I do not own anything besides my OCs and few other things.
Enjoy!
Chapter 4 - Training, missions and surprises
If there was something that never ceased to amaze me it was how people can always easily lose track of time. 'I will get her for this later.' I thought as I sprinted through the halls of the Shinra building because I was late for training. I would have been there before everyone else like before if it wasn't for a happy-go-lucky red haired Turk that I call my best friend who just decided to "say hello" while passing by my apartment by coincidence. I didn't believe her even for a second.
Now I had about 3 more minutes to get my sorry ass to the training room. I just fucking love my life right now because I was never late before. Never. Still, as I ran I couldn't help but think about my last conversation with Angeal in 'our' dream. For some reason I felt slightly better because it didn't feel right when there was so much tension. I put it into the back of my mind and focused on the task at hand. To get to the training room on time or even better with some second or two to spare. As I turned around the corner, I came face to face with a person that has been on my mind since this morning. We stared. And stared. Then he raised one eyebrow in amusement like he knew what I was so distressed about right now.
"Aren't you supposed to be in the training room already?" Great even he seemed like he was enjoying reminding me this.
"I got held up by a Turk Sir." I had a feeling that Shade was cackling somewhere at my misery.
"Does this Turk happen to have red hair and yellow eyes?" It looked like everybody knew Shade by now because it was like near impossible to not know about her when she was in her "hyperactive mood" as I called it.
"Yes?" I answered with awkwardly long e.
"In that case you are getting out without punishment, but only this once. Now hurry up I will give you 10 more seconds." He didn't have to tell me that twice because the moment those words left his mouth I was gone and left only a little cloud of dust behind me. If I wasn't so focused on running I would have seen him crack a small fond smile while shaking his head and going after me in a slower pace. I made it there about a minute before him with the rest of the new 3rds staring at me like I have just lost my mind. We stood in line again when he came and this time we have started with learning some new moves. Well, mostly the others since most of the new moves were almost if not completely the same as the ones that uncle taught me back at home when I was just ten. We practiced them for 20 minutes before he told us to form pairs and try them while sparring with each other. I once again ended up being alone, but much to my great relief I didn't have to fight this time. Angeal walked up to me and said in a very quiet voice so that only I could hear him.
"Since you already seem to know everything from today how about you show them how to do it properly?"
I gave him a disbelieving look and he only had a little smirk on his face. I sighed, but decided to just do that. It's not like something can go wrong right? He yelled for everyone to stop and give me some space. I closed my eyes and breathed in and out before grabbing my sword and executing every move perfectly like he showed us. When I was done, I heard clapping.
"Well done and now I want all of you to do the same. You will never reach 2nd class if you won't be able to learn the basics!" And with that they went back into sparring with each other while I simply leaned against a wall and observed them. I felt someone do the same next to me and without looking up asked.
"I won't pry if you don't want to tell me but that doesn't mean I'm not curious." He looked back at me and sighed while muttering something but thanks to my enhanced hearing caught it clearly.
"Maybe I will tell you in the future, but I'm just not sure what to tell you to not get it in a bad way." That made some sense I guess.
"Fine, but promise me that you won't die until then okay?" He chuckled at that and muttered under his breath in rather nostalgic tone.
"Different yet still the same." I didn't get what he meant by that so I simply shrugged and waited for the training to end.
When I got back, I started to make some lunch since we still had some more training in the afternoon. When I was about to start eating someone knocked on the door so I had to get up and go to see who it was. As I opened the door, I felt a lot of different emotions. Happiness, because I wanted to talk to someone at the moment about something that didn't involve strange dreams. Annoyance because someone dared to interrupt my lunch and anger because if it wasn't for the person standing before me I would have been spared that awkward moment and almost being late. Shade only grinned at me and like nothing happened and started rambling about her morning.
"Oh, that reminds me something smells good. Is that a roasted chicken? Can I have some? Pretty please?" Okay, I wasn't exactly expecting her to do this, but still gave her some and while we were eating, she continued to say thousands of things at once which I only half listened to.
"... and then there was that guy and-are you even listening?" I grunted at her as yes, even if I didn't get a single thing that she was talking about. "Okay, where was I again? Oh! There was that guy and he was like really cute!" Okay, now my brain was definitely on autopilot. Still, she didn't seem to notice this and went on with me making some sounds here and there.
"... so I had to-aw man! It's almost two already? I will have to go now. Bye!" Finally, she left me alone. I think that if I had to listen to her any longer my head would have exploded. Wait, did she say almost two? It was just that I had my afternoon training at two... tick... track... tick... tack... tick- "Shit!" I quickly washed the dishes and ran as if my ass was on fire. Surprisingly, I made it here three minutes early and sighed in relief. 'I should really keep a better track of time or else I will get into a lot of trouble sooner or later.' And it went the same as in the morning. Angeal was observing and correcting everyone while I simply practiced alone on the other side of the training room since I didn't want to spend the time by leaning against the wall again. Can't get out of shape now can I?
After finishing warming up I decided to try for how long I can run before getting tired. Afternoon training was longer so it was okay. I was running only my 105th lap before someone called me. I stopped and turned around to see Angeal standing about fifty meters away from me. I gave him a look that said "What?" and he simply pointed at the clock on the wall. It showed 20:37. They ended two hours ago already? I guess I was just too focused on my activities that I wasn't paying enough attention. I sheepishly scratched the back of my head before picking up my sword and started walking to my apartment.
"Wait." I turned to look at him and he was staring at me like he was looking for some differences on me. And since we were alone, I allowed myself to relax a little.
"What is it?" "Do you remember your biological parents?" What kind of question is that?
"No Damien was the only parental figure I ever had. Why?" He seemed shocked by this for some reason.
"Just curious."
"Well, I have to go now. Goodnight Commander."
"Goodnight to you as well and you don't have to call me like that when we're alone, you know." After that he left me alone and I made my way to Shade's apartment. She said that she was going to be home by seven so even if she was a little late, I was sure that she would make some time for a friend. I knocked on her door and she opened five seconds later. When she saw me she grinned and instantly dragged me inside while asking me questions about my day.
"There is just something I would like to talk about with you." I had my serious expression on and she almost immediately stopped smiling.
"What is it?"
"Well, you know how I was noticed by Shinra right?" She nodded. I didn't even know why I decided to tell her, but there was just something that kept telling me that she was trustworthy enough.
"Let's just say that there is something I would like to share with you." Shade only needed this and she gave me some space.
"Okay, so it started like this..." Then I told her about my home, my parents, my best friend, my uncle and his training and how this was supposed to be only a game in my world. She listened to every word I said and only nodded when I asked her if she was keeping up. Then I got to the part with Habakiri and then how I probably got sent here. By the time I was finished, she was staring at me with her mouth hung open. She then closed it and became silent for a few minutes. I was getting worried that she would think that I was crazy, but then she was suddenly in my face and seemed to be trying to squeeze the life out of me with a hug.
"That's the most crazy yet amazing story I have ever heard! But I believe you since it makes a complete sense with everything that happened and how you are so strong. There is just one thing I didn't get."
"Hmm?"
"How come you can share a dream with someone? I know it probably isn't impossible when you think of your situation, but it's still kind of weird don't you think?"
"You're telling me. I don't know anything about it myself so it's a little difficult not to mention Angeal's strange behaviour. In my world he wasn't acting like this in the game. Not even for a single moment."
"Maybe you remind him of someone?"
"That's possible, but I still don't know what he meant by that "When does the sky cry" thing."
"Did you thought about some kind of riddle?"
"Yeah the only problem is that I have like never heard anything like that before. Jeez I'm going to have gray hair at this rate by my 25th bithday!" I was really relieved that she was trying to help me but I still had some problems that cannot be simply discused and dealt with right away.
"How about you try and sleep now? Maybe some rest should help you."
"Thanks it's getting late anyway. Goodnight Shade."
"Night Niel!"
Later that night I was sitting on my bed thinking about everything that has happened since I woke up on Gaia. It felt like months even if it was only two or three weeks.
'I will just think about it tomorrow.' I closed my eyes after that and waited for the sleep to come.
I was dreaming about the same place as I always do since that day I became a SOLDIER only this time something changed. The grass and feathers still remained but it was raining now and it seemed like there were more features than before. The rain wasn't cold. In fact, it was comforting. I always loved rain and thunderstorms. I was there, sitting alone in the grass before 5 minutes later he appeared. I greeted him with a single wave of my hand and then pointed at the sky. To say that the expression on his face was hilarious would be an understatement. His eyes were wide and his jaw dropped. I couldn't help it and snorted. He turned to face me and I patted the spot next to me in silent invitation. We sat there in comfortable silence, observing the rain that was slowly but surely developing into a thunderstorm. Then suddenly an idea came into my mind and I mentally smirked.
"So..." He looked at me and waited for me to continue. "... do you by any chance have something to do tomorrow afternoon?" I was now smirking at the outside too, and he looked a little terrified as if knowing that it was never a good thing for me to act like this.
"I-I you see-" I didn't let him finish because I knew he was just trying to find an excuse.
"Then how about we will go to the mall tomorrow?" If you could hear my thoughts right now it would have sounded like a wolfish laugh. My face was almost literally screaming "do it or else".
"I don't see why not..." And it actually worked.
"Thank you!" I was now squeezing the life out of him as he tried to get some air into his lungs but didn't try to get me off.
"Ar-... can't... breathe." Crap I still keep forgetting about my own strength sometimes and make wasn't helping it either.
"Sorry." I loosened my grip on him a little so he could take a deep breath but still had my arms around him. 'It's way more comfortable like this anyway-wait. Since when do I hug people?' I blushed at the realisation and quickly pulled away while muttering "Sorry..." again.
"It's okay." At least he didn't seem to mind that, but it was weird since I never acted this playful with anyone. Not even Kagen. Maybe he just kept reminding me of my stuffed real life sized wolf plushie that I used to sleep with when I was little. We were staring at each other again and when he opened his mouth to say something-
'Master! Wake up! You are going to be late!' -I fell face first to the floor.
'What the hell?!' I was already getting ready, but that didn't affect just how ticked I was by the sudden interruption. After dressing myself and eating my breakfast at record time I made it just in time because Angeal was already there and before he turned to us I quickly got into the line without anyone noticing. The poor guy who stood next to me nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned his head. There has been just one thing that really confused the fuck out of me. 'How did he get there so damn fast?!' Well, either he woke up earlier or I have simply pretty shitty luck and-was it just me or was there a little smirk on his face? I decided to ignore it and made myself look impassive instead.
"Before I forget there is something I need to do this afternoon, so the training is canceled." 'Wow, he's actually going to do it.' "Now we will start with 50 laps and then 250 pushups as a warming up. Go!" At that we started to run with me in the lead running at my top speed.
They were only halfway done with their laps by the time I started doing pushups which I finished sooner than Angeal expected me because when I looked at him he only stared at me with somewhat blankly.
"Is there something wrong Sir?" I resisted the urge to crack an amused smile at this. One moment he looked like he knew me better then I knew myself and the other he stared at me like I just did something humanly impossible.
"No but since you are already finished you can start doing whatever you want as there's nothing new that you could learn with a sword anyway." I only shrugged and suddenly an idea came to my mind.
"Sir would you mind if I sparred with someone this time?" He raised an eyebrow at this.
"I don't see why not but be careful we don't need anyone to get hurt today since tomorrow will be your first mission." First mission? What are they going to give us killing some hedgehog pies? I was pretty sure that they don't trust a fresh bunch of 3rds outside of Midgar. Unless it was to send us to Wutai. I then waited for them to finish and Angeal picked up the one with the name of John to spar with me. "He should survive your boredom" he said. John was looking at me warily almost as if he expected me to kill him if he dared to move.
"I'm not going to bite you you know." I tried to smile so it wouldn't end up looking like a frown. He still seemed to hesitate before getting into his fighting stance. I drew my own sword and waited for him to attack me first.
Some time later we had to get a little break because he was breathing rather heavily and his hands were shaking a little from my blows. I was holding back but it was still enough to leave a bruise if he got hit which I still tried to avoid. After another ten minutes we started again and before we realised it was already 12:30. I walked up to John and offered him a hand, which he accepted and I helped him stand up.
"Hey, you're not bad, but you should work more on your defense. I could have knocked you down at least fifty times already."
"Defense was never my strong point but thanks anyway!"
He was the last one to leave and now it was only me and Angeal who remained. I turned to him and caught him trying to sneak out without me noticing. However, before he reached the exit I grabbed his shoulder and whispered in low dangerous tone.
"And where do you think you are going?" I felt him shiver under my touch and he slowly turned his head to look at me."You didn't forget did you?"
"Of course not." He sounded very nervous, so I let him go and spoke in a more normal tone this time.
"That's good to know meet me before the Shinra building in an hour I will be waiting for you. And if you don't show up I will hunt you down and drag you with me." With that I ignored his shocked face and went ahead to get ready. Half an hour later I was chatting with Shade while she picked up some clothes for me to wear because according to her I had a completely nonexistent sense of fashion.
"What should fit you hmm... Oh! This is perfect." With that, she threw something at my bed. I changed quickly into it and decided that it wasn't so bad.
"It's actually pretty good. Thanks Shade." I was wearing a simple blue tank top with butterflies on it and a pair of light gray shorts with long black boots that reached my knees.
"Anything for a friend! And do you want me to apply some make-up?" I grimaced at the word.
"No! I'm okay with how I look right now." She pouted at that.
"Aww come on! If I didn't know that you were a girl I would have been already all over you and even if it's not a date you should still at least try to look a little like a girl."
"Shade, really I'm okay with that people confuse me on daily baisis and I'm still sane."
"Okay then. Hurry up now! You are supposed to meet him in 15 minutes!"
"Bye Shade!"
"Bye!"
I made it there about 5 minutes early and waited for Angeal to show up. When I heard someone approach me, I turned around and waved at Angeal. I have to admit that it was really weird to see him in something different than his uniform, but he didn't look bad at all. 'Makes me wonder if he ever wears anything else than his uniform when he doesn't have to work.'
"Well are you ready then?"
"Just let's get this over with." Oh, if only he knew what was waiting for him.
"It's not going to be so bad you know."
"With you one can never be so sure." I only looked at him clearly amused by his response.
"Come on now we don't have all day to stand here and chat." I grabbed his hand and started to drag him behind me to the mall. Maybe I should tell you now why I wanted to go there with him so badly right? Well, let's just say that there's a new big cafe. But that's not all. They have karaoke in private rooms which is for free. I wanted to hear Angeal sing because back in my world, I really liked his Seiyu's songs (even if they speak English they have their original Japanese voices) and there was just a perfect song for that. Sure, I planned on singing too, but he was going first. I found out about this when I was only half listening to Shade's babbling, but I still caught it.
"Here we are." We stood in front of the cafe now and before he could complain I pushed him inside. I chose a little private room far from the other occupied rooms so that we could get some privacy. We sat down on the couch and started to look through the menu. When a waitress came and took our orders while talking in a sickly sweet tone to Angeal. I didn't like the way my chest tightened at that and gave her one of my glares. She only needed to take one look at my face to instantly turn as white as snow and bolted out of the room after excusing herself. Angeal looked at me confused. I only looked at him with a blank face and shrugged as if I just didn't scare her away. A few minutes later the same waitress brought our orders and as fast as she could then left again. We chatted a little while we ate and after finishing our food it was the time for 'that'.
"You are making that face again..." I only looked at him with blank expression again making him sweatdrop at the sudden change. Then I got up and started preparing the karaoke. It flashed to life and I was happy that hey got the song I wanted him to sing.
"what are you doing?"
"Come here." I said within my dead serious tone. He walked hesitately to me.
"What's wro-" I quickly started the song and gave him the microphone. I then sat back and looked as he stared at me in shock. I only grinned back before mouthing at him a simple "you're gonna be fine" and leaned comfortably into the couch waiting for him to start singing. He sighed and shook his head in defeat like he knew that there was no way to back down when I set something up. He took a deep breath and started.
Ore no me no mae tada nagareru
Kono futatsu no fukai kawa
Hageshii nagare wa senaka wo osu
Ima hikigane hiku youni to
Aa misesarete
Ochite yukou ka?
Naraku no kawa e
Unmei wo kimeru no wa
Jibun no kokoro tatta hitotsu
Hikikaesu basho nado nai sa
Kono yo no doko ni mo
Migi-te ni wa dakuryuu ga
Hidari ni aoki mizu ga nagaru
Hito wa minna hitotsu no kawa shika
Watare wa shinai
Tomaru koto naku
Tsumi wo seotte koko ni tatsu yo
Mi wo kiyomeru sube mo naku
Kako no bourei kienai to shite mo
Mada mirai wa te no naka ni
Aa juukou wo mukeru-beki wa
Onore no yowasa
Mae wo miyou hateshinai
Harukana kanata noboru asahi
Dare yori mo kono jibun sou uragirenu nara
Migi-te ni wa zetsubou ga
Hidari ni tooku miyuru kibou
Hito ga minna tomarenai nara
Tada susumiikou
Ano hikari e to
Unmei wo kimeru no wa
Jibun no kokoro tatta hitotsu
Hikikaesu basho nado nai sa
Kono yo no doko ni mo
Migite ni wa dakuryuu ga
Hidari ni aoki mizu ga nagaru
Hito ga minna hitotsu no kawa shika
Watarenu no nara
Tada hikari e to
(Dakuryuu no Hotori Seiryuu no Fuchi by Kazuhiko Inoue)
After the song ended, I found myself sitting in the same spot unmoving with my jaw dropped in shock. 'Holly shit he sounds even better in real life!' After a while of complete silence I decided to finally say something.
"You know, if you weren't a SOLDIER right now you should have been probably a really good singer." He scratched the back of his head. But that wasn't all there was a tint of pink on his cheeks. Was he blushing?
"I'm not really that good..."
"Nonsense! Now pass me the microphone, it's my turn." He seemed surprised by this, but did it and sat down on the same spot I did just a moment ago. I started looking through the songs before finding one that I knew and started it. I don't sing often, but it always calmed my nerves or improved my mood when I was feeling down.
Mikazuki no kimi yo kakureta mama de
Itsuka koikogareta
Itoshisa yo kimi yo utsuro utsuro ni
Awai yume wo misasete
Mou kore ijou nani mo iwanai de
Shiroku kaoru hana no you ni...aa, yasashiku
Nee tatoereba fureta yukigeshou
Namida harari ochita ato de subete wo sasageta
Mikazuki no kimi yo kakushite okure
Dare ni mo mienu you ni
Kono sora ga itsuka ochite shimaeba
Sono kokoro wo dakeru no?
Sou hitamuki na mama de ite hoshii
Sugita hibi ga ima mo boku wo ...aa, setsunaku
Nee tatoereba yoru no shinkirou
Tsukamikaketa sode no saki wo dokoka de nakushita
Mikazuki no kimi yo kakushite okure
Dare ni mo mienu you ni
Samidare no koi yo utsuro utsuro ni
Awai yume wo todokete
Hisame sugite ikuyo machitsuzuketa
Rindou-iro to kogetsu sono te ni kuchizuke wo
Mikazuki no kimi yo kakureta mama de
Itsuka koikogareta
Itoshisa yo kimi yo utsuro utsuro ni
Awai yume demo
Mikazuki no kimi yo kakushite okure
Dare ni mo mienu you ni
Kono sora ga itsuka ochite shimaeba
Sono kokoro wo dakeru no?
(Mikazuki hime - 96Neko version)
I personally don't think that I'm a good singer, but Kagen always told me that my unusually deep voice sounded fantastic. When I finally dared to look at Angeal he seemed surprised.
"One would never expect you to be so good. You should sing more often you know."
"Thanks, I guess." And after that we spend another 2 hours signing before finally deciding to go look around the mall instead.
We ended up going to the cinema since we didn't really know what else to do. Unlike Shade with whom I watched the comedy we chose to see some adventure movie. It was actually pretty good until the main hero's romantic part came.
"Jeez, can't they make just one movie without scenes like these? Angeal, pass me the popcorn I can't watch this anymore." I groaned and put a handful of popcorn into my mouth while trying not to pay attention to the movie until the dreaded scene ended. The movie was great, but this was just too much.
"You're telling me and I thought that girls liked these types of movies."
"Apparently I'm not those girls." When it finally ended, we simply watched until the end and decided that it was late enough for us to slowly head back.
"Angeal?"
"Hmm?"
"What did you mean when you said different yet still the same?" He froze at this like he wasn't expecting me to hear that.
"It's nothing you should worry about." I wanted to ask him so badly about a lot of things, but since I promised not to ask anything until he decided to tell me by himself there was nothing I could possibly do. We stayed completely silent until we got into the elevator.
"Thank you for today Arwen, it's been a while since I had some real fun."
"I'm glad to hear that and you're welcome. You can do that on your own too, but it's not as good as when you go with someone. Anyway, tomorrow you are coming with us on our first mission, right? I should probably try to get some sleep. Goodnight Angeal."
"Goodnight Niel." I then exited the elevator and entered my apartment when it suddenly hit me. 'How does he know my nickname?' I dissmised it as simply Shade being Shade. I was pretty sure that by now everyone knew my nickname. I took a quick shower and after changing into some comfortable pyjamas fell asleep on my bed. We chatted happily in our dreams as ussualy and the morning came sooner than I expected. I simply got up and prepared myself for the day. We were supposed to meet in the training room in the morning before the mission to get some details from Angeal.
It turned out that we were going to kill some monsters in sector 4, 5 and 7 because there has been increased monster activity recently. I didn't believe it even for a second since I was pretty sure that we were just going to clean the mess that Science department once again caused. Well, it wasn't like we have a choice anyway. We split into 3 teams of 7 people in each. My team was supposed to go to sector 5 where I was hoping to at least see the young green eyed cetra.
One hour later we almost reached our destination where were the monster supposed to be hiding. Much to my disappointment I didn't get to see Aerith, but on the other hand it wasn't like I would be able to talk to her anyway since I was on the mission. Maybe when I will have some free time.
I sighed and looked back at my teammates who were few feet ahead of me. They were just little kids from 15 to 17 years and it saddened me to think that Shinra would send them to their deaths to some pointless war that just wasn't worth it. I knew that it wasn't just because of the reactor. No Shinra simply wanted to have control over everything. If someone got in their way like Wutai then they will try to get rid of them. This was another thing I wanted to change to matter what. SOLDIER by itself would be a very useful and important organisation in the future if they weren't bound to Shinra and if I don't manage to mess up everything SOLDIER would remain while Shinra would simply fall.
"Um... Arwen?" I looked up and saw John trying to get my attention.
"Yeah?"
"We're waiting for you, but it seemed like you spaced out so I..." Oh right. We're here.
"Sorry there's just so many things on my mind recently but I won't let myself be distracted by this on mission again. Shall we go then?" Our group then entered some abandoned warehouse. We stayed close to each other and had our guards up in case something decided to come at us. After ten minutes of nothing happening everyone started to relax but me.
"I think that whatever we were supposed to kill isn't there anymore. Let's head back." A boy next to John said whose name I don't remember.
'Yeah right. It's more like there's something waiting for us to catch us off guard.'
We were almost at the exit when suddenly I felt the hairs on my neck stand. I resisted the urge to shiver at the sensation of when someone is watching you with murderous intent and pretended to not notice anything. The others seemed obvious to this so it was up to me to look out for any danger. I just knew that whatever it was had to be dangerous.
Five seconds later the ugly thing finally decided to show its face and before I could react leaped at one of my teammates pinning him effectively to the ground while trying to rip his head off. Now that I got a good look at the monster I could actually tell that my theory about the escaped experiments from science department were true since whatever that thing was having to be some sort of a mutated lizard that I have never seen before in any final fantasy 7 game. Back to the issue at hand I quickly grabbed my sword and sliced that thing into pieces before anyone got over their shock at the sudden assault.
"Don't just stand there and grab your weapons! There has to be more of them!" That snapped them out of their shocked trances and without thinking twice just did as I told them and as if on cue more of the lizard things appeared. They had black scales covering their bodies and even though they weren't very big they still proved to be a challenge because of the Mako that probably caused their mutation in the first place. Oh, how I just loved Hojo right now and his twisted way of playing with everyone's lives.
It seemed like after almost an hour all of the monsters were finally dead and we actually relaxed in relief. In my case it was mostly because no one died or got seriously injured. And then the next thing happened in a flash.
I turned just in time to see another monster which mind telling you was huge lunge at unsuspecting John with an intention to snap his neck and without really thinking about what I was doing shoved him out of the way.
I was pretty sure that if I wasn't used to pain from Damien's training I might have screamed at the top of my lungs and passed out from the pain. The dragon only tightened his grip on me and I hissed at it before punching it in the forehead. I was met with a satisfying crack and the dragon instantly let me go and howled over in pain. Guess it wasn't expecting its lunch to demolish its skull.
I then readied my sword and attacked the distracted dragon while ignoring the pain the best I could. I don't know what happened next, but something in me snapped and when I finally started to register everything around me again, I was covered in blood probably mine and the dragon's which reminded me to look at the now dead monster.
Almost the whole floor was covered in blood and the body of what used to be a dragon was nothing more than a few barely recognizable pieces. It never happens often for me to snap like that, but Damien once dubbed it like my Berserker persona.
I suddenly remembered everything and how I chopped the thing into pieces while the others just stood there far out of my way. The pain was still there, but the Mako in my body already started to heal my wounds and it was tolerable enough for me to walk normally without wincing or limping. I just looked at the rest of my group and said that we were going to head back since we were done. I only received nods in return. They weren't afraid of me as I realized. Just a little bit unsure of what to say to me a little brutal way of killing the dragon. I never minded the blood or what I killed as long as it deserved its death. Monsters from logically attacking me or anyone else and humans that were just fucked up in their heads and went on killing sprees just out of boredom or simply for fun. The case in Wutai was to protect an innocent person even if it was confusing as to why would they try to kill someone non-Shinra related.
When we got back it turned out that we were the last ones to show up. I received a lot of wide eyed stares at the blood on almost every piece of my clothes and it was a miracle that nothing got onto my face or skin. I will have to take a shower later when I get a chance.
Then Angeal, who was with the group in sector seven which was also supposed to be the worst 'Yeah worst my ass' congratulated us for not only all of us succeeded but nobody died. He then told the leaders in each group to write a report and give it to him before 8PM and dismissed us for the rest of the day.
I was just about to take a shower and look over my injuries when I heard a knock on the door. I was confused since Shade was supposed to be doing paperwork at this time of the day and her boss as she once put it was a slave driver.
Much to my surprise or maybe not at all it was Angeal. I was just about to ask him what he needed, but he beat me to it.
"What happened?" Crap. I should have realised that he could come to see me because of the state I returned in and I really wasn't in the mood to talk right now about that anyway.
"It's just a scratch, nothing serious." I always denied that something hurt me badly since people tended to get guilty because they couldn't do anything to prevent it from happening. My uncle for example, once shot me in the chest. It hurt a lot but I managed to heal it and persuade him that it wasn't his fault and that I should have been faster. Still, he was more careful with my training since then. Angeal touched my shoulder and squeezed the spot where the longest canine pierced through making me wince and barely suppressing the urge to hiss.
"I highly doubt that a simple scratch would hurt like that. Let me take a look." He sounded serious and... worried? Okay, I know that cares for people a lot, but he almost never shows it so openly. By the look on his face I just knew that there was no way of changing his mind and with a sigh I let him in and closed the door. I told him to wait and sit on the couch while I took showers (and wrap the bandages around my chest again).
Now that I had some privacy I decided to finally take a look at my still bleeding wound. As I got a good look in the mirror, I noted with relief that it wasn't so bad and shouldn't leave any scars. I casted a simple cure to stop the bleeding.
After the shower and changing into some clean clothes I sat on the couch next to Angeal and waited in hope that he would let it go. It's not like it's not going to heal anyway.
"How bad is it?" I sighed and took off my shirt. I was used to this because Damien did this often to me when I got hurt either from training or an accident.
He raised an eyebrow at the bandages, but didn't say anything and instead started to look over my injuries that were almost gone leaving only bruises behind. He frowned "What exactly caused you to get hurt like this?" I couldn't lie, since he will get the report later today.
"Just got bitten by a monster when I tried to help someone. It wasn't even that bad and will be definitely gone in a few hours. Don't worry about it." He was still looking at me suspiciously, but much to my relief only went back to inspect the rest of my wounds on my back which were a little worse.
After 5 minutes he stopped and I made us some herbal tea. I then told him my version of the mission with small changes here and there. He then excused himself and returned to his office to finish some paperwork. However, before he left he hugged me (I don't even want to know when he started to be so cuddly with me) and told me to be more careful next time.
Since I had for the rest of the day nothing else to do, I decided to pay Shade a visit. I haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon and since I was talking with Angeal for about an hour she should already be home. And I was right when I was suddenly almost tackled by no other then her when I was just about ten meters from her apartment. She quickly opened the door and almost literally showed me in.
"How is my best friend doing?" I sweatdropped at the overly cheerful grin. How can she be so happy all the time?
"Just need someone to talk to about 'that'." Her grin disappeared like it was never there in the first place.
"Do you have any kind of plan?"
"Well, I do, but it will take some time to look through it for some mistakes. Even if I know what is going to happen, it doesn't mean that I can change it for sure." I was actually considering doing something about Jenova once I will know where she-it is. Genesis... Well, that will be interesting adding the fact that I haven't seen him since I got there, but I kind of expected that since the war won't end till 5 years later unless of course I would be able to do something about it. Which was very unlikely unless I would be promoted to 1st class. I really doubt anyone can get promoted in one month anyway. There was also Deepground and Hojo but I haven't gotten there yet.
"Say have you heard about Deepground?" She paused and started to think for a while before replying.
"Nope, but I can try to look if you want me to."
"That would be really helpful. Thanks Shade. And before I forget have you heard something about Hojo recently?" She started to think again.
"Actually, yeah I have. I heard from the others in the science department that he's started working on something about two weeks ago. Why?" Two weeks ago? 'That was...' I felt all the colors drain from my face.
"I..." Shade was looking at me curiously, but didn't say anything. "... Hojo, he's... I just don't know how to explain it." She frowned at that.
"He's interested in you isn't he?" Well, she sure is a lifesaver when she wants to be.
"Yeah, he told me something about being perfect for-I don't really know and I'm not sure if I want to know at all but he had this creepy smirk on his face on my last visit and he seemed happy when he looked at my blood work like some kid during Christmas!" I was probably overdoing it now, but hey, that creep scares even Sephiroth no matter how many times he tries to hide it.
"What a pity..." Shade mumbled to herself. I raised an eyebrow at the sudden pause since she always blurts everything out at once. There was a long unnerving pause.
"Um... Shade?" She now had a dark look on her face and it was making me nervous.
"Do you think Shinra would mind being one scientist-less?" Her tone held venom and coldness to it. Note to self - Angry Shade is a scary Shade. I was a little afraid but if I was any other person I would have probably fainted already.
"I know what you're thinking, but this is Hojo we're talking about here. There is no way they would let something like this go." Much to my relief she started to calm down a little, but she still looked overly serious for her usual cheerful and happy-go-lucky attribute. And a Turk that was more loyal to friends than the company she was working for was something I should never be more glad for. In my opinion, it's really a shame that I haven't heard of her in the game.
"Well, I'm sure there would be plenty of time to think about it later when we will get rid of our main priority." Said main priority had two parts. First, we will have to find a cure for degradation for Genesis (it is said that Angeal didn't suffer it like Genesis, but the merging with his copies probably transferred it to him and killed him after Zack defeated him). And the second part was destroying Jenova so Sephiroth wouldn't go on a killing spree. Simple, right? Absolutely not.
We spend the rest of the day (with some breaks) planing and talking.
"We will then-Shade I think it's pretty late now. We should go to sleep and planing can wait, we got a few more years anyway." Shade was yawning and I wasn't that much better.
"I agree. Maybe we should make a schedule for our planning meetings as well with the exception when one of us would be on mission of course." She got a good point.
"How about tomorrow? As far as I know they aren't going to send us anywhere for another week."
"Good idea but we will only talk to 9PM at max. You even with mako still need some sleep. I'm sure the mission tire you. Oh well. Night Niel." After that I headed to my own bed with nothing on my mind.
I have found out long ago that my life is... interesting. One moment I'm just about to fall asleep and the next I'm standing in front of my door and looking at a dark purple box. Who would give me something like that so early in the morning? I dismissed it and simply decided to look inside. Training was supposed to start in two hours so I had enough time. I sat on the couch in the living room with the box on the table right before me. I took one deep breath and opened it... and stared.
I know that I wanted to take care of things as soon as possible, but this was going a little faster than I expected. There was a note again like when I received my 3rd class uniforms.
'SOLDIER 2nd class Arweniel Farrion we-' Wait wait wait wait wait. Are they for real? I mean, come on! I'm here purely for two weeks and they are already promoting me to a 2nd? I'm actually glad for that, however that would also mean less of free time for me and I really need to plan with Shade-No. I have to focus. I sighed and read the rest of the note. Or at least tried to.
'-we would like to-' KNOCK KNOCK Really? What is a person supposed to do to be able to read a simple stupid note without interruptions?! I wasn't even surprised when a red haired Turk with yellow eyes entered without permission and slammed the door shut.
"Good morning Arwen!" I only stared at her with cold eyes which made her shiver. She then continued nervously. "I guess that you already know that-" She pointed at the piece of paper in my hand. "-you are going to be busy today and that's why I decided to visit you early!" Was it just me or were there rainbows shining around her?
"... okay?" What did she mean by busy? I quickly scanned the paper and then my eyes stayed glued to two words. Science department. Why are they expecting me? My eyes then widened and I facepalmed at my own stupidity. 'When you reach 2nd or 1st class you have to go to the science department, of course...'
"Arwen? You okay?"
"Absolutely not."
"I see... anyway! I came here because you won't be back until that creep will let you go so I decided to-" She was holding a notepad and a pen. 'Where did she get them?' I sweatdropped. "-come here and create the schedule now!" At least she's a good reason to annoy me in the morning but alas Shade will be forever Shade.
"Fine by me, but we will have to do it quickly since that creep is expecting me in an hour."
"Let's start then!" And with that, we spent 20 minutes creating and planning a schedule according to our training, paperwork, missions and other stuff. She then helped me with breakfast and walked with me to the elevator.
"Well, I will see you later! Gotta take the stairs because boss has been complaining about me getting lazy." That was the last thing she said before the elevator door closed.
Two floors later, the elevator stopped and when the door opened I barely resisted the strong urge to bang my head to the wall. 'Is there ever going to be a day when we just don't run into each other by a coincidence?'
'No...' I nearly jumped at the sudden feminine voice before realising that it belonged to the person who is responsible for this mess in the first place.
We muttered 'Good morning' to each other, but otherwise stayed silent before I felt him look at me. From the corner of my vision I could tell that he was studying my face and... hair? Was there something wrong with it? I ignored it the best I could, but he still kept staring and after a while frowned. I turned to directly look at him with curious expressions.
"What happened to your hair?" I visibly flinched at the question.
'How does he know that something happened?' I narrowed my eyes at him.
"How do you know that?" I didn't mean to sound so harsh, but this was starting to unnerve me. It's almost like he knows everything about me yet I'm sure I've never met him before.
Luckily for him the elevator decided to arrive on the floor of science department at the same time and without looking back at him I simply headed to Hojo's lab.
When Hojo saw me he simply yelled at me for being late (5 seconds late...) and much like before knocked me out with Gaia knows what type of substance. Little did I know that this would be so complicated.