The Revealed Crisis

Chapter 1 - Of Soldiers and Training

While Sixteen started up the viewing, everyone settled into their respective groups.

The Turks were clustered together while being close enough to watch over Rufus, with Reeve being as close to them as one could be while trying to stay away.

Avalanche sat clustered around Marlene, with the child sitting on Barret's knee, and Tifa trying to be as close to Cloud, who was trying to sit somewhere else.

Cid laid back in a seat with Shera a few seats over, leaving him plenty of room to stretch.

Yuffie sat by herself, her eyes darting back and forth between potential victims and the screen that had yet to start.

Vincent stood near the rear of the room, eyes scanning over all.

Aerith sat in the middle, unaffected by the tension between Avalanche and the Shinra groups.

After a moment, the screen began playing, and Midgar appeared to dramatic music. Suddenly, as the view switch to the tracks, a train blew past. A helicopter flew by mentioning how Wutai troops had taken control of the train. As the helicopter drew closer a young man appears at the helicopter's doors, before shouting and jumping out, his companion's shout lost behind him.

Aerith's face went ashen at the sight of her long missing boyfriend, a sharp reminder of how young he once was and not burdened like how he was before he went to Nibelheim.

Tseng's facial expression didn't change, with the clenching of his hands little indication that he reacted to his friend's reappearance, with Reno and Rude the only witnesses.

Yuffie's reaction was on another spectrum though. "Hey! That's the bad guy I beat up and stole materia from!"

At this everyone turned to face her inquiring how she knows him. Before anyone can say anything the man's companion joined him on the train, reminding him of the mission.

At once the man, addressed as Zack, grinned in excitement and began running down the train. He makes it over several cars before suddenly, gunfire breaks out of the car below him. In his attempts to evade it, he falls over and as he gets back up he shouts a quick greeting as he rushes off. In front of him, several troops have appeared and have begun firing at him.

People who have never watched SOLDIER or have worked beside them let out a gasp as they saw how easily Zack cut through them. Cloud scoffed at their reactions; if they were that impressed by a Second Class, they would be more than satisfied with his being an ex First. For some reason though, the sight of the man made him feel uneasy. Did he know him while he was in SOLDIER?

As he made his way through the troops, up ahead additional troops appeared with RPG's. In seconds the SOLDIER is in the air, soaring over the rockets and soldiers in a single leap, smirking while he does so. Shouting his name and rank, SOLDIER Second Class Zack Fair cut the connection between the train cars, allowing the enemies to fall behind.

It took a second for anyone to respond.

"Damn Spike, we should have hired you to distract Shinra by yourself!" Barret laughed out, watching people in Shinra uniforms getting tossed about even though they weren't actually Shinra put him in a good mood. His hands covered Marlene's eyes so that she couldn't see the violence, but one could easily see her head trying to get a good view.

Cloud nodded, his unease towards the man growing. His fighting style was so similar to his own, did they train together, if so why can he not remember him?

Aerith simply continued to smile over Zack's antics as he jumped off the train and into the station.

Zack was contacted on his phone by the man whose name was revealed to be Angeal. While being reminded of where to go, enemy troops appeared and opened fire on him. After dealing with the threat, he moved on to a plaza area, where a Behemoth was rampaging about.

The audience watched as Zack danced around the Behemoth, dodging all of its attacks before finishing it off, cheering as Zack put away his blade.

A blade appeared at Zack's back along with a reprimand. At this Zack began to turn around.

"That bastard!" All eyes turn to Cloud, his hands gripping the chairs armrests, knuckles slowly turning white.

Tifa's own look was that of horror, her own face turning as white as the demon appeared before their eyes.

Sephiroth unleashed a series of blows at Zack. Returning to Zack, he attempts to push back against the superior strength that Sephiroth possesses, before being thrown back with his blade breaking. The screen changed to Angeal getting a message and running off.

The audience watched with bated breath as Sephiroth crept close to Zack before finally angling his blade and stabbing forward.

Clang! Zack looked up to see the remains of his blade being held by Angeal, blocking Murasame from piercing his body. With a sigh at Zack, Angeal stood up, with Sephiroth taking a step back. With a few presses of a button on his phone, it is revealed that the entire mission was a simulation.

"You mean to tell me the entire time the whole thing was fake!" Barret.

"Bloody & $&!" Cid gave his own view on the matter.

Rufus and the rest of Shinra knew though, those simulations can kill.

The comments quieted down when Angeal brought up Zack's still broken sword.

"It can cause actual harm?!"

Aerith gave a worried glance towards Tseng, who merely gave a small nod towards the screen, at which Aerith relaxed. Zack survives and he would eventually meet her. Her spirits fell again as she realized that it could mean they would watch what happened to him. While some part of her desperately wants to know what happened, a part of her that knows fears for details. Remembering his hunched shoulders and his fat away gaze on worse days caused her to shiver.

While Zack is still staring at his sword Angeal began walking away, leaving Zack looking confused with one last saying.

"If you want to be a hero, you need to have dreams… and honor."

All was silent for a moment after Angeal left as all pondered what he meant, when the moment was ruined by Sixteen.

"I like this guy!"

—-

A/N

I really should stop writing this series on my phone and write it on a computer, like my other series.

Don't have any real notes this time, though advice on how to handle their reactions would be nice.

Advice and Beta-ing would always be appreciated

As always, read, review, critique, help me

Next up, Wutai! Before! During! Yuffie! That doesn't make sense!