Author's Note; Hey peoples!! Sorry about the wait, but school and whatnot calls this year, sorry hunis! Anyway, I hope you all like this rewritten chapter and please tell me what you think of it!! C yas!! XxxxxxxxxxxxX


The return to the Shinra building seemed to take ten times as long as it normally did, what with limping party members, a grumbling Barret and civilians that constantly hindered their progress with questions and ill-placed congratulations. Another aspect was the young teenager that lagged behind the rest of the group, almost ashamed to pull even with the revered AVALANCHE and Turk members. But eventually the rather battered group of people managed to arrive at the iconic new building in the west of Edge, all silent and seemingly lost in detached thoughts.

There were already numerous Shinra medical staff waiting to usher the injured of the party to the hospital wing of the new building, and they did just that. The group had gotten off pretty lightly in hindsight; a few scrapes and cuts covered the majority of the injuries, with the worst being Chris' broken leg and Cloud's dislocated shoulder.

"Smile yo; you're acting like Sephiroth won …"

Ali looked up as she heard the voice, knowing it to be a certain Turk's. Reno was looking at her, half-smiling yet half serious at the same to time. She'd been sitting in silence on the side of one of the hospital beds, idly swinging her legs back and forth. To placate the redhead, the teenager flashed a forced smile and stared into space, vaguely focusing in on Cloud, whom Tseng was aiding in re-locating his shoulder. A slight pop and the joint slid back into place. Whereas this caused the girl to squirm slightly it had no effect on anyone else present in the medical wing.

Reno was right - she was acting like Sephiroth had won the fight, but he had, hadn't he? Had it not been for Cloud intervening she'd be dead right now. And it wasn't as if he'd retreated with his tail between his legs either; the former hero had chosen to leave them alone, a fact Ali was secretly grateful of - Cloud and the gang wouldn't have been able to defeat him, and she'd have gotten in the way … again.

The teenager was saved from her self-berating thoughts by a nurse approaching her and beginning to take care of the numerous cuts and scrapes the girl sported, along with drawing blood for some reason; her ribs would have to heal with time though.

It was almost an hour later when Rufus entered the medical wing and walked over to Ali, who was still sitting on the edge of the bed, staring idly into space as she kept replaying the fight in her head. She'd been such an idiot … everyone could have died and it would have been her fault. She'd just become part of the family here in Edge, and had almost thrown it all away; was that really how much the girl valued her new life, to let Sephiroth take it away, again? She knew now that Cloud had merely let her win that sparring match all those weeks ago when Chris had arrived ... he'd been able to save her life with only one hand, and she would've just sat there like an idiot and let hermother's murderer kill her.

Cloud followed the President over, a factor which served in making Ali uneasy - her brother didn't trust the head of Shinra, despite all the company was now doing for Gaia and the fact that she worked as an employee, but the past still hung heavy over the name of Shinra.

"Ali, I'm going to pull up your enrolment files from the Junon archives, and running various tests on the blood sample taken today."

"But why?"

Even she hadn't seen those files; they'd been recorded when she was only ten years old and then filed away amidst the data banks of the Shinra company … to be honest, she hadn't even known that the files still existed after the fall of the conglomerate empire, but why would they test her blood? With an awkward shared glance between delivery man and President, which spoke of their unease around each other, Cloud was the one to answer, albeit with a spiteful glance at the company-owner.

"Those creatures, the Shadow Creepers, they wouldn't attack you, and you could somehow control them. Only people with extremely high levels of Jenova Cells can do that, Ali … I was injected with the cells by Hojo giving me a high count of cells by any count, but I can't even remotely control those things … we're hoping there's gonna be something traceable in you blood that'll give us an idea why you could."

Ali watched as her brother lapsed into thought for a minute of two, as thought he were trying to plan out what he intended to say. The teen didn't like where the conversation was heading and instinctively took on a defensive position.

"I've never had any Jenova Cell injections; I'd remember!"

Rufus cast a look over his shoulder to where Tseng was masterfully ushering everyone out of the medical wing as he and Cloud spoke with Ali. The President nodded his head as he looked back to the young girl, speaking as he did so.

"We know, your current file states exactly that, but listen to me Ali; the way you fought Sephiroth - that's not normal for a 1st Class as young as you; you've only been in 1st Class ranking for three years now, and although you're the best we've seen in a hell of a long time, you came away from that fight relatively undaunted, what I'm trying to say is that there may be something significant mentioned in your enrolment files that isn't included in your current profile."

"What d'you mean by undaunted? He beat the crap out of me, and would have killed me if Cloud hadn't stepped in … I was stupid to think I could even entertain him …"

With a slight chuckle, Cloud reclaimed the conversation, sitting alongside her on the bed and elbowing her slightly; careful not to hit his sibling's ribs as he did so.

"You fought better than I did the first time; at least you didn't get Masamune through the stomach, or the shoulder … But what we're trying to say is that Sephiroth seemed to know too much about you, sis; he must've had access to your files or something. Did he ever train you, even as a Grunt?"

Ali started swinging her legs again as she lightly shook her head, ready to reply, yet saved from answering her brother's question by her employer.

"No Cloud; she enrolledfour years after the Nibelheim Incident, a year before Midgar collapsed; Sephiroth was still A.W.O.L. at that stage and my father was the at the helm of this company. Maybe he included something in your files that may help us, that's the reason I intend to pull them out of our surviving data banks, Ali.'

Rufus locked gazes with his young employee, addressing her directly for the last part of his statement. The teenager nodded her head, somewhat hesitantly as she too became somewhat curious of her own files.

"Okay then … but how long will it take, sir?"

Rufus, already on his way out of the hospital wing, paused momentarily and looked back at his young 1st Class. Not a lot of employees caused him to empathize with them, and yet Rufus Shinra found himself unusually fond of young Ali Strife … maybe it had something to do with her being so young and yet thrown into the mix of SOLDIER … but for some intangible reason, the young man felt for the teenager.

"The blood sample will take a couple of weeks to complete all the tests I want carried out. But as for the file retrieval, it could take anything from days to months, I'm afraid."

With that, the young man was gone, leaving only two people in the medical area of the new Shinra building, in a silence that seemed to descend all too rapidly as Ali continued the swinging of her feet, her glowing blue eyes vaguely focusing on the tiles of the floor.

"You gonna spill?"

A slight push to her side jolted the teen back to the present, but she refused to look up at him, just carried on swinging her feet and idly staring at the ground in a bid to avoid the imminent topic.

"Don't know what you're talking about …"

"Yeah right, and I'm best friends with Rufus … what the hell's eating you? You've been acting weird since we got back."

"I'm fine, Cloud."

The sixteen-year-old stood from the bed and flashed a smirk, heading for the door of the medical wing before her older brother could ask anymore questions that put her on the spot. But the girl merely had her hand on the door handle before she was stopped.

"Ali?"

"Yeah …"

"Don't ever rush into a fight like that again, understand me?"

Okay, so maybe evading a questioning wasn't the smartest route to go when you had Cloud as an older brother. With nothing really to say in reply, the youth nodded her head in defeat, knowing Cloud to see right through her; he was well aware of what had been bugging her.


"Denzel! Give me back my phone!"

Tifa cast a glance in through the kitchen door as she passed, hearing the shouting; Ali was running around the room in hot pursuit of the boy she considered a nephew. With a smirk, the pub owner carried on into the bar section of the building. In the last three weeks things had pretty much returned to normality in Edge; Sephiroth and the others hadn't reappeared since Ali's birthday and neither had his annoying remnants. The Shinra computer technicians were still running through all their databanks and memory archives in a bid to locate her sister-in-law's enrolment files. Tifa's thoughts were punctuated by taunting shouts from Denzel and threats voiced by a certain teenage girl, but the young mother merely learned to tune these out as she served one of her regular customers.

"Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris!"

"You little runt, just wait till I get you, Denzel!"

A bang was heard and then silence as all commotion in the kitchen seemingly halted rather abruptly. Yuffie, who had just walked into 7th Heaven a few minutes ago, finding great amusement in Ali's threats, looked to Tifa who seemed busy behind the counter. With her trademark curiosity at its height the young ninja immediately found herself at the kitchen door, laughing out loud as she saw the sight within.

"It's not my fault, I swear!"

Denzel thrust Ali's mobile into Yuffie's hand as he swiftly exited the room with a laugh. It took the young Wutain a second or two to locate the missing teen; down o the kitchen tiles, flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling.

"You okay?"

Yuffie was almost laughing as she pulled the floored girl to her feet and handed over the mobile. Ali grimaced and cast her gaze around; trying to figure what exactly had happened to land her on the floor … until her blue eyes focused in on a cupboard door that had been left open, allowing her to run straight into it whilst chasing Denzel. With a curse and a groan, Ali slammed the door shut with a heightened vengeance.

"Stupid door! I was about to ask who punched me!"

She placed a hand gingerly to her forehead, where a rather large bump was already becoming prominent. Yuffie shook her head, laughing as she did so; things hadn't been dull since Cloud's little sister had joined the group.

"Chris is outside."

"Right, thanks Yuffie."

Ali nodded, indicated the reclaimed mobile now in her hand and headed for the kitchen door, tripping over Denzel's skateboard as she did so, but managing to retain her balance as the youngster reappeared and stifled a laugh dodging a headlock from his aunt figure as she passed him, heading for the front door of 7th Heaven.

"Bye Tifa!"

"Don't be too late …"

"I won't!"

The teenager ducked under Barret's right arm as he opened the door ahead of her, heading into the bar. She'd been wary of the AVALANCHE leader upon first moving in with Cloud and Tifa - he'd seemed gruff and short with her, but then the teen had seen how gentle the man was around Marlene and Kas. Somewhere over the last couple of months, Barret had begun to display the same affection towards her as he did his daughter and Kas … Ali reckoned the fact she was so closely associated with Shinra had made him a bit wary of her but things were fine now.


"What happened to you?"

The voice sounded to her left where the youth was leaning against 7th Heaven's exterior wall. Chris was looking at the large lump prominent on his girlfriend's forehead as she haphazardly ducked beneath Barret's arm and dashed out into the small street. Ali grimaced as she ran her fingers over the bump lightly; she'd been hoping it wasn't too noticeable, but there was that hope out the window anyhow.

"I got into a fight with a cupboard door … you think I look bad, you should see the door!"

The lad laughed at Ali's measly attempt to retain some dignity, draping an arm around her smaller frame. The blonde teen nestled closer as they began walking towards the top of the street, being careful not to hit her head off of his chest; it was sore enough as it was without any more knocks!

Chris' leg had healed extremely fast, thanks to the Mako in his system, hereditary and the inducement received within SOLDIER. The muscles were still a bit stiff, causing the lad to walk with a slight limp, but physiotherapy was taking care of that and the impediment would be gone in only a matter of days.

"Rufus pulled up the files on my dad yesterday."

Ali nodded as her boyfriend leaned slightly towards her; the only indication of the slight limo. She'd been training last night when the technicians had managed to break the encryption on some of Hojo's older files - bringing about the revelation of stolen information from Hollander's dossiers; the files on the G Project had been surrendered to Hojo after he'd beaten Hollander in the run for head Shinra scientist.

"I saw the file last night; you look a lot like him, Chris."

Ali was right though; Chris was uncannily similar to his father in many aspects. They shared the same eyes and jet-black hair, though Chris' mop was noticeably more unruly than his father's slicked-back locks, and the seventeen-year-old's face was more similar to that of his mother's.

As the young couple came to the centre of the city, the two sat on the low wall of the Meteor monument; Rufus had paid for the centrepiece of Edge to be restored after Bahumet SIN had destroyed it those few years ago; it had been almost complete when DeepGround had resurfaced, only for the snipers and various others under Weiss' command to set back the completion with their full-scale attack … but, finally, the monument was fully restored and back as an integral part of Edge.

"They're expecting to find yours any day now."

Ali nodded and forced a small smile, much like she had to placate Reno in the hospital wing three weeks ago, trying to look pleased, but , unlike the redhead Turk, Chris could easily tell something was bothering her by the way she diverted her blue eyes to the ground as soon as she'd smiled.

"What's up Ali? You've been angsting about these files for nearly a month now; I thought you'd be relieved they're finally close to locating them."

"I am, don't get me wrong, it's just … what if there's something weird in my files?'

When Chris barely managed to stifle a laugh in response to her worrying, Ali elbowed him, grinning as she did so.

"What? I'm serious! You heard them; the Shadow Creepers … even Cloud's worried."

"You're his little sister, of course he's gonna worry about you; he doesn't even like me going out with you!'

The younger of the two smirked at that comment - Cloud did not like Chris one bit, at first the girl had perceived it to be something to do with Angeal and how he had turned against Zack for a while … but now she knew that it wasn't on any personal level that her brother disliked her boyfriend, it was just Cloud doing his duty as a big brother; he didn't want his little sister having a boyfriend. With her good humour revived, the sixteen-year-old head of SOLDIER leaned back against the larger frame sitting to her side and spoke quietly as people and cars passed by, with maybe even a glimpse of Fenrir ripping by as Cloud set out on the last delivery of his busy day.

"Whatever my files say, you're gonna stay with me, right?"

At the sound of her doubtful voice, as though she didn't believe her own words, Chris nodded his head immediately; the seventeen-year-old's arms finding their muscled and comforting way around Ali's waist as he answered.

"Even if you're Jenova herself …"

The girl laughed and kissed him lightly, letting Chris hold her closer, listening to the resonating rhythm of his heartbeat … one part of her really wanted to have a look at her own files, but the other was still questioning if she should be trusted in SOLDIER anymore; a leader wasn't supposed to charge into a fight without considering the safety of his or her comrades lives, just like she'd done. What if someone had died that day?

Ali was saved from her undermining thoughts by the sound of a ringing phone, more so her own mobile in her pocket. The teen pulled out the silver phone, only to see Shinra's number to be flashing on the small external screen.

"Yeah?"

"Ali, it's Elena. The President wants you to come to the building … your files were just located."


It was clear to see that the President considered finding her files important, as he had taken the liberty to call and tell Tifa, who had in turn rang Cloud, the blond seeing it fit to turn back for Edge, half way to Corel. With the Strifes heading for the Shinra building, AVALANCHE had decided to tag along, seeing Cloud's sister as part of the group now.

Ali noticed Reeve to be present in the computer room as she entered with Chris the eyes of everyone on the two, having waited for their arrival for about ten minutes. Shelke was seen to be sitting in a modified chair structure, the upper part of her face obscured by some sort of helmet; she was in the midst of a Synaptic Net Dive.

A few edgy minutes passed in relative silence as Reno sidled over and spoke low explaining how the technicians had managed to find her files about half an hour ago, but were unable to break the safety encryption that encoded the file, keeping it locked and impermeable to even the best hacker in Shinra. Rufus had called in a favour (citing financial funding) from Reeve's WRO in the form of young-looking Shelke Rui. A loud pinging noise caused all within the room to look to the large touch screen suspended on the wall before them, synchronising with Shelke lifting the helmet from her head and opening her blue eyes.

"Whoever locked that did not want anyone reopening them; the contents must have been important to the old President Shinra.'

The ex-Tsviet stood by the WRO Commissioner as she said this in a tone that reflected some kind of curiosity - very unlike the indifference she had sported two years ago at this stage. Cloud was looking rather perplexed as Tifa lifted Kas up to prevent the now two-year-old from fidgeting around with the many computers in the expansive IT room. The father seemed totally different to the man he'd been only a few days ago, with everyone amalgamating in 7th Heaven to celebrate the blond's twenty-sixth birthday.

By now, everyone was now directing his or her gaze up at the touch screen, where Rufus had just finished opening up the files, now free of their encryption thanks to Shelke.

Ali gazed up aswell, seeing the profile window, sporting a small image of the ten-year-old she once was … those six years seemed like a lifetime ago from where she was now peering back. The little kid seemed like a stranger to her now; she had a family now and a happy life in a prospering city, not a lonely little child being put through the paces in Junon.

With minimal interest Ali ran her gaze over her own details, knowing everyone of them by heart, ticking them off mentally as she did so, already knowing everything she should about herself and half-turning away, closing her eyes as her mind reiterated the points on the screen without even looking; born in Nibelheim, orphaned at six, enrolled in SOLDIER aged 10, eye colour, blood type, her mother's name, Vanessa, and her dad's name, Caleb Strife. The sixteen-year old reopened her eyes and turned her attention back towards the screen again, knowing her memory to be perfect … her dad's name was up there alright, but there was an asterisk alongside it yet none next to her mother's name, as one would expect to signify both were deceased.

"What's the asterisk mean, Sir?"

Ali's piqued curiosity was answered by her boss opening up numerous other windows, following the link the asterisk provided. A few more edgy seconds and Rufus had opened the last window.

"That … that's not possible …it can't be!"

Ali roughly shouldered away as Chris attempted to lay his hand on her arm, but the girl only had eyes for the large screen upon which her information as displayed, a horrible churning sensation taking place in her stomach …

A/n- A bit shorter and varied from the original chapter, but I hope you guys liked it! Thanks again for taking the time to read my stuff, you know it means the world!! C yas!! XxxxxxxxxxxX