and he hadn't commented on her eyes, good. Pain dug furrows into her stomach, forcing her to drop Sil and double over, clutching at her stomach. Nails dug bloody crescent moons into her palms, a growl of pain escaping Mao before the 'attack' passed.

So it's back, Geostigma. Damn…

"Sorry about that Sil. I'll get you some nuts or something to make up for it, I promise." She'd hurt the bird, and that made her feel bad. Funny, how she could be as nasty as she wanted to humans but with animals she couldn't even think about hurting them. Well, that was Mao for ya.

Walking now, Mao resisted the urge (as she always had to) to summon her Shugotenshi as she neared the WRO checkpoint outside the city. Those pansies would freak if she did that though, and she wouldn't be allowed to do her chores.

"What materia do you have on you ma'am?" A rookie, one she'd never seen before, stepped in front of her to ask the question. Ooooh, it was soooo tempting to tell him where he could take those rules and regulations and shove them.

"Same ones as always. Poison, Time, and a Mastered Silence." She never mentioned the other one on her sword, no, that one was a surprise only.

"Well, those are ok, as long as you don't use them ma'am." The rookie looked down at the paper.

Mao brushed past him, unconcerned for the WRO's attempts at security. Just because Kadaj had summoned Bahamut SIN two years ago, that didn't mean that the WRO needed to police everyone. Well, actually it did. But her security was what mattered to her; she could care less about the town itself. Hell, if it and the blonde were destroyed in one fell swoop, that'd be just fine by her.

***
Zack jogged through the streets, ignoring the stares he got, until he spotted a familiar blonde head of hair. "Cloud!" He yelled, running to tackle-glomp his buddy.

"Hm?" the man turned, blue eyes questioning. Cloud had enough time to blink in surprise before he'd been knocked over by Zack and the taller man's enthusiasm. "Zack?"

"Yep! How ya been?" Zack's ever present grin had a way of challenging the pessimistic thoughts of Cloud.

"Well, I guess. What-?"

Several screams dominated anything else Cloud had to say. A few people ran by them in a manner that had Cloud wriggling from under Zack in order to stand and look protectively around the city.

Directly above him, currently unseen by neither Cloud nor Zack, a man with a single black wing and a cocky grin held his red blade almost diagonal from Cloud's throat…