Reno and Rude had been convinced that Chaz had not died and searched inside the reactor. They eventually found her, she was in very bad shape due to Mako exposure. Reno and Rude flew back to Midgar as quickly as they could with various other Turks helping to stabilise their comrade.
As soon as they touched down and got out of the helicopters Tseng was summoned by the President and his son was taken to the holding room where one Turk would have to guard him.
Zara was in the living area sitting on one of the couches watching a furious Reno as he paced in front of the large windows.
"That fuckin' traitorous little bastard!"
"Calm down Reno," Zara said quietly.
"Calm down?! Chaz almost died! You almost died for fucks sake!"
Zara sighed leaning back into the couch, Gaia he could be irrational. Reno flung his arms up in the air in frustration, then threw himself down on the same couch as Zara. She rested her head on his shoulder and he snaked an arm around her waist playing with a lock of her raven hair. Reno had sent the other Turks home to rest and told them to return in the morning.
Rude had been put on guard duty, as neither he nor Zara trusted that Reno would not try something stupid with the Vice President. So all that was left was for Tseng to return from briefing the President on what happened.
"This is a total mess," sighed Reno who had thankfully calmed down, Zara nodded against his shoulder in agreement "hey what happened with you back at the reactor? You completely spaced out."
Zara had been hoping Reno would not ask her that question. The whole thing had been running through her mind since it happened, and with Chaz safely in hospital she had nothing else to distract herself. She wasn't sure how to explain it to Reno.
"I don't know." She answered finally, nuzzling in against Reno's neck "well, I mean it was weird. It was kind of like a flash back but it was all disjointed."
"A flash back? Of what?" Reno asked very curious as to what Zara had seen.
"Well I saw Zack and… and fire…. And Sephiroth," saying his name seemed to leave a bad taste in her mouth.
"Oh. Well you shouldn't have to worry about that. Y'know it wouldn't be a bad idea if you talked to someone."
Zara stiffened and pulled back to look at Reno's face "A Psychologist? Reno I'm not mental!"
Reno gave a deep sigh "I didn't say that you were. It's just, I know that what happened weighs you down and this depression you get, it's not good for you."
"I'm not depressed or mental and I don't need to go see some psychologist!" she growled lowly.
Reno put his hands up in a surrendering manner "Hey don't bite my head off! It was only a suggestion."
"Uh… I know…I'm sorry Reno," Zara apologised sheepishly "I'm just worried about Chaz ."
"Don't worry she's in good hands." He reassured.
Soon after their discussion a very disgruntled Tseng returned after his meeting with the President.
"Where is everyone?"
"I sent 'em home." Stated Reno.
Tseng nodded in agreement, "What did the President say?" Zara queried gazing at Tseng.
"Get Rude and I'll tell you."
Reno took out his phone and pressed a button "Hey, Rude get your ass in here now…. Well the little shit's hardly gonna go anywhere is he?" Reno then snapped his phone shut. A few minutes later Rude came striding into the room, his sunglasses reflecting the lights in the room. He stood by the couch occupied by Zara and Reno.
"We will need to keep the Vice Presidents role in AVALANCHE and his location secret from the public and especially the Executive members. Also he wants us to join up with some of our second division members, I called Jimmy and Cissnei, and they should be here in the morning." Tseng hesitated slightly then decided to get it over with "Also due to the company policy that those who pose a threat to the company's secrets must be eradicated….we have been ordered to locate and assassinate Veld." Tseng finished his statement with a grimace entering his features, an unusual display of emotion on his usually calm mask.
"What?!" cried Reno "He can't expect us to kill the chief!"
"Reno it is our job to do this kind of thing," Tseng said levelly "but I think that maybe we shouldn't try as hard as we usually would to locate the Director."
Reno's scowl suddenly split into a grin "Are you telling us to dodge the order? You're a sly one Boss."
Tseng looked at his subordinates "You should all go home, try and get some rest. You all worked well today under the circumstances."
"All in a day's work huh?" smirked Zara.
That night Sephiroth plagued Zara's dreams, causing her to get little undisturbed sleep. She looked at Reno jealously as he seemed to sleep like a baby next to her, she had the strong urge to kick him. Her eyes roved to the alarm clock on the bedside table, 05:38. She would be getting up soon anyway, so she rolled out of bed and headed off for a shower.
Zara yawned widely as she walked down the hall when she felt a tap on the shoulder, she turned round, and there she was smiley as ever, Cissnei.
"Wow you must be tired for me to be able to sneak up on you." She teased.
"But I cou-"
"No you couldn't, now come on lets go to the cafeteria!"
"Why?"
"Because you're like a walking zombie that's why! Now get moving!" she ushered Zara as a mother would to their unwilling child.
Zara sat and looked morosely at her Styrofoam cup "I hate cafeteria coffee." She grumbled.
"Drink it!" ordered Cissnei eyeing her critically.
"Yes mother." She took a sip of the low-grade coffee obediently, Cissnei smiled at her encouragingly "You always manage to make me feel like a little kid y'know that don't you?"
"That's because I'm one of the few people who can make you do something," she said cheerily taking a sip of her own coffee. "How've you been?"
Zara deliberated her answer "Fine."
"But some days you're not?"
"I'm good most days," Zara defended half heartedly flicking the plastic top of her cup "I just wish I knew where he went."
"It'll get better in time."
"I reckon Hojo has something to do with it," Zara growled seeming to ignore Cissnei's words.
Cissnei's eyes narrowed slightly and her body posture became less relaxed "What makes you say that?"
"Contrary to what people may think I'm not stupid." She gazed at her cup gloomily "I can't access the files that I want to so that means something weird's going on."
Cissnei guessed or more hoped this was one of Zara's down days, something Tseng had warned her about. "You don't want to go around saying stuff like that Zara, it could land even you in trouble. Your status as a Turk can't stop you from getting bumped off"
The ravenette shrugged indifferently, taking another sip of her coffee.
Six Months Later
Zara was running on one of the treadmills in the training facility, her long black wavy ponytail swishing from side to side. She loved running on her own terms not when someone told her to. Rod and Reno had made a bet, Reno said Zara could easily run for one hour without stopping and Rod said that she would not. The prize was fifty Gil and the loser paying the winners pub tab at the end of the month.
She had currently been running for forty-five minutes and was not intending to stop anytime soon. A wolf whistle called appreciatively behind her.
"Your ass looks hot in those shorts Zara!"
"Shut up Reno!" shouted Zara continuing her stride, concentrating on listening to her headphones.
'If we don't kill ourselves we'll be the leaders of a messed up generation, if we don't kid ourselves will they believe us if we tell them the reasons why?'
'Did we take it too far, take it too far? Did we chase the rabbit into wonder land there's a hundred grand will they understand, that it was all to stay awake for the longest!'
Zara looked at the screen of the digital clock on the wall in front of her, she had ten minutes left to decide if she would let Reno win or lose. She considered it, a little extra Gil she could get out of him. On the other hand, have him appearing at her apartment early in the morning to be surprised that he was A)defying gravity with how drunk he was and B) that he had somehow managed to work the lift. She slowed the treadmill down and then walked off the apparatus, bending down to pick up her bottle of water and taking a mouthful of the cool liquid.
"NOOOOO!" cried Reno "You had five minutes left! Five minutes Zara!"
She shrugged her shoulders "Sucks to be you doesn't it?"
"I want my money," demanded Rod his hand outstretched towards Reno who gave him a look that if looks could kill Rod would surely have been dead tenfold.
Zara smirked to herself as she headed off to the showers. The hot water felt good on her skin and she sighed contentedly.
After she had changed Zara blasted her hair dry with the hair drier making her tresses more voluminous. The rest of the day was rather uneventful, the only people at base were herself, Reno Rod, Jimmy and Tseng. Everyone else had been sent off on various missions.
"Hey Jimmy?" Zara asked the older bespectacled male, she often talked to Jimmy in her mother tongue as he was the only other Turk from Gongaga "Do you think Reno's you know one of us?"
"By one of us you mean?"
"You know. A Highlander."
"Probably from a Highland family or maybe one of his parents. Why do you ask?"
Zara shrugged "Just curious, he just looks it. If you know what I mean?"
"The typical of being tall and having high cheekbones?" Jimmy asked with a chuckle.
"Don't forget pale and of course being pretty much crazy."
"You know when I was younger I was even more unruly than you two. But then the Turks offered me a place, instilled some loyalty and I suppose you could say they tamed me to an extent." Jimmy said wistfully.
"Yeah well, Shinra hasn't tamed me, well not completely and I'm going to make sure they don't."
He chuckled and continued with whatever he was looking at on his computer monitor. A comfortable silence descended on the office once again Zara logged onto her computer and selected 'Mission Files'.
She then typed in 'Nibleheim' a file on the history of the village appeared on screen. She scrolled down the page, until she found something that looked promising.
'SOLDIER First Class Sephiroth discovered files on the J.E.N.O.V.A Project and proceeded to massacre the town. SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair and SOLDIER First Class Zara Fair attended with a group of cadets. They tracked down and tried to overpower Sephiroth but were defeated by him. Sephiroth, Zack Fair and Cadet Cloud Strife were declared Missing in Action, their bodies were never found. SOLDIER First Class Zara Fair after recovering from her injuries transferred to the Department of Administrative Research alias Turks.
Zara could not be bothered reading any further as she knew nothing would appear on the screen that could give her any direction into figuring out what had really happened. None of the Turks seemed to be able to talk about what happened after they were deployed to Nibleheim. They would become less talkative, or change the subject.
Zara knew that they had information; the Turks must have thought she was stupid or something to not see through their façade. So she played along with their little game, she did as she was told, carried out the missions she was set to the best of her abilities. Though her main goal was not to be a good Turk. It was to find out what really happened to her brother. Then after that she would leave the company, she knew the Turks tricks; it would be easy to outmanoeuvre them. Possibly.
Zara then stood up "Hey Jimmy, if Tseng needs me tell him I've gone to see Chaz." The male nodded to her and she left the Shinra building heading for one of the top hospitals in Midgar.
It was no secret that Zara hated hospitals; the smell was what made the place so repulsive. Far too clean and unnatural, the smell of death also hung strongly in the air. Pulling up a seat next to Chaz's bed, she studied the unconscious Turk. There was a monitor showing her heart rate and some drips in her arm, yet other than that it looked almost as if she was simply sleeping. Chaz had slipped into a coma; the doctors had said they did not know when she would wake up or if she would. Zara made a habit of visiting Chaz whenever she could, hoping that she would wake up, but her condition never changed.
Zara had about half an hour of silence to mull over her thoughts before her PHS rang and brought her back into the real world. Giving one last look at the peaceful Chaz, she set off on the mission Tseng had set her.
A.N. Hey guys sorry I haven't been very active recently, you can blame school. So I may not be updating as often as I would like. You may be wondering what I mean in this chapter by Zara and Jimmy (who is Katana male) calling themselves 'Highlanders'. It's just sort of a little Ethnic group that I thought of and I liked what came into my head. They use the Clan system (with some being friendlier to each other than others) I drew influence from my own heritage. The 'Mother tongue' is Scottish Gaelic, I only have very basic Gaelic knowledge (my grandfather tried to teach me when I was very young so I didn't pay much attention to him. Really wish I did though). They were a nomadic people originally from the northern continent and settled here and there but their main area is around Gongaga. If you have any questions or if you want me to explain something feel free to message me! Reviews are very very welcome! ^_^