Beyond the Veil
Disclaimer: I only own Ami-kun, the rest of everything is owned by other people, mostly Square-Enix. I'd like to thank everyone who has sent me feedback on this fic- you've all helped me out. I also would like to thank TsubasaWitch for the first review since I've started the major re-write! Thanks to let me know at least someone reads this. ^_^
Chapter Five
Ami sat on the table, her feet hanging down. She crossed her legs and started to rock her legs out of boredom as she watched Hojo. She wondered how long it would take her to annoy the scientist.
"I'm bored," Ami stated as Hojo finished making sure that her wounds hadn't reopened or gotten infected.
"Everything seems to be fine," Hojo stated as he pushed his glasses back up his nose, "complete your mission and don't tell Sephiroth. Don't forget the consequences are if we fail to see any progress."
Ami shivered in disgust. 'Trust me, I'd rather die.'
"Of course," Ami stated.
"You may go," Hojo stated.
Ami jumped down off of the examination table and ran out of the lab, cooking up plans to make sure that Sephiroth stayed far away from her. She knew that said SOLDIER was standing right outside the door to the lab, long before she emerged from the lab.
"I assume Hojo gave you a clean bill of health," Sephiroth stated.
"Yuppers," Ami replied as they headed towards the elevator.
For some reason, Sephiroth could feel apprehension sinking into his being, but he didn't know why. He felt this apprehension grow as they entered the elevator and he pressed the button for the SOLDIER floor. He saw her expression go from her usual cold demeanor to something that made his skin crawl. She grinned at him, which didn't bother him. What did was the look in her eyes that not just made him feel naked but violated too. He was about to tell her to knock it off when she spoke.
"So," she said in her sweet tone, making him feel even worse, "when's our wedding?"
Everything froze around him as his brain slowed to a crawl. He knew he was just standing there like an idiot, but all he could do was to force his brain to work again. 'There's something wrong. She hates me,' he thought to himself, 'perhaps she also suffered a concussion yesterday. Or she really is going through mako poisoning. What's clear is that she isn't herself.'
"Hm?" he asked, his brain yet to come up with a proper answer.
"You and me," she said, pointing at the two of them before saying, "wedding. When is it?"
He looked down at her as his brain fumbled for other reasons she could be acting out of character. 'Maybe she was switched with a look-alike.'
"You have got to be suffering from a head injury, mako poisoning, or you're not the real Ami," Sephiroth stated.
"Nope, nope, and I am the real Ami," Ami replied.
"Are you completely certain you didn't get anything knocked loose in that thick head of yours?"
"Pretty sure."
"Did Hojo inject you with something?"
"When isn't he injecting one of us with some weird stuff?" Ami asked as the elevator doors opened and she followed Sephiroth down the hallway.
"Then what makes you think I like you at all, let alone in that way?"
Sephiroth continued down the hallway before realizing that Ami had stopped behind him. With a slight sigh of annoyance, he turned around. He saw her stunned and hurt face, the tears that were welling in her eyes. He knew what was coming. But he had no idea to prevent it.
"I see! I get it now!" Ami exclaimed, her voice taking the cracking quality that always happened when women were about to or were crying.
He could hear every single SOLDIER within earshot stop what they were doing and he could feel eyes turning to the spectacle. He felt ill equipped to deal with this situation.
"You hate me!" Ami exclaimed, hardly a pause between the two statements before she sunk to her knees and started to sob and sniffle.
"I've never said that. Now stop making a spectacle of yourself," he said, his tone drowning with annoyance.
"What's going on here?" Zack asked, approaching the scene just in time to see the mentor and his student glare at each other.
"What's wrong with you?" Sephiroth demanded, anger showing on his face.
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" Ami snapped at Sephiroth.
"There's nothing wrong with me! I can't say the same with you! Now, once you can get all of this out of your system, I will be waiting in the Training Room," Sephiroth stated with a frown before striding off.
Once Sephiroth was out of sight and earshot, Ami wiped the tears from her face. She looked solemn but not upset the way she had acted only mere seconds before. She gathered herself off, brushing the knees of her jeans off before walking into the lounge area. She knew that once that scene happened, if they were about to be friends, any chance of friendship would be wiped away.
As she sat down, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. 'Of course you are! There's other guys here anyways. Maybe a few wouldn't be that bad towards you,' she thought to herself as she sat down and heard someone sit down next to her.
"Hey," the familiar voice said.
"Hey, Zack," Ami stated.
"Mind telling me exactly what happened? That was quite a show," Zack stated.
"If you had a choice between being miserable alone and causing everyone around you to be miserable, what would you choose?"
"And you did that to make Seph not be miserable? Good luck with the guy. He's always serious. No one's ever heard him laugh or joke around. He lives and breathes his work," Zack stated.
.:.
Sephiroth held Masamune in his hands, glaring at the computer-generated copy of himself that he had Ami fight the day before. He needed to do something that he understood more than he could understand Ami. The girl had been a puzzle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in mystery. Whenever he understood a part of her, she had more unknowns to solve. 'I will never understand her,' he thought to himself.
He charged at the computer-generated version of himself, slicing at the fake. The fake parried, causing sparks to fly. The fake charged at him and he managed to trip the fake before the fake sliced at him and he leaped into the air to avoid the slice. In the heat of battle, his mind started to wander as the familiar movements and predictable patterns surfaced, causing the battle to be a mostly mindless affair.
Her actions in the elevator was sudden and completely unexpected. He hated to be caught off-guard the way he had. Earlier the day, she had been normal Ami. Distant, calm, cold-as-ice, but had a dry sense of humor. In ways, she reminded him of a less war- and world-weary version of himself. Okay, she was a bit world-weary herself. He had to remind himself that she also was a cynical pain in the rear.
Pain seared his left shoulder, bringing his mind back into the fight when he saw with cold detachment that the fake Masamune had sliced through his shoulder armor and nearly cut off his arm. He calmly switched sword hands and saw that the fake him was smirking and withdrew Masamune. He let out a nearly inaudible growl of annoyance as he glared at the fake. With his right hand, he held up the Masamune and charged at the fake self before quickly slicing eight times.
He had to give the fake some credit, however. The fake had managed to block each slash in his limit break. He decided to end it before he got more mangled than he could manage to heal with a Curaga materia. He carried restorative materia when he was off training just in case he or Ami got hurt. Of course, lately it had been Ami more than he. He pulled out his PHS and aborted the simulation before he tended to himself.
As the fake was broken down digital square by digital square, the door opened. A green glow surrounded his shoulder and he could feel the restorative magic spread its warmth to hide the pain in his shoulder. He could feel the muscles in his shoulder reattach themselves to each other. The blood slowly ebbed as the skin of his shoulder grew back to cover his shoulder.
"I found out why Ami was acting weird," Zack stated eagerly, looking quite the hyperactive puppy.
"Hm?"
"She seems to think that she doesn't want to cause you more misery. I think it's because she likes you or something."
"Hmph," he said as he placed the blade of the Masamune against the magnets that was attached to his belt that was similar to the magnets on the back of the standard SOLDIER uniform, "that's all I need. Another rabid fangirl."
.:.
As Sephiroth emerged from the Training Room with Zack in tow, he felt an impact on his right side. He stepped to the side in order to keep himself from toppling onto his still tender shoulder. He looked down to see familiar brown hair that had been pulled into a ponytail.
"Sowwy for that fight, Sephy," Ami said in a whiny tone.
Sephiroth didn't know what to be more annoyed over. The unwanted and uncalled for physical contact, that Ami had called him 'Sephy', the tone she used, or the fact that Zack was almost on the ground because he was laughing so hard.
"I wish I had a camera," Zack said in between gasps of air as Sephiroth peeled Ami off of him just so he could glare at the girl worse than he had ever glared at anyone before.
"Never. Call. Me. 'Sephy'. Ever. Again," he said harshly and in a very threatening tone.
.:.
Author's Note: 12/15/10
Well, this I altered from what I had written down over two years ago except that I removed things that wouldn't have happened yet and things that I felt slowed the chapter down. I also added more things and lengthened it a bit. This wasn't where the chapter was supposed to end but I felt that this was a good stopping point.
In the same notebook, I had written down funny things that didn't officially happen in my FF7-themed D&D campaign. One of them actually made me chuckle because I felt it was hilarious.
The scene: The Highwind in flight, going somewhere during the night.
DM (ME): You hear a sploosh-y sound and Cid is calling everyone to come up to the main deck to see something. (the party does so) He's pointing at the sheet of glass in front. You see a smear of blood, tatters of black leather and a broken wing covered in black feathers that appears to be permanently attached to the glass.
This is the kind of things that happen when I run D&D and everyone bribes me with caffiene. Funny stuff happens that get retconned out. Even if it shouldn't. :D I even did a 20 minute fail drawing of it and put it on my deviantart. My deviantart account is Gregora in case anyone wants to see it. I'm kinda embarrassed about it.
And now to answer some questions. TsubasaWitch asks: Oh one last thing when excalty is; this taking place it's during crisis core right?
My answer: I should have made it clear, but she arrived on Gaia/Planet a year before Crisis Core. Which would make her a Third when the Crisis Core related stuff happens. My intention is to go through the time periods for Crisis Core, the main game, and then Advent Children before I end it.
Well, gotta work on the next chapter.
Later!
~Gregora
In the next chapter: Driven to the end of his rope, Sephy gets a plan. Will this plan backfire or will he find out what Hojo is up to?
