A/N: Thanks for all the lovely feedback :)

Chapter 10

"But apparently I have to wear the uniform anyway!" Genesis exclaimed, gesturing dramatically in his frustration. "Why do I have to wait until First Class but you don't?"

Shepard and Angeal shared a smile and humoured his frustration.

"Did you want to come down to the VR room with us?" Angeal asked, completely ignoring his friend's rant.

"Can't sorry, I've got a mission now." She replied, double checking the time. They were walking together along the corridors of the main SOLDIER floor.

"Going anywhere interesting?" he asked.

"Banora actually. Somewhere in the outskirts by the sound of it." She knew it was their hometown, but that was about the extent of her knowledge.

"Then why are they sending you?" Genesis asked, momentarily abandoning his pout at the great injustices he suffered. "You'd think they would send someone familiar with the region."

"Tell me about it. I don't know the first thing about Banora."

"Are you going on your own?" Angeal asked.

"Nope. The General's leading this mission." She rolled her shoulders, the comforting weight of her Widow exactly where it ought to be. When had she last been on a mission without actually being in charge? That would be, what, Eden Prime? All the way back when she was first being considered for a spectre?

She sincerely hoped this one would have a better ending.

The two men both stopped in their tracks and shared a concerned look.

"What's serious enough to need his oversight?" Genesis asked.

"I hope nobody's been hurt." Angeal said.

"All I know is that it's a monster hunt." There had to be more to it.

"Banora's a sleepy little place, nothing but apple orchards and villagers minding their own business. There are barely even any dangerous monsters." Genesis said, his brow drawn down in thought. "Sephiroth almost never gets sent out to rural areas."

Troubling. Even if she wasn't very high in the ranks, Sephiroth was. What could possibly necessitate both of them? And why not just send Angeal or Genesis instead?

"Your town is in good hands at least." She said, giving what reassurance she could. "I'll tell you all about it when I get back, assuming I'm allowed to."

"We'd appreciate it." Angeal said with a nod of thanks.

"While you're there, take a look around. It's a delightful spot." Genesis still looked concerned.

"Sure, if I have the time. Anyway, I should go."

They said their farewells and she continued on.

Finally, she had a mission that would take her out of Midgar. The twitchy feeling she got from spending too long on the same planet had been growing steadily. Nothing so bad as the six months of house arrest on Earth of course, but after the desperation and havoc of the Reaper War this was like being locked in a room too short for her to stand up in.

It was a good thing she'd taken on the infantry's training because that was a difficult undertaking that demanded a good deal of time. Without it she would have been feeling the claustrophobia of Midgar all the more.

Now she had a mission to a different continent and with Sephiroth's presence it promised to be a challenging one. The sensible person inside of her insisted she wasn't excited. The part of her that drove a Mako tank through a relay and loved it wasn't buying it.

Working with Sephiroth in the field was bound to be… interesting. The animosity she had kicked up by boldly telling him to get his shit together had mostly cooled by now. Their last talk had helped, her asking for his opinion had allayed some of the resentment she felt being directed her way. That didn't change the obvious gulf that came from them not truly being in the same army. She might be working as a SOLDIER and she'd even worn the uniform, but they were both aware that her loyalties lay with the Alliance. Shinra was a convenient way for her to deal with the natives, just as she was a convenient way for him to deal with the Alliance.

Other than Tseng, Nobody else saw the web of politics they were trying to navigate. If they were careful enough, nobody else ever would.

She took the elevator to the roof where the helipad was.

Had this been an Alliance mission it probably would have started with a mission briefing but apparently Shinra preferred the more 'tell you on the way' approach.

One look at the helicopter and Shepard instantly craved a shuttle. Or at least a Mako tank. It might not handle too smoothly but that damn truck could take a serious beating. It even survived her driving.

This thing looked as though a light wind might blow its rotors off.

Cissnei was sitting in the cockpit, checking over the controls.

"Hey Shepard." She greeted with a smile. "I'm your pilot today. I'll be sticking around for most of your mission too."

The General, a Second Class SOLDIER, and now a Turk?

"I've always wanted to go to Banora." Cissnei continued, talking happily despite the lack of response. "I hear the orchards are really pretty."

Shepard had heard that too, but she'd assumed it was just because Genesis waxed poetical with every breath.

"Any idea what we're doing?" Shepard asked. "My briefing didn't have many details."

"Mine neither." She said with a smile that betrayed her statement as a lie. "That happens with all classified missions."

She hadn't expected to be trusted with anything classified, not this soon at least. Sephiroth obviously didn't trust her and he was right not to. She certainly wouldn't have, had she been in his position.

Checking the time again proved she was early. She leant against the door of the helicopter and watched Cissnei. Eventually the Turk finished going through her pre-flight checks.

"Where are you from, Cissnei?" she asked after a couple of minutes of companionable silence.

"Midgar. I was raised by Shinra." She replied.

"Do you like it here?"

"Midgar? Sure. Its home, even if it is just a pile of industrial grade steel in the middle of a wasteland." She said with a fond smile.

"Home is where you make it." Shepard agreed with a nod. It was amazing what you could grow to love.

"I love missions to the countryside too though. It's so… vibrant. You just don't get colours like that in Midgar." Cissnei said, turning sideways to let her legs dangle out of the cockpit. "What's your planet like?"

"A bit of everything really. I grew up in a big city but Earth isn't a single biome world." She leant her head back against the helicopter's door. She wondered how much of her city had survived the War. Probably not a lot. "My job means I don't often stay in one place for long." She said, dismissing the dismal thoughts as unproductive.

"Do you ever get tired of it?" Cissnei asked, looking up at her.

"Never. There isn't a corner of this galaxy where I haven't found friends and left bullet holes." A smile crossed her face at the thought.

"I like your style, Shepard." She said with a chuckle.

Soon enough Sephiroth appeared and their conversation was cut short. With everyone present and accounted for they were soon in the air.

The helicopter did not fall out of the sky at the slightest turbulence; much to Shepard's relief. She brutally crushed the urge to cling to the walls though, the all too delicate, clearly paper thin walls that she could probably punch through.

It wasn't until they were some distance from Midgar that she got any sort of explanation for the curious mission.

"There have been power outages in the outer Banora region. There have also been reports of unusual monster attacks in the area." Sephiroth explained. "By the sounds of it a break in the local mako pipeline is the cause."

"So we're being sent in to secure the area? That sounds straight forward enough." She said, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She and Sephiroth were sitting across from each other in the back of the helicopter, both wearing the bulky headphones and mic set.

Sephiroth continued. "Before you arrived on Gaia a meteor was sighted that landed in the region. It's likely that's what caused the damage, but the area is so remote nobody has seen the impact sight."

A meteor? How was that a big deal? Unless-

"Is there any chance this isn't a meteor at all?" He asked, giving her an assessing look that she was becoming very familiar with.

A single burst of hope blossomed up inside her at the thought of others like herself but she ruthlessly crushed it.

"There's always a chance, however small." She said in a neutral tone. It was a nice thought, but she wouldn't bet on it.

"You don't know anything more?" He pressed.

"What makes you think that it's not just a meteor?" She asked, looking at him cautiously. Why assume otherwise?

"We have no evidence suggesting it isn't but now that we know there is alien life out there, I thought it best to ask. Is there anything else you can tell us?"

"The galaxy is a very big place." She said with a shrug of non-committal. "I can't account for what might have landed here because I don't even know where 'here' is. I haven't had a chance to triangulate your planet's position yet so I can't speak for who, or what, might have discovered you. Not without more information at least."

Clearly trying to decide whether or not she was lying to him, Sephiroth pulled out a grainy photo and handed it to her. "This is the only picture we have."

She drew it closer and studied the low resolution image.

"It might be a ship, in which case it'd be either an escape pod or a shuttle, maybe even one of the smaller fighters going by the size. It could just as easily be a piece of rock. I can't say." The typical flaring around the object made it impossible to identify. "When did it land?"

"The seventh of last month." He said.

With a hum of thought Shepard brought up her omni-tool and started tapping into it, trying to calculate when that was.

"How long was it?" At his confused look she explained. "How long was the month? We don't use the same calendar."

"Thirty days."

"Right, and your days are twenty four hours long which means it landed on- hm." She looked at the date it was giving her and wondered what it might mean.

"Well?" Sephiroth prompted.

"Two days after the Morning War ended." And the day the Quarians and Geth finally started sending aid against the Reapers. They had both agreed to start rebuilding Rannoch together only when the real threat had been neutralized.

"What does that mean?" He asked.

"It doesn't necessarily mean anything." She deactivated the omni-tool.

"It means something to you at least." Sephiroth said giving her a suspicious look again.

"It was a hectic time," She said. Galactic politics wouldn't mean anything to him, but if wanted to know she could oblige. "Almost every remaining fleet had been mobilized. The Reaper War was raging, Cerberus was running around kidnapping people, Rachni were taking ground wherever they could find it and refugees were fleeing in every direction." And she had been on the way to Thessia while the Crucible was nearly complete. Busy times indeed. But that didn't tell them anything about what might have landed on Gaia. "Without actually seeing the wreckage I'm just as clueless as you are."

He sat up straighter at the names of so many different armed conflicts, all taking place around them without anyone ever knowing.

"Is it likely any of these wars might spill over onto Gaia?" He asked, a professional tone failing to hide the edge in his question. "Shinra doesn't want foreign wars being waged on its territory."

"The Morning War is over, as is the Genophage, and even the Rachni Wars have come to an amicable end." Sort of. "As for the Reapers… nobody wants them in their territory. If you haven't been invaded yet then I'd say you've gotten away unscathed." They should count themselves lucky; few others could make that claim.

"Your people sound very war torn." Cissnei said quietly from the cockpit. Shepard had forgotten she could hear them over their microphones.

"We don't look for conflict." She said. "But we don't shy away from it either." Except for when they collectively shoved their heads in the sand because the enemy was too inconvenient. But that wasn't relevant right now.

"What are these Reapers?" Sephiroth asked.

"We're getting off track." She replied. It came out a little harder then she intended. Sephiroth eyes narrowed at her reaction and she got the feeling he wouldn't be letting it go anytime soon.

The silence stretched on. She met his searching gaze with a defiance that he was probably growing used to.

"If you've nothing more to add-" She didn't and he continued. "We will search the length of the pipeline most likely to have been hit. Once we've located the damage and secured the area, we can send people in to make repairs. For now this mission is classified."

"And if it isn't a meteor?" she asked.

"Depending on what it is, I will decide what is best for the people of Gaia." He returned.

She gave a nod and wondered how likely that was. If it was a crash and anyone had survived and decided to hang around the crash site, then his decisions would not be the only factor. She had her allies, he had his.

She'd let him figure that out on his own.

After some hours they arrived. They'd flown over the much lauded orchards of Banora White apples, only to continued flying on over countryside about a day's march beyond the township. Angeal would be relieved to hear that the monsters weren't anywhere near Banora village itself. The landscape before them wasn't farm land but a mess of short cliffs and gullies split by little rivers and covered in sprawling forest.

Cissnei piloted the helicopter low over the tress as they searched for the impact sight. They were following where the pipe was supposedly buried. If they didn't see anything then the two SOLDIERs would disembark and search the old fashioned way. Shepard spared a thought for the lost wonders of satellite imagery before steeling herself for whatever might come next.

"I think we found it!" Cissnei called from the front.

Shepard eagerly looked out of the window but the view was a disappointment. There was no plainly obvious ship perched conveniently on the ground. There was only a large crater that was filled with the glowing green of mako.

Damn.

"What is that?" Sephiroth said, resting a hand on the glass.

She looked again, studying the pool. Cissnei did a strafing run of the helicopter and the disturbed liquid rippled away in flickering circles.

There was something in the centre of the pool. Oozing green slid over it, distorting the shape beyond anything Shepard might recognize. There was definitely something solid in there though, and given the sleek looking surface, it appeared to be smooth metal. That could just be a trick of the mako though, she reminded herself.

"I can't tell from here, too much of it has gone under." She said.

"Cissnei, we need to land." Sephiroth called.

"I can't land here!" She called back "There isn't a clearing for miles around."

"We could just jump out and trek back afterwards." Shepard suggested, eyeing the parachutes.

"No go, Tseng wants me to be on the ground."

"This isn't Tseng's mission." Sephiroth said sharply.

"Sorry General, this is a Turk helicopter." She replied. "And a Turk pilot."

"I am quite aware." He said coldly, sending a dark glare at the cockpit.

Ah, interdepartmental squabbling. It was nice to know that some things were universal.

"What's the nearest landing site?" Sephiroth asked.

"About four miles east of here."

"Take us there then. I trust you can keep up." He sent another look of displeasure in Cissnei's direction before crossing his arms and waiting out the rest of the trip.

They reached the clearing and Cissnei landed the helicopter gently.

The doors opened and they disembarked. Shepard stretched the muscles in her neck and drew her rifle, reflexively checking all was in perfect working order.

Cissnei locked the helicopter, as though anyone might try to steal it, and stood holding her large shuriken.

Sephiroth gave a cursory glance at the woods surrounding them, checked his blade, and placing it on his back.

Now it was just the three of them alone with nothing but monster riddled wilderness and a mission.

Shepard took a deep breath and felt a small smile tug at her lips. This was more like it. Beside her she saw Sephiroth relax minutely as well. Did the General tire of his own headquarters?

The crater was due west of them. Sephiroth set a course and led the way through the underbrush. Cissnei followed, and Shepard brought up the rear, keeping a wary eye out. Green moss and silver ferns stretched out in every direction. The forest was bright and full of life, insects buzzing happily through the air and birds singing in the trees. The smell of growing things permeated the air, ripening fruit, damp earth and new shoots pushing up through it.

The crater site was barely four miles away and she expected a quick march. Clearly she had failed to take the valleys and cliffs into account.

She had to keep reminding herself not to try and take the lead. It wasn't intentional, she was just so accustomed to being in charge that she automatically sped up to overtake someone she had no business overtaking. Sephiroth noticed at one point and sent her a look with a raised eyebrow and the slightest hint of a smile that failed to hide his amusement. Barely refraining from slapping her forehead she dropped back and hoped something would attack them already.

Her wish was almost immediately granted.

Shepard threw a warp at a charging sahagin monster and followed it up with a decapitating slice from her omni-blade. Behind her Cissnei alternated between her shuriken and pistol while Sephiroth stabbed a duel horn in the neck and then leapt to the side before the falling carcass could crush him. A flock of tycoons still whirled overhead and dive bombed them once the larger monsters were dead.

The spilt mako drove the creatures mad apparently, causing them to mutate and attack in droves. The ruckus the fight caused had only drawn the attention of more monsters.

She took aim and shot at the griffon-like creatures. One fell from the sky with its head missing and the others gave feral cries and flew wildly overhead. Cissnei ducked a set of vicious claws and drew her pistol in retaliation. She wasn't a bad shot.

The tycoons started to retreat, fleeing higher into the sky.

Sephiroth apparently wasn't prepared to sit idly while they finished them off. He reached out his hand and a wave of green energy was absorbed into the creatures. They jerked violently and screamed, some losing their balance and starting to fall. Shepard threw an incendiary burst at the ones that were trying to escape.

In a rain of burning feathers the last of them fell. With a nod to Sephiroth the three of them continued.

So the sword wasn't just for show. They hadn't faced anything too challenging yet but from she had seen so far he clearly knew what he was doing. It gave her a lot more faith in the young General, knowing he wasn't all hype.

The uneasy tension and distrust between them had been set aside for the moment as well. Nothing cleared the air quite like fighting side by side.

Cissnei had proven herself to be incredibly professional. She kept a careful eye on her surroundings, including the two people she was with, and had a fine mastery of her weapons. To Shepard's concern Sephiroth obviously trusted the Turk even less than he did her.

"What materia was that?" she asked him as they continued walking.

"Poison." He said, reflexively checking his bracer where they were kept. "It does exactly what the name implies."

"Now you're just making it too easy." She commented idly.

"You shoot through cover." He said, giving her a deadpan look.

"I like to keep them on their toes." She said with a smile. The trees weren't very thick and her targeting visor could spot hostiles through any amount of foliage. She was hardly going to wait for them to come to her.

"They may return the favour." He returned.

She checked her heat sinks. Twenty Three shots left.

"Bring it on." She said with a sharp smile. As soon as her armour had been finished she'd set her omni-tool to making heat clips. She had stores of them now but endless backups were of little use when she could still only carry so many of them and her enemies weren't going to drop any extras. She was already carrying far more than usual but she'd still have to make the most of every shot.

He scoffed. "I wonder if you'll be so enthusiastic if we're attacked by more mutated creatures. The mako drives them crazy and they'll become far more ferocious than this."

"Did you want to head back?" She asked in a dry tone.

"I've only got you for cover but I believe I'll manage." He said, not sparing her a glance. Turks didn't count apparently.

"I'll try to leave a couple monsters for you to care of."

He gave her another 'look'. For someone who didn't emote a great deal he managed to convey all varieties of unimpressed cynicism with his eyes alone. It reminded her a little of Javik to be honest.

And it was a comfort to find that the ever-so-reputable general had a sense of humour beneath his stern exterior, no matter how dry.

Suddenly he froze in place. Shepard walked around to see what he had stopped him.

They had reached the giant pool of mako.

The trees suddenly ended, with only the barest lip of earth pushed up before it descended into the glowing green liquid. Off to one side the smashed end of the pipe was visible, mako still oozing out of it. The technicians at the other end had turned off the pipe but since it was so long it took a while for the last of it to gush out.

In the centre of the caldera the edge of something definitely metallic rose up out of the green liquid. Without the disturbance of the helicopter it was easier to see that it was artificially made with a smooth curving edge that simply didn't occur in nature. A wing maybe?

Shepard stepped forward to better see but recoiled at the fumes rising up from the lake. Her eyes watered at it and her head instantly felt light and woozy.

She staggered back and shook her head to clear it. "That is nasty." She said, recovering but cautiously keeping her distance from within the treeline.

"It's poisonous, Shepard." Cissnei informed her, sending her a sympathetic glance.

"It is a ship then." Sephiroth said, his eyes still glued to the submerged wreck. He hadn't moved since seeing it. Something about it was fascinating to him apparently.

"By the looks of it." Shepard said. It might be an escape pod which didn't technically qualify as a ship but that wasn't the point. She activated her omni-tool and tried to scan it.

It was too far away, the sensors couldn't pick anything up.

"Is it one of yours?" Cissnei asked.

"I can't tell." There wasn't enough of it above the water level to see what who it belonged to. "But if mako is a poison then there's no way anybody could survive that." She observed grimly. Hopefully the impact had killed them. Quick and painless. That was much more merciful than to slowly drown in radioactive poison, or to burn up in re-entry.

"We need to get it out." Sephiroth said, snapping out of the intense focus he had fallen into.

Cissnei looked at him in disbelief. Shepard considered the wreckage. By the angle of the crater walls the caldera was quite deep, which meant the ship wasn't small.

"The helicopter won't be strong enough to lift it." She didn't need to see the rest of the ship to know that.

"What are we going to do with it, even if we do get it out?" Cissnei asked.

"Technicians are going to come here to fix the pipe." He replied. "We can't leave this here for them to speculate over."

"So what do you suggest?" Shepard asked, looking at him sceptically.

Sephiroth didn't reply. He just crossed his arms and stared at it, as though it might reveal some secret weakness if he glared enough.

None of the vehicles they had on hand were strong enough and it was far too big for her biotics. Maybe if Jack were here, working in conjunction with Samara, they might have a sliver of a chance. Maybe.

Wait a minute.

"Sephiroth, do you have a gravity materia?" she asked, despite having no idea if it was even viable. She'd read about this materia type and though they were usually used to make things heavier they could also do the reverse.

He gave her a very dubious look. "Materia isn't going to be able to move that."

"Not on its own perhaps."

He nodded when he saw her line of thinking.

"Your powers are gravity based." He said. Clever man. Genesis was still trying to figure out what mystical magic she was conjuring.

"Biotics, yes. On my own I can't lift that, but if you can make it lighter I might have a chance." It was technically possible. The distance was within her range, if only barely. She'd seen footage of Samara grabbing an airborne air-car and forcing it to the ground once. Admittedly this was on a much bigger scale, and she was no asari.

He fingered his bracer, the little orb of materia glowing in response.

"It's quite far away." He said. "My materia is mastered but I won't be able to hold it for long."

And of course the wreckage was in the middle of the lake so no amount of moving around would help.

"A moment should be enough." If it was more then she could manage then she'd know immediately. Her biotics were strong, for a human, but nothing record breaking. Even Miranda was stronger than her, albeit with a lesser range of attacks.

"Fair warning though, the easiest biotic move is a concentrated 'pull'."

"So-?" Cissnei asked.

"So you'd better get ready to run."

"Alright." Sephiroth said with a nod. He held his hand up towards the ship. "When you're ready."

She focused and her biotics flared. "Ready." She said, keeping the ship fixed in her sight.

A pulse shot out from Sephiroth, a wave of power that felt very much like biotics and yet fundamentally different rocketed towards the ship.

The instant it hit she seized the ship in her mind's grasp, willing it to rise up out of the lake. She gave a cry of exertion at the weight and sheer size. It felt like a Krogan punching the inside of her brain. Sephiroth must have still been casting because the weight halved momentarily and she instantly yanked at it. Her hands jerked back in a pulling motion and the whole lake surged. There was a huge swell of fluctuating blue power that rocketed up out of the mako, the bulk of a ship coming fast behind it.

Shepard dropped her biotics and sprinted to the side before it could crush her. Cissnei and Sephiroth did the same, all ducking for cover.

There was a mighty crash, trees cracked and earth was thrown up. Finally they looked up at the clearing that hadn't existed several seconds ago.

In the middle sat a ship. It was partially destroyed, the nose and canons having been completely crushed and one of its wings torn off. Mako poured out of every nook and cranny.

Yet it was unmistakable in design. Before them, glistening in a sickly green coat, sat a Geth fighter ship.

A/N: For anyone about to question the physics of that last bit, just remember this is on a final fantasy planet, physics are purely optional. Anywho, thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated :)

Next Time: The ship