Tifa watched as the creature slept in the small cage that they had underneath Seventh Heaven. She tilted her head as she saw how peacefully the creature slept and its movements within its confined space. She hadn't seen anything like it. The body was an unusual colour and the creature looked rather human underneath the monstrous features. Also, Tifa thought it looked like a human girl. There was no ominous or threatening aura around it either, but Barret was convinced that the creature was dangerous. Shaking her head with a sad sigh, Tifa went up to the bar to clean it.
Sephiroth returned to Zack's office in the late afternoon to find Bianca dealing with all of Zack's work. He cleared his throat sharply and Bianca lifted her head, smiling at him warmly.
"Hello, Daddy!" she greeted and wheeled herself over to him.
"Bianca, what did I tell you about doing Uncle Zack's paperwork for him?" Sephiroth asked tiredly.
"But Uncle Zack was having a date with Aerith and I wanted to help him…" Bianca pouted and Sephiroth chuckled, planting a kiss on her forehead.
"Uncle Zack is taking advantage of you," Sephiroth said while ruffling Bianca's hair "That is bad. Uncle Zack must learn to take care of his own work."
Bianca huffed as she neatened Zack's desk up before Sephiroth took her wheelchair and began wheeling her out of the office. Bianca suddenly gasped and gripped the armrest of her wheelchair whilst gripping her heart.
"Bianca, what's wrong?" Sephiroth asked as he crouched down to her level.
Bianca took steady breaths and sighed, shaking her head.
"Nothing," she replied and smiled at her father "I think something I ate earlier went down the wrong way but it fixed itself. Nothing to worry about."
Sephiroth sighed and hugged Bianca close. Everyone said that he was too overprotective over Bianca but he was just too scared to lose someone else. Also, if Bianca died, he felt as if he failed Anne. Bianca was so much like Anne, he didn't want to lose her the same way he lost Anne. As he laid his head on Bianca's lap, he closed his eyes when Bianca stroked his hair gently.
Katie perked up as the creature in the cage stirred. It propped itself up on one elbow, its bright red eyes blinking open. It looked around curiously, hissing softly. It got up and placed a hand on the bars silently. Katie saw its overgrown black nails tapping the metal patiently and its tongue flicker out to taste the air.
"Who are you?" it asked her and Katie straightened.
"My name's Katie," she replied "Wow, you can talk?"
"Yes, I can," the creature frowned as if insulted and looked around "Where is this?"
"Oh, we're underneath Seventh Heaven," Katie replied quickly and looked around "It's a bit of a mess but it gives us shelter."
"Seventh…Heaven?" the creature looked around "Am I dead then?"
Katie blinked and shook her head.
"No, Seventh Heaven is the name of the bar," she smiled.
"Bar?"
The creature looked around and then leaned its forehead on the metal bars with a sigh.
"So, what do you call yourself?" Katie asked as she found the silence awkward.
"Mmm?" the creature looked up at her "Anne. My friends call me Anne therefore I call myself Anne."
Katie felt taken aback. Despite the grotesque appearance of her body, the creature sounded just as human was her face looked.
"Anne?" she echoed "Just Anne?"
"Yes," the creature frowned "Why does it surprise you?"
"Wait, so you're not called anything else? Like, I don't know, a Chaosbringer or something?"
"Before I was named Subject Jenova A," the creature now known as Anne replied "Nothing else."
"Well, not meaning to be rude, but what's your species?" Katie grimaced.
"I was born a human," Anne replied and Katie sighed.
"Anne, I'm sorry to tell you," she said slowly "But you're not human."
"I'm aware I don't look human," Anne snapped with an angry hiss, clenching on the bars "But I was still born one and nothing can change that!"
It let go of the bars and Katie's eyes widened when she saw it had left dents. Heck, if Anne squeezed just a little bit tighter, it would have crushed them like paper.
"Um…just one minute!" she said as she ran up to the lift and went up to Seventh Heaven.
The guys were huddled around a table, mumbling over some blueprints to the next reactor they were going to blow up. Tifa was listening to Marlene talking while cleaning up glasses by the bar. Katie cleared her throat.
"Um…it woke up," she announced and everyone looked up "It's called itself Anne and it thinks it's human."
Everyone looked at each other before rushing to the lift to go down to see the creature. It was unfolding and folding its wings curiously, unfolding them to run a clawed hand down it then folding them to make sure they didn't get damaged by the little space in the cage. It looked up at them and sighed.
"Why am I here?" it asked.
"You were a threat to society so we locked ya up," Barret grunted with folded arms.
"I don't want to hurt anyone," it said softly.
"Yeah right!"
Anne gasped in fright as Barret slammed a fist against the bars.
"What are you doing here and what do you want?!" he interrogated as he ignored the way its eyes brimmed themselves with tears.
"I…I…"
Anne covered its face and began crying. Tifa pulled a sympathetic face and led Barret away.
"Let me talk to her," she said and approached the cage "Hey, hey, don't cry."
"I'm scared," Anne cried as she looked up at Tifa "I just want to find my friends and have things go back to normal…"
"There, there," Tifa opened the cage up and stepped in "Why, you're not a monster at all."
Anne sniffed and carefully poked Tifa's face with her tongue. Tifa smiled and let herself be prodded and poked until Anne sought comfort in her arms. Tifa hugged her, flinching from how cold she was, and rubbed her back. Tifa was used to Anne's cold body temperature from living in Nibelheim.
"Come on, let me show you my friends," she said and carefully led Anne out to Barret who held his gun at the ready.
Anne shivered as she looked at the massive shiny gun but Tifa kept dragging her over to him and slowly placed Anne's hand on Barret's arm. Anne squeaked in terror as Barret let out a terrifying howl.
"Sweet fucking Shiva!" he yelled and leapt back, nearly squashing Biggs and Katie "Why is she so damn cold?!"
Anne hid behind Tifa and quaked at Barret's booming voice. Tifa petted her head soothingly as Barret rubbed his arm to get it warm.
"So…welcome to the family," she grinned at Anne.