A.N: So, I'd like to thank the wonderful istoleyourcheesecake for becoming my beta-reader for this story! I'm sure the story will become so much better with you helping me out!

In this chapter, we delve a bit into the pasts of the other characters. We see about the history of Jenova and how it fits in to the story, as well as discovering what the others' past schools were like!

Enjoy!

Chapter Four

In the evening, I wandered back to the dorm that Yuffie and I shared. It was about the time I got to know my roommate better. After all, we did spend at least half of the day together. Even if we were sleeping through most of that!

I tossed my bag lazily to one side, watching as it clattered off the wall and hit the carpet with a dull thud.

Sitting down at the end of my bed, I noticed Yuffie hunched over what appeared to be a large, dangerous-looking shuriken; the smell of cleaning agents seemed to consume the air surrounding her. Now wouldn't be the best of times to interrupt her, would it?

With a sigh, I flopped back to lay on my bed and pulled out my sketchbook. Yeah, I liked to draw stuff. That didn't mean I was any good at it. Just random doodles, poorly-drawn still life images and adequate-looking portraits.

Speaking of portraits, I seemed to have found my next subject.

Pencil came into contact with paper as I began sketching Yuffie where she sat polishing her shuriken. She didn't move much, so she was quite a good subject to draw as long as she kept on doing what she was doing.

Just as I was finishing sketching the last few strands of her hair, I was interrupted.

"Whatcha doin' ?" Yuffie asked, looking at me incredulously.

"Oh! N-nothing!" I exclaimed, snapping the sketchbook shut and placing it on my bedside table.

"You sure? That didn't exactly look like nothing..."

I couldn't respond, only let out a small disapproving yelp as Yuffie snatched my sketchbook up from where I had put it in a matter of seconds and was now thumbing through the pages. When she reached my latest sketch, her eyes widened in awe.

"Wow! That's awesome! Why would you wanna hide this?"

Wait a second... She thought my sketch was good?

"Because it's anything but awesome." I shrugged and replied nonchalantly.

"Liar! This is really good!" Yuffie exclaimed, now looking through some of my other sketches. "You-you've drawn everyone."

It was true. Within the time I had been at the Advent Academy, I had managed to sketch images of Zack, Aeris, Tifa, Cloud, Vincent and even Reno. The only difference now, though, was that I had been spotted sketching someone. And, for some absurd reason, they actually liked what I had drawn.

"Yeah," I scratched the back of my neck nervously. "I guess so."

"I've gotta show these to the others! They'll be amazed at how you even managed to draw them in the first place!" Yuffie declared, closing the sketchbook and running out of the dorm.

Baffled, I sprinted after her, but she was already out of sight. I peeked around the corridor, even the next one, but didn't catch a glimpse of the ravenette. Damn, was she fast!

I sighed and decided to simply wander to the usual place at which everyone hung out, an abandoned little building that was located just off the school premises. We called it the Seventh Heaven. Life here surely was tiring when you had a ninja as a roommate, and some equally energetic best friends.

I reached the Seventh Heaven soon enough and pushed open the door to reveal Yuffie flaunting my sketches as if they were a million-gil handbag.

"Kira! You never told us you could draw so well!" Aeris praised.

"That's because I can't," I replied simply, sitting down beside Zack.

"You big liar! You've managed to draw us all so well! How did you even get Reno to hold still for long enough?" Zack asked, earning a 'hey!' in protest from Reno.

"I'm really that good?" I asked sheepishly, blushing and looking away.

"Yeah, you are," Tifa chipped in. "But you're nothing compared to Cloud. He draws like a pro."

I looked over at Cloud to see him flushed a hue of red out of embarrassment.

"I'm not that good..." he muttered.

"You're kidding me, right? You won ten consecutive art competitions at your last school! I should know, I was there as well." Zack said.

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, right. You didn't know, Kira," Tifa smiled. "See, Zack, Cloud and I came from the same school here to the Academy. We used to go to the Jenova High, along with Kadaj and his brothers, before we came here."

"Our headmaster, Headmaster Sephiroth, was one hell of a force to be reckoned with," Zack stated; Tifa and Cloud nodded in agreement.

"The school was named after an alien known as Jenova," Zack began. "See, approximately two thousand years ago, an alien landed here on Gaia, having traveled through space inside a meteor. The impact created what we know today as the North Crater. The creature approached the Cetra, an ancient race from that era, and used its mimic abilities to destroy them: those who were taken victims were infected with a virus that mutated them into uncontrolable monsters. The creature itself would take the form of the fallen Cetra, then get close enough to destroy their loved ones. In this way, the creature destroyed most of the Cetra civilization.

"Their daughter race, the humans, hid away while the Cetra were almost eliminated. The few Cetra who survived banded together to defeat the creature and locked it away within the North Crater, where it was dormant for several millennia. However, despite their victory over the creature, the Cetra civilization was lost. Their numbers dwindled to almost nothing while humans spread over the Planet. And as time wore on, humanity forgot about the creature and the Cetra fell into legend.

"Two thousand years later almost all memory of the creature had faded. The Shinra Electric Power Company now ruled the Planet with Mako energy, the same we use today, but were forever seeking a more efficient way to harvest it. The Cetra legend of the Promised Land piqued their interest, and the company delved into research into the race that was considered to be long extinct."

"Approximately 30 years ago, Professor Gast Faremis excavated the alien creature's remains and mistakenly identified it as a Cetra, naming it Jenova." Cloud continued the story on from Zack. I had to admit, this was highly interesting. "Of course, after long and tedious months of testing, they drew a blank on that fact and realised that Jenova wasn't a Cetra after all. The DNA samples uncovered from Cetra fossils simply didn't add up with Jenova's genetic code. Though, the Professor still believed it was possible to create a Cetra using Jenova's cells.

"The Jenova Project became an effort by a number of Shinra scientists to use Jenova's cells to create a human-Cetra hybrid who would lead them to the Promised Land.

"Shinra was, of course, unsuccessful at creating a Cetra with Jenova's cells, but the humans treated with the cells proved to be super-soldiers, which led to the members of SOLDIER, Shinra's elite military force, being injected with the cells, as well.

"Headmaster Sephiroth was born from the project during its first stages, when Shinra was still trying to create a Cetra. Most of the early research took place in Nibelheim's Shinra Mansion, and Jenova was contained within the Mako Reactor at Mt. Nibel.

"Shinra later went to teach at a school known as Avalanche Academy and that's all we really know."

"Wow. So, that's why you guys moved here? Because you knew about all this?"

"No," Tifa said solemly. "We moved here because Sephiroth was trying to fuse the Jenova cells with the students. He succeeded to do so with both Cloud and Zack and he would have done the same to others as well. I wouldn't be surprised if Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz had also been fused with Jenova cells."

"It's okay, though," Zack grinned assuringly. "It didn't hurt, or anything! Just made us stronger!"

Cloud nodded to back up Zack's statement.

"Well, anyone else had a crazy school experience?" I asked sarcastically to try and lighten the mood.

"Well, there is that time I got my head stuck in one of the clay pots we were making in art class once..." Reno began.

"No!" Yuffie exclaimed. "We've heard that so many times!"

"How about your school life then, Yuffie?" Reno asked.

"MY school life?!" Yuffie repeated, now frowning. "Heh... Where to begin?"

"With your first day?"

"Ah, yeah! Nah, that was boring! See, I went to a special school. Wutai High, it was called. We did all sorts of special ninja training sequences alongside our normal school subjects. That's how I got my baby!" Yuffie pointed to the large shuriken that now rested against one of the walls. "A little while back, there was this big war in the town near Wutai High. All the students had to take part and there was no refusing the call to war.

"We fought tirelessly for days on end. Students and warriors on both sides perished as the battle raged. It got real boring after a while, lemme tell ya that much.

"Then I met Vincent! He was about to kill me, but he didn't. So, ya know, I kinda owe him my life. Though I don't think he cares anymore. Do ya, buddy?"

"Not really," Vincent replied bluntly.

"Exactly! Anyway, so the battle ended. I moved here soon afterwards because I didn't want to risk getting involved in another one of them."

"Actually, Yuffie moved here because I told her to. There was no way I was letting her die in another battle after I had just saved her life," Vincent interjected.

"Ah, potato, potahto!" Yuffie rolled her eyes. "How 'bout you, Reno? Besides getting your head stuck in a pot."

"Me?" Reno asked. "I ain't got much of a story to tell, yo."

"Come on! There must be something!" Yuffie persisted.

"Well... alright then. See, I went to a place called Avalanche Academy before I came here. Spiky just mentioned it; Shinra was the headteacher back there. There was this elite group of students who worked undercover for one of Shinra Corporation's companies, the Turks. My old pal, Rude, and I were both Turks working for a separate division. We were under the command of a guy called Tseng. Funnily enough, he became a teacher here a while back. Also, ol' Shinra is the head here. Who'da thought it?

"Well, we had a bit of a run-in with the guys from Jenova High quite a while back. They were a little group working for SOLDIER and they were one hell of a fighting team. It took us Turks by surprise, that's for sure. I met Spiky and Zack then, too." Cloud and Zack muttered in agreement. "And then I moved to Advent Academy 'cos Shinra did. Too bad Rude had to stay back at Avalanche. You guys would've liked him."

"Wow. You guys all have such interesting backgrounds. All I ever did at school was sit in the back of the class and study," I sighed in awe.

It was good to know about the pasts of my friends, even if some were a little darker than others.

"Wait a second! We still haven't heard about Aeris' school life!" Reno interrupted.

"Mine was nothing special. I grew up as an orphan and I learnt many different nursing techniques by helping the other children in the orphanage when they were hurt. That's all."

"It's still pretty interesting, Aeris," I noted.

A.N: Reviews? They fuel the author and beta-reader, you know! :3 Nah, I'm just kidding. But them reviews would be nice. XD