When they reached their designated campsite for the night, Sephiroth ordered them to set up camp. Once that was finished, Mecha Valentine sat before her tent with a sigh. It had been a long walk and tomorrow was going to be even harder. She kept her helmet on her head as she wasn't going to argue with anyone right now. She was much too proud for that. She watched as the rest of the Shinra military finished setting up and went into their tents. She lifted her hands to remove her helmet, when Sephiroth spoke, causing her to pause with her hands on the helmet.

"Get some sleep Cadet, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." she removed her hands from the helmet and crawled into her tent.

"Goodnight General," she said quietly. She heard his steps come closer to her tent, stop a moment, then retreat. After that had transpired, she finally removed her helmet, and let her long hair tumble down again. "I hate that thing... but if anyone sees me I'm in trouble..." she lay awake for quite some time before falling into an uneasy sleep only to be aroused by someone talking just outside her tent.

"Mecha, why did you trick me so long ago?" she lay quietly as he revealed how hurt he had been, also how angry. "Maybe I shouldn't have been so harsh... but what was I supposed to do?" she waited a few more moments before acting like she was awakening. This caused Sephiroth to react and shut his mouth and move as if he were patrolling the area. She exited her tent some time later, with her helmet on.

"Morning General," she muttered loud enough to be heard.

Sephiroth just glared at the person who wished him good morning. To him this was the worst morning ever. He had dreamed of back in school when she had first come into the class when he was standing on the table yelling at his classmates.

Flashback

"Shut up you insolent ingrates! You'll never be as great as me! I know more about war that you could ever dream of knowing!" he heard the door being pushed open behind him and then the footsteps of the teacher.

"Sephiroth Lucretius! That is enough! Get in your seat immediately!" he hopped off his desk and sat down with a huge grin crossing his features wickedly as he eyed the girl, who blinked when the teacher asked her name.

He listened when she quietly said, "Mecha Valentine..." the teacher pointed at a seat in the front row next to him. The teacher turned his back to the class and began writing on the board when the girl sat next to him. A piece of paper was slid onto her desk from the right as Sephiroth watched her without being noticed. He was on her left. She then picked it up and read it. Before long she scribbled on the paper and pushed it back.

End Flashback

He rubbed his forehead quietly before standing to go awaken the troops. What was wrong with him? Why was this cadet reminding him of Mecha Valentine? Defiance. Yes that was it. She was as defiant as Mecha and it was driving him nuts.

"ALRIGHT TROOPS UP AND AT'EM WE LEAVE IN HALF AN HOUR!" he listened with satisfaction when the scrambling of the troops began. The cadet however, was washing her weaponry in the water.

An hour later the troops were walking up the mountain side towards the reactor and the cadet was hefting an immense sword over her shoulder like an expert. How could a cadet do that? Cadets had such a hard time with their weaponry. Something wasn't right to Sephiroth about this cadet. He let it slide for now as they were nearing their destination.

A few minutes later he was dividing the troops into groups. "... you three. Check out the south side. You four check the north face. And you," he pointed at Mecha, "your with me in the reactor." Mecha nodded and put her sword on the ground as she watched the other six groups walk off. Soon afterwards she and Sephiroth were headed inside.

"Down the chain," he commanded when she stopped at the end of a plank. He heard her gulp and jump down towards the metal planks below. She grabbed the chain halfway down and swung there a moment before dropping to the planks with a loud clang. Sephiroth quickly moved down the chain and pushed the cadet onward toward the reactor core. It wasn't long before the cadet visibly started to shake, but kept onward. Once they passed through the door to where they were investigating they saw massive amounts of pods. All with mutated humans and creatures.

"What... is... this?" the words slowly crept from his mouth. The solemn reply came from the mouth of the cadet.

"Hojo's experiments. Not all were lucky enough to be released or saved." she walked to a pod in the center of the mass of pods. "He was one who wasn't so lucky." she patted the pod. "Too bad we have to kill them all." Sephiroth stared at the multitude of pods, then the cadet.

"How do you know this!" he cried. The cadet faced him.

"General, I cannot tell you even if I want to." she turned and looked at the pod again. "such is one sworn to secrecy.." she then bowed to the pod and mumbled something, before standing upright and driving her sword through the pods one by one with a yell. She had torn half of them apart when Sephiroth joined her. Once the pods were destroyed, the cadet fell panting.