A/N: I have this horrible feeling that this won't come out that great, but apparently you guys really like this story so far, so…it doesn't matter, I suppose! BWAHAHAHA!
Cassie: O-o, oookkkaaayyy…Twilight's maniacal laughter aside…
Eh? Oh, SORRY! Well, as of now…I'm gonna do something unexpected! In Before Crisis, there are two playable characters, one of them being male, his nickname Rod. Well, guess what, my dear reviewers. Unexpected twist! We're all gonna twist this around, and Rod, who needs a better name than that, is gonna be the winner for now, because, one, I'm sure of who I want to be the love interest, but I kinda wanna allow it more time, since I'm still….iffy about it ^^;; So, don't stop reading this story because of this unexpected twist. Because….
Cassie: We'll get into the minds of Sephiroth and the obnoxious red-head who shall not be named!
MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAH D!
Genesis: HEY!
When will Rod make his appearance? Who knows? But for now….
ENJOY!
A month. A single month had only gone by since the invasion of the building. Only a month.
One painfully, agonizingly slow, busy, and work filled month….
Cassie was worn out, stressed, and living off the goodness that is Starbucks Coffee…Within the single month that had gone by, she had been practically everywhere. The Director had given the four first classes lists of places to go and recruit people for the program, and she was so tired from having to do such a painstakingly long job. It had been worse, because she had been partnered up with Genesis, and because he was lazy and arrogant, all the paperwork had been pushed onto her, which royally pissed her off, and made her cranky…
Currently, she was laying on the large and very comfortable leather couch that was in the lounging area on the SOLDIER floor, trying to rest a little and calm herself down. Normally, she was cheerful, calm, and relaxed…
For the first time ever in her entire 2 years of being in SOLDIER, she had snapped at Sephiroth earlier that morning. She felt so upset with herself when she realized what she had done after he had left her alone.
She winced at the bright lights in the ceiling and groaned loudly, pulling one of the pillows that were on the couch over her head and screamed into it before moving it to cover just her eyes.
"4 month vacation….where the hell are you?"
She laid there, not caring who approached her or saw her. She didn't bother to peek out from the pillow she had covering her eyes when she felt her feet being lifted up a bit before being set back down in someone's lap. She didn't need to see them to know who it was.
"What do you want, Red?"
Genesis quietly chuckled when he heard his nickname leave her mouth. "Nothing…just a little moment to relax, that's all."
"Well go do it somewhere else…this is my relaxing spot…"
"I don't see your name on it."
"Just go away and leave me alone, you obnoxious jerk…"
"How your words hurt me so!" Genesis exclaimed dramatically, stopping Cassie's foot from kicking his face. "Why are you so cranky?"
"Because I'm exhausted, stressed, and you pushed all your damn paperwork on me…I'm living off of coffee, because I haven't slept in days…This morning, I bit Sephiroth's head off…I feel like beating the snot out of something or someone…I'm tired…Soooo tired…" She dramatically sobbed, running a hand over her face.
Genesis chuckled at her dramatic behavior, pulling LOVELESS out from his coat pocket and flipping it open. He opened his mouth to read aloud, only to have a boot covered foot kick up and send it flying from his hands, all the way to the other side of the room, his Mako enhanced eyes following it as it hit the wall and fell to a floor. Anger flooded through him as he turned his gaze to stare back at the suspect who still had the pillow covering her eyes.
"What is wrong with you? That book is a piece of artwork! And you just kicked it out of my hands!"
"I'm not in the mood to listen to you quote LOVELESS. You wanna read it out loud, go and read it somewhere else…" Cassie grumbled, her tone sounding bored and uncaring.
"Get up and go pick my book up."
"Minerva gave you legs, go get it yourself…"
"Cassie…"
"No."
"Cassiopeia…" Genesis growled in warning, Cassie throwing the pillow off of her head and glaring at with him angry and tired Mako enhanced violet eyes.
"I said no!"
"Cassie-!" he was cut off as his face was met with a pillow hitting it, falling to the floor to reveal some of his hair had been mussed around from it, his eyes holding pure anger in them as they watched Cassie stand up and head for the exit.
"Get your damn book yourself…"
She left him behind and trudged down the halls tiredly, not paying attention to where she was going. She stopped walking when her cell phone began to ring, reaching a hand into her pocket and pulling it out, flipping it open and putting it to her ear.
"Lt. Mason speaking…"
'Come to my office. I have a few things we need to talk about.' Lazard's calm voice reached her ears before she shut her phone and placed it back in her pocket, heading for the SOLDIER director's office. She walked in tiredly, shutting the door behind her, mentally jumping up and down excitedly.
'YEEEESSS! HE'S GONNA GIVE ME MY 4 MONTH VACATION! WHOOO!'
"You wanted to see me, sir?"
Lazard looked up from some paperwork and nodded. "Yes. I want you to brief the newly recruited thirds this afternoon. You will be their care taker."
"Babysitting? S-sir, with all due respect, can someone else like Angeal, or Genesis do it?"
Lazard shook his head, rest his chin in his hand, "Angeal is on a mission in Modeoheim and Genesis is too busy with his afternoon duties with teaching the Seconds how to use Materia properly."
"Well, what about Sephiroth?"
"Sephiroth is too busy with handling paperwork, something that you are rather behind on yourself too, Lieutenant." Lazard reminded, causing her to curse under her breath, Lazard chuckling in amusement. "Don't worry, the group is actually not that large. It won't be that difficult and shouldn't take long."
"Ok, I'll do it…What else?"
"You will be in charge of their dorm assignments as well, and showing them around the building."
"Since when did I go from First Class, to teacher, to babysitter, to tour guide?"
"I apologize. Since the invasion last month, we've been having to hand over some jobs to other people since there aren't enough to do them. We need more First's though. I'm currently working on trying to figure out how to get more faster."
"I see. Well, I guess I'll take my leave."
"Yes, of course. You may go now, Cassiopeia. And try not to be too hard on those Thirds, hm?"
She giggled to herself, "It's not me who's the scary one, it's Sephiroth." with that, she walked out of the office and headed to the Third Class training room. As soon as she walked in, everyone became silent, the sound of shuffling being heard as they all stood attention. Cassie walked in with a calm and collected expression, her eyes closed as she moved further into the room. The ends of her purple coat floated slightly as she moved, falling the rest against the sides of her legs as she stopped and turned towards the group of Thirds, opening her eyes to peer at them all. She wanted to laugh at how they all resembled blue-berries, due to their blue uniforms. Of course, she didn't laugh. It wouldn't seem very professional, would it?
"Hm…What nice looking group of newbie's…Before I go further into the plans that have been scheduled for today, allow me to introduce myself. Lt. Cassiopeia Mason; SOLDIER, First Class. Today, I am in charge of handing out your weapons, ID's, and of course, giving you your dorm assignments, showing you to your dorms, and giving you your schedules. But first, I'll give you the rules. No fighting unless it's a scheduled one for training. You get caught screwing around for being ignorant, you get punished. If you're constantly getting in trouble, you'll be dropped from the program. Secondly, don't go into the Simulation rooms unless your instructors or mentor have given you permission or are with you. You get caught in there without permission, you get in trouble. Don't bully each other, don't deface each others belongings, don't steal from each other, and lastly, you get caught doing illegal stuff, namely drugs, pack your bags earlier, because if one of your superiors catches you, you're gone and you won't be coming back. Do I make myself clear, rookies?"
"Ma'am! Yes ma'am!" They all chanted, Cassie smiling at the action.
"Good to know you all understand. Now, let me explain how being a Third Class SOLDIER works. One, you are expected to do missions like the higher up SOLDIER's, though you will not be sent by yourselves on most missions you get. You might be paired up with someone higher ranking, or with another Third Class, and sometimes, the Turks help out SOLDIER, so you might end up having a Turk or two on a mission with you." Cassie explained as she paced back and forth in front of the group, all them watching her as she moved. "Any questions so far before I move on?" Several hands went up, and she called on the one closest to her. "You. The one with brown hair, right in the front."
"Um, how do we move up in the ranks?"
The rest of the hands went down, and she smiled. "Ah, an excellent question. Well, in order to move up in the ranks, you have to complete missions accordingly, of course. You choke on a mission, you don't move up. How we grade you on missions? Well, the commanding officer records down how you perform, and we, the higher ranking SOLDIER's, namely myself, the General, and the Captains, read over the information that your commanding officers send into us. If we find your progress very encouraging, we relay it to the Director of SOLDIER. If he finds it suitable and thinks you should move up, he'll call you in and talk to you and promote you. Sometimes, he gives you a test Simulation, which he and either one of us First Classes watches. If you pass with flying colors, welcome to Second Class. If you don't pass, but you do rather well, we talk about it, and you either pass or you don't. If you just do terribly, well…you'll have to stick to Third Class a little while longer and train harder."
"So, it's basically kind of like school?" One boy asked, curiosity clouding his Mako eyes.
Cassie nodded, "In a sense, yes. It's sort of how school works. Anymore questions before I move to the next topic?"
One hand went up this time, and of course, she called on the owner to speak up.
"Will we get to meet any of the higher up's, like the General?"
Cassie smiled at the hopeful look and excitement in the boy's eyes, nodding her head. "I am supposed to give you all a tour of the floor, so there is the possibility we might run into the General. Now then, onto the next thing. Which brings me to our next topic. Giving you all your tour of the SOLDIER floor. Please, follow me and try not to wander off."
She led them out of the training room and down through the hallways, showing them around the SOLDIER floor, and all the different places located on the floor, giving them information about each thing, and answering each question any of them had. It was the reason why Lazard had actually asked her to do the job. The last time he had asked Genesis to show the newest recruited Thirds around, he hadn't even done much to help them. When Sephiroth had last done it…one of them had peed his pants, he was so scared. Most of them had been utterly terrified of Sephiroth…Cassie wanted to laugh at how humorous it was sometimes, because Sephiroth, to her, was like a giant teddy bear that just looked cold and hateful sometimes.
Cassie could be a scary person when she wanted to be, but she wanted to make people feel comfortable and safe. It was just her nature…unless she was trying to piss Genesis off, but that's a different story.
After an hour, she had finished giving them their tour and assigning them all their dorms. As soon as she was finished with her duty for the day, she began to walk back to her apartment, planning on changing into some more comfortable clothes before going down to the mess hall for dinner. She was a bit surprised to find two people, one of them familiar, camping out in front of her apartment door, causing her to raise an eyebrow as she stopped and stood in front of them, looking at them curiously.
"Er, Ryouta? Is…there a reason why you and your friend here are camping out in front of my door?"
Said russet haired boy looked up from his spot on the ground, his green eyes full of surprise when he noticed the female SOLDIER standing in front of him and his counterpart for the day, the red head next to him glancing at Lt. Mason for a minute before closing his hazel eyes and resuming his cool looking act of leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Hi, Cassie!" Ryouta said cheerfully, standing back up on his feet and straightening his jacket a bit while smiling at the young Lieutenant. The now 16 year old Turk had grown onto Cassie, and she thought of him as the little brother she never had, treating him as so.
She smiled back and gave a small wave, "Hello, Ryouta. Listen, I know I haven't seen you since I took you out for your birthday last month, but, um…camping out in front of my apartment is kinda creepy…"
Ryouta blushed while laughing sheepishly, "Ehehe, sorry to creep you out, but I was just heading to the cafeteria for dinner, so I stopped by to wait on you to see if you wanted to walk down there together. Catch up a bit, y'know?"
Cassie blinked before she sent him a grin, "Sure, that sounds nice! But, um…who's your friend over there?" Cassie asked, pointing to the other Turk that was silently leaning against the wall in a calm and collected way, his dark auburn hair hanging down in his face a little, while it was spiked up in several spots. His suit was nice and wrinkle free, the tie perfectly tied, making him look extremely professional.
He was kind of cute looking too…
"Oh, him? He's a new Turk. Um, his real name…I don't really know it, but everyone calls him Rod since he uses and Electro Mag Rod."
Cassie quirked an eyebrow at that. "Rod"? What the hell kind of name is "Rod"? It didn't sound…well, very proper…? People might get the wrong idea of why people called him that, even if it was clear since he used an EMR as a weapon.
"Um, do you mind letting me know your real name?" Cassie asked quietly, Rod peeking one eye open to glance at her.
"…It's Zane…Call me whichever one you want, I don't really care…"
Cassie nodded and smiled, "Well, nice to meet you. Just give me a minute, Ryouta. I'm gonna change into some different clothes." Cassie said, pulling the key to her door out while Ryouta groaned loudly.
"What is it with you girls and always changing your outfits?"
Cassie giggled while she shut the door and ran to her bedroom, digging out a deep blue tank top, deciding to keep her shorts that she was already wearing on, and pulling her large knee high boots off and switching into a pink pair of Converse. She ran out and locked her door quickly before smiling at the two Turks that had waited on her, taking off with them to walk down to the cafeteria together.
"And then he got the Cure materia mixed up with the Poison materia, and instead of curing the kid, he just made it worse by poisoning him!" Genesis laughed, Sephiroth smirking at his story while Angeal only gave a small chuckle of his own, Cassie frowning at how the story could be thought as funny.
"You did heal him though, right?"
Genesis looked at her with a frown, "I may be mean to my students, but I'm not that cruel. Of course I healed him!"
Cassie rolled her eyes at how defensive he got, going back to picking at her food with her fork. She stabbed a piece of steak with her fork and bit it off, chewing slowly and quietly as she thought to herself. As she had walked down to the cafeteria with Zane and Ryouta (Rod or Zane, she didn't know which to call him, so she settled for Zane) Zane had told her a bit about himself. He was native of Midgar, and had become the leader of his ex-Bike Gang when he was 18 (he was a year older than her), and had joined the Turks because he had tried to steal a motorcycle that had been parked in front of the building and had gotten caught and beaten up for it, the first time he had lost. So, he had joined the Turks, as a result. After that, Cassie didn't ask anymore about him. He had been nice when he had answered her questions, and before they went their separate ways for dinner, he had asked her for her cell number so he could call her up sometime to train with him.
Of course, she didn't turn the offer down and gave him her number.
She caught the apple that was suddenly thrown at her in mid air, bringing it to her mouth and taking a bite out of it, earning a sound of shock and anger from Genesis since it was his apple, and laughter from Angeal and a quiet chuckle from Sephiroth.
"You threw it, so it's your own fault…" Cassie said, taking another bite from the apple while Genesis scoffed and looked away to glare at his peas. "So, Angeal…how was your mission in Modeoheim?"
"Cold," Angeal said, sighing loudly, "It was cold and it was snowing like crazy. Couldn't hardly see anything, the wind was blowing the snow around so much." He yawned loudly, and Cassie knew he was probably exhausted from his mission, so she didn't ask him more about it.
"How was your Materia Class with the Seconds?"
Genesis grunted in response, not looking at her or opening his mouth, letting her know he was still upset about her eating his apple. She rolled her eyes at his behavior, pulling a pocket knife out from her pocket and cutting off the part of the apple she had bitten off before handing it back Genesis, who took it back happily and bit out of it.
"It was fine, except for when that one kid poisoned someone on accident when he was supposed to use cure on him. It was boring, and it seemed like it was never ending."
She nodded and looked at the silver-haired general that was sitting next to her. "How'd all your paperwork go?"
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, a common trait that Cassie had noticed that he did a lot when he was either tired, stressed, or both. "It was…exhausting. I finished the last piece of it right before dinner was about to start."
She gave him a sympathetic smile, "If I hadn't been busy with my duties for today, I would've come and helped you out."
He gave her a small smile. She was always helping him finish large stacks of paperwork that he would get piled onto his desk whenever she was free. It actually helped a lot, because it went by faster and got done sooner. Though she was in SOLDIER, the 18 year old had the smarts to work in the in one of departments, namely the Science department as a lab tech. She wasn't exactly what he would call a genius since she wasn't as smart as he was, but she was rather smart, and he would give her that.
"What about your day?" Angeal asked.
She shrugged, "Meh…It was okay. My group of Thirds were well behaved, and they were a small group. They were all wondering if they'd get to meet General Sephiroth on the tour. Brought back the memory of that time one kid peed his pants because you asked him if he had a question." She giggled, and Angeal chuckled quietly with Sephiroth, while Genesis didn't really do anything.
A loud commotion coming from the other side of the room caused most of the people in the cafeteria to go quiet, the sounds of someone yelling clear as a bell.
"What the hell? You do that on purpose?"
"W-what? No, it was an accident! I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to-"
"I'm gonna smash your face in you little punk…"
"G-gah…I…I can't breathe…Let me go!"
"Shaddup you little wimp! I'm gonna have fun doing-"
"HEY!"
The 2nd Class SOLDIER glanced over in the direction the shout had come from, his eyes falling on Cassie.
"Put him down, right now."
"Psh, go bug someone else…"
"That's an order!"
"Whatever…" He pulled his fist back to punch the 3rd Class, but he never got the chance to do so, since a fist connected with his face and sent him flying back into a wall, sliding down it and onto the floor. Everyone's jaws were dropped and their eyes wide as they stared at the one who had sent the 3rd Class flying into the wall, all of them silent. Cassie moved down and helped the one who had almost had his face beaten up to his feet, trying to get him to catch his breath. She sat him down on a bench that was currently free and looked around the cafeteria before looking over at the one she had just sent flying.
"You don't 'whatever' a superior officer, kid. And you certainly don't go around beating up lower ranking people than you. What do we tell you maggots in the program when we brief you?"
Most of the SOLDIER's and cadets stood from their seats and stood at attention. "Ma'am! Not to talk back when given orders, Ma'am!"
She smiled at them and signaled that they could sit down, glancing back at the 3rd Class. "Hm. Funny how your co-workers seem to know that, yet you don't."
The response was a groan, and Sephiroth walked over to stand next to her. "I believe the punishment for talking back to an outranking superior is demotion. Or we could just have you thrown out of the program." The general pointed to two cadets sitting nearby, "You two. Take him to the infirmary."
"Yes sir!" The two cadets saluted, moving over to help the kid that their Lieutenant had just sent flying into the wall, carrying him out of the cafeteria. As soon as he was gone, things went back to normal, and Cassie rubbed her hand that she had used to slug the boy.
"Hmm…stupid punks that ignore the rules we give them…" She grumbled, Sephiroth patting her shoulder.
"That was quite a punch you threw, Lieutenant. Rather impressive." Sephiroth complimented with a smirk, Cassie rolling her eyes.
"Oh, hush…you and I both know I didn't go full strength on him."
Sephiroth only chuckled before he became serious once more. "While you were having fun, the Director called me. He said he needs to see us all in his office right away."
"Right. Let's not keep him waiting then, huh?"
A/N: Genesis glaring at peas XD...HAHAHA! Meh, this was okay….not as good as I was aiming for, but okay….Well…leave a review, yeah? LATER TATERS!