I'm back with another chapter. Things have started to happen in the last chapter, but the ball isn't going to start rolling quite yet, but we'll get there. The surprise will be revealed in this chapter. I hope you guys will be as surprised as I was when the thought came to me. Okay, that's enough of my babbling. Enjoy the chapter. Disclaimer: I don't own FF7 or the characters. I'm just borrowing them.
Chapter 11 Surprises
July slipped into August and before Rose knew it, it was nearly September. The leaves on the trees would be changing colors soon and she couldn't wait to see that happen. Fall was one of her favorite seasons, winter being her second favorite. She was happy that she had a job and was able to get the clothes she needed for the upcoming season herself. She wanted to start saving for a means of transportation so Vincent wouldn't have to drive her everywhere, but he assured her he could drive her until she was able to get her own car. She was also happy with how well her training was going with Tifa and Yuffie. She had her first sparing match with Tifa not too long ago and was happy that she went home not to sore from it.
She was sitting out on the deck in the back yard. It was really beautiful out there. She loved sitting out there to work or just to sketch, another past time that she found she still loved. The deck was attached to the enclosed back porch and next to the deck was a small flower bed. There was grass everywhere with a couple of trees for extra shade for Dixie when she spent her time out there in the summer. There was a wooden fence surrounding the place for privacy and to keep Dixie from running off.
She was actually sniffing around the yard. Rose jumped when she suddenly started barking….at nothing. She started running in a large circle in the yard, slowed to a walk to sniff at the ground and started barking again. She then proceeded to run in a large circle around the yard in the opposite direction, slow to a walk to sniff the ground and repeated the process.
"Dixie, what are you doing? Goofball." Rose said, after watching her do this for the fourth time.
Dixie didn't answer, but continued to sniff the ground, bark and then run in circles.
"What is she barking at?" Vincent asked as he came out onto the deck. He had heard her barking from his study in the house.
"I don't know. She's been doing this for a few minutes now." Rose answered, gesturing towards the dog.
She stopped to sniff around the base of one of the trees, then laid down in the shade and started panting.
"That's what you get for running around like a fool, you crazy dog." Rose playfully scolded her.
"Were you almost done with work?" Vincent asked.
"Yeah, I was just taking a small break." Rose replied. "I needed to let my creative juices start to flow again."
"Tifa and Yuffie are going to be at the WRO when you hand in your work today. Are you going to be up for training?" he asked.
"Yeah." She answered. "I'm not nearly as sore as I was a couple of days ago." She closed her sketch book and stretched a little before standing up. "Dixie, come on in and get some water."
She perked up when she was called and came trotting through the yard to the deck.
"Crazy dog." Rose said as the three of them walked back inside.
"Has anything turned up in the investigation that Reeve and the WRO are conducting?" Rose asked as they drove to the said headquarters.
Vincent shook his head. "The disappearances have slowed, but the victims have yet to be found."
"Something or someone is bound to show up. They can't stay hidden for long." She replied.
"Yes, it's just finding them is the problem right now." He said as they pulled into the building of the headquarters.
"I'm sure something will come up soon." Rose said.
"Hopefully. You concentrate on this meeting right now. You'll be meeting the client today. Good luck." Vincent replied.
"Yeah, thanks. I'll see you later." She said. Rose leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before getting out of the car. She grabbed her briefcase from the back and headed inside.
Vincent sat there a little stunned. Even after she had disappeared inside he still sat in his car.
'Are you actually going to get out of the car, or are you going to wait for someone to come find you?'
After Chaos had snapped him out of it did he actually get out of the car and head inside himself. He was meeting with Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie about the next step in Rose's training.
Rose hurried down the corridor of the WRO, heading towards one of the conference rooms to meet with the client. She had not been told who it was, but she did know it was someone important to want to meet with her personally on this project after her sketching was finished. When she reached the conference room she found Reeve at one end of the long table talking to Rufus Shinra. He had two of the Turks with him one was a man with long black hair and the other a woman with blonde hair.
Reeve stood when Rose entered the room. "Rose, welcome. You already know Mr. Shinra of course. These two are his Turks, Tseng and Elena. You probably already knew them already."
"Yeah, I do." She replied.
"Why am I not surprised?" Said a voice from her right.
She turned her head to the right to see Reno standing on that side of the door. She turned to the left to see Rude standing on the other side.
"Sorry babe, but it's only a precaution." Reno said, holding his hand out for the briefcase.
She handed it over with a small sigh. "Why would I want to kill a client?"
"I'm sure you can understand there are still people who wish to see me dead." Rufus said from his seat at the table.
"Understandable." Rose replied.
"Please empty your pockets and give me your jacket for inspection." Rude said.
Rose gave him her business suit jacket and proceeded to empty her pockets. They only contained her cell phone, a key and a couple of bobby pins.
"Nothing dangerous here sir." Rude said, giving Rose back her belongings and jacket.
"And only sketches, a ruler and a couple of pencils in here." Reno informed closing the briefcase and handing it to her.
"Very well." Rufus said.
"You may come sit down now Rose." Reeve beckoned to her.
Rose stayed professional as she gave her pitch and presented the sketches of an to Shinra. It only took around an hour to get through everything.
"If there is anything that you want changed, there's no reason that can't be done." Rose finished.
Rufus continued to look at her work for a few more minutes before speaking. "Everything seems to be in order. I have to say that I'm impressed."
"Thank you, sir." Rose replied.
"Since everything is of satisfactory we'll begin work immediately." Reeve said.
"Yes." Rufus said, standing from his chair.
"I'm glad we were able to do business with you." Reeve said.
Rufus simply nodded before leaving the room with his Turks.
Reeve turned his attention to Rose after they left. "Good work."
"Thanks Reeve." She replied.
"I'll take these so we can get started on plans for his new office. I'll give you your next assignment when I get it." He said. "I'm sure you want to meet with Tifa and Yuffie for training."
"Thanks Reeve. I'll see you later." She said. She left the conference room and headed to the locker room connected to the training room to change for her training with Tifa and Yuffie.
Rose's training had gone well. Her blocking abilities, speed and reflexes had improved from when she had her last training with them. After her basic training had finished, they gave her bracers for her arms that were lined with spikes for extra damage that she could cause when the enemy was in close quarters. They also gave her the basic understanding of how to use materia and gave her thunder, ice and cure to start her off with. She was allowed to keep them to practice with and would be introduced to more materia that was more powerful when she got more experience with them.
"I'm sure Vincent won't have a problem with taking you outside of town to give you more experience and practice with them." Tifa said.
"I'm really impressed with how you had placed your materia. You already do know quite a bit from the game." Yuffie said.
"Miss materia queen over here." Tifa teased.
"Yeah. She stole all of my materia I worked so hard to gather and level up and ran off with it to Wutai." Rose replied.
"They put that in the game?" Yuffie asked, her cheeks turning a little red.
Rose nodded. "Yes they did."
"I'm never gonna live that down am I?" she asked.
"Nope." Tifa and Rose said in unison. They both looked at each other and laughed.
"I know Vincent is waiting for you along with Cloud. He wanted to talk to you." Tifa said, after the laughter had subsided.
"Yeah, I just want to take a quick shower and change first." Rose said.
She headed towards the locker room to take one, like she always did. When she had finished she reached for the knobs to turn the water off, but she ended up putting a hand to the side of the stall and the other grabbed her lower abdomen. A sharp pain went through that area of her body, but it left as soon as it came. Rose didn't think anything of it. She had probably hurt something during training. She wrapped up her shower quickly, not wanting to keep Vincent and Cloud waiting.
When she emerged from the locker room her hair was damp, but it wasn't soaked. Tifa, Yuffie, Cloud and Vincent were standing off to the side close to another door when she approached them. "You wanted to speak to me Cloud?"
He turned when she spoke to him. "Yes. I heard that your training was coming along well with Tifa and Yuffie and I wanted to ask you. If you wanted to, I could also teach you how to use the sword. It would be another weapon and fighting ability added to your arsenal."
Rose paused before answering. "I have been thinking about it, but I'm not sure yet."
A figure walked through the door as Cloud spoke again. "I won't be here all the time, but I would be able to teach you."
"Or perhaps I could help train you when Cloud isn't here. I could take over till he got back."
Her attention was brought to the figure walking towards them from the doorway he had just come from. Yuffie started giggling as Rose's eyes widened a little and her mouth gaped open. She was actually looking at the man who was the villain in the game she loved so much.
"You must be surprised to see me, but I had to come meet the newest member of AVALANCHE." Sephiroth said.
Rose continued to stare at him for a moment before gathering herself enough to speak. "According to Square, you were defeated at the crater to the north and supposedly died."
"I hope not." Said a woman as she walked through the same door.
"…..And now I find out that my best healer in my party is actually still alive." Rose said. "Wait, you can do that without materia, right?"
"What exactly do you mean?" Aerith asked with a small smile.
"Well, heal without having to use materia. In the game you're a healer. Holy Gospel alone is able to bring everyone in the party during battle to full health and magic points." Rose explained. "I don't even know if you guys can really do stuff like that, or if it was only for the game."
"Each of us has their special abilities, whether it's an attack or not." Cloud replied.
"You just have to find it." Aerith added.
"I'm from another planet. Will that make a difference with me?" Rose asked.
"It shouldn't." Vincent answered.
"Yes. You're from a different planet, but your energy is not that different from our own." Aerith said.
Rose thought about that for a minute. "So, every planet has its own lifestream and each of us has a current within us like the lifestream of the planet?"
"Now how do you know that just from the Final Fantasy Seven game?" Yuffie asked.
"Well, Bugenhagen spoke of it and demonstrated it in the game, Vincent mentions each of us having a current in our bodies like the lifestream that fights off intruders in the movie, and in the Dirge of Cerberus game Shelke gave us the memories of Lucrecia who also explains the same as Bugenhagen that she left in the virtual reality she left behind." Rose listed off.
Yuffie gave her a playful glare. "You were able to figure this stuff out just with that information?"
"Well, Square gives us the hints, you just have to know what it is you're looking for and figure out the answers to your own questions. A lot of the information I have was given to us through games, movies and written works. A lot of the things I figured out were only assumptions, but they're becoming more and more true the more I talk to you guys." She looked at Sephiroth and Cloud. "But, if Sephiroth really was a good guy, then what happened in Nibelheim?"
"What do you mean?" Cloud asked.
"You're going to have to be more specific with that question. What do you want to know?" Sephiroth asked.
"Well, five years prior to the events of Final Fantasy Seven, you guys went on a mission to see what was going on at the reactor in Mt. Nibel. While you were there Sephiroth found out about the experiments, became angry at Shinra and burned down Nibelheim and killed almost all of the residents there. Then he went to the reactor to retrieve Jenova and that was where Zack and Cloud both stopped him by throwing him into the lifestream. You became trapped in crystallized mako in the crater to the north for five years absorbing the head of Jenova. It was there that you obtained the Black Materia, summoned Meteor, but was still defeated." Rose took a breath after explaining what she knew from the game.
"I did become angry with Shinra." Sephiroth said. "But I didn't burn the town to the ground or kill anyone. I abandoned Shinra and went to the reactor with the intention of destroying Jenova so Shinra couldn't do the same thing again. Cloud was given the order to stop me, but he let me go instead. All I was able to take of Jenova without rousing suspicion was her head."
"So technically, you're still on the run from Shinra." Rose replied.
"No, not since after Meteor Fall." Sephiroth corrected.
"So, if that's really what happened in Nibelheim, then how does Zack Fair fit into all of this?" Rose asked.
"There is no Zack Fair." Cloud answered.
Rose gave him a disbelieving look. "No, he was in First Class SOLDIER with Sephiroth as well as Aerith's first love."
"No Rose. Sephiroth is my first and only love." She corrected. "We were reunited not long after I met Cloud in the church in the slums of Midgar and we got married after Meteor Fall."
"…..So the original concept for you two was true and Zack was a created character." Rose said to herself. "This sucks, I liked Zack's character."
Aerith giggled a little. "Well, I just wanted to meet you really quick Rose. I have appointments that I must keep. We'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"
"Please excuse me too. I have a few things that I need to attend to. We can talk some more tomorrow if you wish." He said, before following Aerith out of the room.
"What's going on tomorrow?" Rose questioned as they left.
"We're going to Cosmo Canyon. Barrett got done with his field work of looking for oil and he's near there. We were going to have a get together there." Tifa explained.
"I've been wanting to see Cosmo Canyon." Rose said, her eyes lighting up with excitement.
"Yeah, and you'll finally be able to meet Red and Barrett." Yuffie added.
"Okay, does he prefer Red Thirteen, Red or Nanaki?" Rose asked. The last thing she wanted to do was offend him.
"Red Thirteen is his code name that we call him when we're out on the field, Nanaki is his true name, but he doesn't mind us calling him Red." Tifa answered.
"Okay." Rose answered, her excitement growing.
A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter was a little short, but I didn't want to go too far and make it really long. In the next chapter Rose will finally meet the last members of AVALANCHE, yay! What did you guys think of Sephiroth and Aerith being alive and married? That was my little surprise for the story. When that thought came to me, I was like "Oh my gosh, I gotta do that for this story!" If you guys really weren't that surprised, I'm sorry. I was when I had the idea. Anyway, please leave your much appreciated reviews, thanks!