Chapter 13: The Mission

From: SOLDIER

To: Felicis Gainsborough

SOLDIER first class, Felicis Gainsborough.

Your mission is to assassinate ex-SOLDIER

Zack Fair and bring back the subject he has

with him. This is an order.

I hadn't seen that name in four years. "Zack Fair," I whispered to myself. "Zack Fair." It was almost as if the name had become foreign on my tongue. "Zack Fair," I repeated one last time. "How did that guy look again?" I laughed to myself realizing that I really didn't remember. "It's okay," I told myself. "It has been four years after all, I bet he doesn't even remember how you look like either." I just kept on reading the message over and over again, maybe they'd meant to send it to another person. Of course they didn't though, it clearly said my name at the beginning of the message. "Seriously, they can be kind of cruel can't they? Giving me this mission." Then I looked at the empty bed next to mine. To think that Zack used to sleep there, and now I was going to have to kill him. But then again Zack is also cruel. I thought. All this time I thought he was dead, all I wanted to do was say sorry and he never even came to see me. Reading over the message one last time I wondered who was the subject that I was supposed to bring back. Then I grabbed Fascinare and put on my uniform. A lot had changed after four years. First of all, SOLDIER found out that I was a girl. Thankfully they made an exception and let me stay. Next, I was a First Class now. Finally, not only was I a First Class I was the best first class, rivaling even Sephiroth in his fame, but Sephiroth's fame had completely transformed in to betrayal and hate.

Once I walked out of my room I was greeted by everyone I walked by. Men were horrible people after all, especially when I was the only girl amongst them and they knew it. The only thing that was stopping them from doing more than hitting on me was the fact that I could kill them with my bare hands if I wanted to. Not only were they horrible, they were cowards, or maybe you could say they're smart in their own way. Once I stepped foot out of the Shinra building I was cornered by Tseng. "Move, I'm not afraid to kill you." I told him fearlessly.

"That, I know already." He replied.

"Then move." I shoved him aside and began to walk away.

"It's about your mission to assassinate Zack," Tseng said. I stopped walking and turned around. Information sure traveled fast among the Turks.

"What about it," I replied.

"We were hoping that you would work with us on this mission." He told me.

"And by that you mean don't kill Zack, and lie to Shinra. Do you think I'd put my life on the line like that?" I scoffed.

"I'd think that if it's for him you would do anything." Tseng said.

I looked at him wide eyed. I was one second away from cutting him in two. He had no right to say something like that to me. "Well some time has passed Tseng," I hissed. "If you haven't noticed I'm not exactly the same as I was four years ago." Then I turned around and began walking again.

"I have a package to deliver to him!" Tseng tried to stop me. "88 letters, from Aerith. I'm sure he'd want to read them."

"Like I care about him and that woman," I snapped continuing to walk.

"She's your sister! You have to care!" Tseng snapped back.

"Don't tell me what I have to care about! I care about a lot of things, but Aerith Gainsborough is not one of them!" Then I muttered. "She's not even my biological sister." And finally left Tseng behind.

I went to the house that all of my friends were living in, in the slums. Though you would step in to the small space and think that it didn't really look like a slum house. Computers were lined up on the walls, solely for Let's hacking skills that we tended to take advantage of. "Hey, got a job for me," Let grinned already knowing by the look on my face as I entered the house.

"Yeah, search where Hojo's soldiers are headed. I'm pretty sure that they would already be on his tail anyways," I told him.

"Him? Who's him?" Rael asked.

"Zack," I replied.

"Black haired, blue eyed Zack Fair?" Rael asked surprised. "The one that disappeared for 4 years?"

"Yeah," I said with a little bitterness in my voice. "That guy."

"Finally looking for him?" Aurale asked. "It's about time."

"No," I replied giving her my phone and showing her the message. Her eyes widened and everyone gathered around her to see.

"Felicis…" Serae began.

"I don't think that you should do this," Merule finished.

"Don't you think it's time to quit SOLDIER anyways Felicis?" Larch asked. "They're always making you do things that you don't want to do."

"Can't," I replied. "They're always giving me important information. I need to stick with them until I find something that can help me with finding Xantus, and everyone else." I felt like I would never be able to live with myself if I just forgot about looking for them. Even if it was just once I wanted to see all of us together again. I took my phone back. "Can you guys back me up with this mission?" I asked.

Their faces lighted up. I knew that they loved it when I asked them for help. They were always against me going off alone on missions without help.

"Maybe we should try out for SOLDIER also. I'm sure we could all handle the surgery," Larch suggested.

"You guys can't, anyways girls aren't allowed to be SOLDIER remember? I'm the only exception, and I wouldn't let you guys become SOLDIER even if you wanted to." I told them. "It feels a lot better when you guys are here, and safe."

All of a sudden the computer monitor began to beep and Let sat himself back on to his seat and started typing quickly. "I just have some codes I have to break," he said. "Easy stuff." His fingers moved over the keys lightning fast and in less than I minute we were in. "They're moving towards Midgar," Let told us. "Zack should be on the outskirts."

"He's trying to come back," I said quietly to myself. "Because he wants to see Aerith." I thought of the 88 letters that Tseng had for him to read. I'm sure he would want to read them. Tseng had said. He really would want to read those. Then I shook the thought out of my head. "Let's go then," I told them. They all began to gear up and loaded themselves with weapons that were stashed all around the small house.

"Where'd you leave the motorcycles, bro?" Rael asked Varst.

"They're in that garage we bought in sector 8," Varst told him, slipping a knife in to his belt, and little vials of poisonous gas. "You guys should probably get air masks to, wouldn't want any of you breathing in any of this stuff."

"Is there any way that you could make some medicine that could make all of us immune to the gas?" Merule sighed. "It's tiring having to wear these masks all the time. You could save us a lot of pain."

"The way you're a pain to me?" Varst grinned at her. Merule's cheeks flushed a bright red. Varst loved it when she got red, he would always manage to embarrass her in any way he could.

"No need for couple arguments now," Aurale sighed, pulling her sea blue hair back in to a pony tail.

I tightened my pony tail, and agreed with her. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yeah," they all said. We all ran to the parking garages in Sector 8 to go retrieve our motorbikes, we snapped on our biking goggles, and hopped on. Aurale and I took one bike, Merule and Serae took the other, and Varst and Rael took the last one. I revved the engine and then took off in a flash. On motorbikes this fast it would take one or two ours to find Zack in the outskirts.

"Are you really serious about this mission, Felicis!" Aurale yelled so that I could hear her over the engine.

"I've never taken any other mission this seriously!" I replied to her.

Zack Fair, I'm coming for you.