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A long radio antenna slapped against the chalkboard sharply. The crack of the collision snapped any sleepy military cadets in the room to attention immediately. "Stay with me class! Now when mako energy is condensed it is biologically transformed into the solidified structure of a materia orb. Now, a materia orb may seem like just a stone with magic, if you will, contained within it, but it is much more in depth than a simple crystal." A short, spectacle-adorning man of about fifty years stood before a large class. He adjusted his golden-rimmed glasses with his left hand while he spoke and pointed to diagrams that he had drawn on the large chalkboard in front of him. "Contained within the materia orbs are, once again in theory, generations of knowledge perceived by the old inhabitants of the planet. When we use magic, which in turn is not a suitable title for such an energy force, we call upon the knowledge of the Ancients in the form of magical energy. This energy takes on the form of whatever the ancient that created it conceptualized it from. That is how we get elemental, and status magic. The origin of summon magic has yet to be proven, but speculation states that it is the contained life-forces of ancient beings that were unable to be regenerated by the planet." "Professor Gast. When you say the word regenerated, do you mean absorbed as a form of kinetic energy or actually reused by the planet?" A young cadet of about sixteen years old spoke up. He sat in the front row, as if eager to learn, and had a perplexed look upon his handsome features. The cadet had long silver hair that fell just below his shoulder blades and a set of two long bangs that draped around the corners of his odd eyes. His eyes were very peculiar and professor Gast found it difficult to focus on them directly for too long. They were bright emerald green, and glowed strongly with the power of the mako induced in his body. The only difference of his eyes than to his fellow cadets were that his pupils were catlike. As weird as it seemed though, they were quite beautiful to look at, as the girls often spent much time doing. All around, the cadet was an intimidating, sharp, young man. "Do you mean to say that the lifestream theory is of fact?" "Excellent question Sephiroth. The theory of life returning to the planet as a life force is not proven by scientific record but after researching it for many years I have come to the personal conclusion that it is the only acceptable explanation. It is more of a model observation to show how the planet works." Gast turned from his board swiftly and dabbed the antenna in the cadet's direction. "So, in reality, both of your observatory questions are effective to this study. And for the record, I do believe in the lifestream theory." "Thank you professor." Sephiroth typed a few side notes in his black laptop computer after the professor turned away. The shiny surface of the small panel gleamed as he clicked the screen shut and slid the piece of equipment into a small satchel. Professor Gast dismissed the class as the silver haired young man arose from his seat and started for the exit. "Oh, Mr. Sephiroth, if I could have a word with you before you leave I would be appreciative." The cadet nodded and headed over to the elder professor. "Yes Professor Gast?" Sephiroth tossed his hair back and walked over to the large, paper stacked desk. The young cadet was quite tall compared to the average cadet that quickly shuffled past him to reach the exit. He was about six feet tall, and his body was quite fit for someone of his age. He was well above average muscularly due to his training over the past few years. He seemed to be older than he actually was. "Well Sephiroth, I have been watching your studies over the past few years very closely. I have never had a student as successful as you have been. As I look at your attendance and point records here it is clear that you miss nothing. There are one million, two hundred thousand, and fifty three points out of one million, two hundred thousand here. It is obvious that you have never missed a point and have over fifty extra credit points backed up. Your fighting skills are above even most of the SOLDIERs that we have here at Shinra Incorporated." Gast clicked the small mouse in his right hand and brought up more records. "Your fighting skills are what I am most interested though. It appears you have excellent knowledge of many types of weaponry, specifically the sword. Your overall analysis percentages rate you as having an astonishing ninety nine percent degree of the entire university of Shinra. That means that your statistics eclipse ninety nine percent of our cadets. The one percent difference is just the minority of dropouts." Gast focused his spectacles and Sephiroth crossed his arms. "So what is it that you needed me for?" "I want you to stop gaining all of these useless Master Degrees at this university and move onto the ranks of SOLDIER. I'm setting up a time tomorrow to have you take the final exam and test out of this university." Gast sighed and looked up from the humming computer console. Sephiroth had the happiest face he had ever seen on such a stern person. "Thank you professor!" Sephiroth's emerald eyes narrowed with determination as he saluted the elder man and exited the room. Sephiroth sprinted down the halls, his laptop barely hanging onto his shoulder. He turned a corner sharply and nearly ran a considerably cute girl over in his celebration. She huddled up away from him in shock but melted against a locker in ecstasy as he pulled her in and gave her the biggest kiss she had ever had. All of her girlfriends instantly began to shriek like girls at a boy band concert. He stopped abruptly when he came to his dorm room. The overjoyed young man fumbled with his keys excitedly as he entered the small dormitory. He slammed the door and turned on the stereo at full blast as he prepared his fighting suit and weapon for the next day. Out of the closet came a black suit of body armor that had been issued to all cadets at the start of they're freshmen year. He laid the fighting suit across a table in the corner of the room as he scanned the wall for his weapon. Hanging on the wall, held by two hooks, was a black handled Katana sword. The curved blade was casketed inside of the black sheath but it still looked vicious as he grabbed the five-foot long sword from its resting place. He placed his best materia into the materia slots of the hilt and hooked the sheath to the waist of the body armor. "Time to start building my dreams.SOLDIER."
It was early morning at Hyrule Castle, and everything was just starting to get going. The shops were opening quickly so that the early bird shoppers could get an early start. Everything seemed well. The beautiful sun was just rising over the horizon of the castle, and joyfully cast it's rays upon the bustling town folk in the market. It was a sight to behold, as many people just stopped what they were doing to watch the amazing sunrise. Back at the castle, though, there was fear bursting across young princess Zelda's face. "Father, father!" Zelda burst into the king's chamber and dashed into her father's arms. He questioningly looked down at her and hugged her back. "The nightmare, the prophecy, it's back and it's closer than ever. I can hear the echoes of Ganondorf's threats and curses now! We need Link back here immediately. Ganondorf is going to escape! The sages cannot hold him for much longer!" "Ho, ho! Calm down my dear. We will send a messenger to the boy immediately if you really believe that this is about to happen." The king patted her daughter on the back. Zelda leapt up and thanked her father before dashing out of the room and heading to the post office on the first floor. The beautiful, young princess threw open the creaky, wooden door and walked inside. "We need you to deliver a letter to Kokiri Forest, if you will." Zelda grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled down her message quickly with a fountain pen. The postman in the office just arched an eyebrow in question but nodded with respect. "Give this to Link. Tell him that it is urgent and he must read immediately. Thank you." "Yes your highness! I will leave immediately." The postman stuffed a red hat on his messy brown head and scuffled out of the room the instant she handed him the letter. Zelda walked out of the room and headed down the large stone stairs that lead out of the castle. None of the knights paid attention to her departure. They just stood silently around the courtyard. The young princess pattered down the dirt path towards the main gateway to the market. A slight breeze cut through the small valley as she made her way and tossed her beautiful golden hair about. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, taking in the aroma of the peacefulness. "Please come, Link." Zelda whispered into the wind with hope tainting her words. They drifted like an echo in the draft as she made her way towards the gateway. The knight opened the gate for the young princess and she headed into the Hyrule Market. Nobody really noticed her as she slipped inside the Temple of Time, which stood ominously in the back of the town. Her silky, pink, dress blew in her descent as she glided to the stone alter. The room was perfectly silenced. One could have heard a pin drop. The walls were crafted with finely cut stones. The gray pewter color of the bricks seemed to glow ominously all around the room. No building in the entire kingdom could have possibly matched the Temple's beauty and perfection. The alter was crafted of carven onyx gemstone and had the three spiritual stones of forest, fire, and water floating above it. There were three small placements in the stone that were glowing with the power of the spiritual stones. With all three powers united, the golden Triforce symbol glowed brightly above the doorway of time. The three golden triangles seemed to stare at the teenage girl below, staring at them. Zelda often came to this place to speak with the Sage of Light, Rauru. He was an elderly man with an impressive gut and beard of the same. His eyes told stories of millennia of war, evil, and heroes. Zelda mentally connected inside the Temple of Light to speak with the elder Sage. "Are you in there Rauru?" "Yes Zelda. I am here as always." Rauru's booming voice echoed in Zelda's mind through the telepathy connection. "What do you need?" "I can hear you struggling in my dreams, Rauru. How much longer do we have before Ganondorf escapes?" Zelda rubbed her temples as she awaited the powerful sage's strained reply. Rauru was the only sage left in the Temple of Light. He was the only sage left to keep Ganondorf held within his cell in the evil realm. "Yes princess. The power of this evil has grown tenfold since we placed him in there. It has only been a year since we sealed the portal to the evil realm and he has already almost broken the seal." Rauru cried out in pain as Ganondorf fought against the gateway. Zelda began to sweat as she heard the commotion. "I can't.hold him.for very much.longer." "Hang on Rauru, don't let him defeat you!" Zelda shouted as she felt the sage's power begin to fade. "Summon Link.I can't hold on.for much.longer." Rauru broke the telepathy transmission with his plea. Zelda leapt to her feet. It was late. She must have been meditating for several hours to keep such a long telepathic wave. She straightened out her wrinkled dress and headed out of the temple. Sun was down and people were just beginning to close they're shops.
The night was silent. Link stood atop the castle like a gargoyle. His beautiful Master Sword dripped with blood like a river of death. Ganondorf's slain body lay before him in a pile of dead meat. He had sliced him to pieces, his hatred vented through the edge of his sword. "Finally." "Mr. Link! There is a message from the princess of Hyrule for you. It is urgent she says. Read immediately!" The postman had just reached the Kokiri Forest by ten PM. He thought that it was ridiculous that he had to deliver letters for children but his duty was to serve the royal family, and that he did. Link walked out of his sleeping quarters and yawned. His hood had fallen off and his should length hair fell around his face and ears. He squinted to see who it was and did a front flip off of the high balcony of his small home and landed before the man. It was a twenty- foot drop but he was skilled at landing like a feline. The postman scratched his head and walked out of the woods after Link thanked him. He was amazed at the versatility the kid had. He reminisced when he was young and could move around easily. Now he was middle aged and wearing a red hat. He started his two- hour walk back to the castle. "An urgent letter from Zelda that must be read immediately? Good timing on her part considering I just got back." Link opened the small envelope and unfolded the letter. It read:
Dear Link,
I am terribly sorry to greet you home with this kind of news but Ganondorf has almost broken the seal to the evil realm. In a matter of days he could escape and destroy us all. Rauru has commented that his evil power has increased tenfold. It is undoubted that we need your help. As the Hero of Time, putting Ganondorf away the first time, it is my request as the princess of Hyrule that you take the Master Sword once again and stop the King of Evil. Please Link. You are our only hope.
Sincerely Princess Zelda
"Oh my god. This can't be happening. I must hurry to the Temple of Time before the seal breaks." Link quickly climbed the long wooden ladder that lead to his room and threw open the curtains viciously. "I need to get some equipment quickly." The blonde haired boy grabbed his red- rimmed Mirror Shield off of its hook on the wall and strapped the heavy shield to his back. He kicked his chest open and grabbed his red and blue tunics and tossed them, along with his Golden Gauntlets into the satchel he had just unloaded them from only a few hours ago. He tossed his three magic crystals into the bag and did the same with his Longshot and Fairy Bow. From his sword display he grabbed his Gilded Sword and sheathed it on his back. Before dashing out of his home he threw his four special masks into the bag. The barely fit with all of his belongings stuffed inside the satchel. Link dashed outside and leapt off of the edge of his balcony. He landed with ease and headed toward the large, hollowed out tree trunk that acted as an entrance and exit to the large forest. Moss seemed to grow out of every little crack and crevice in the old wooden hole. Link paid no heed to the sights of the forest as he awakened Epona from her resting place next to the large log. Dew covered her brown back and some leaves were stuck to the moisture. Link groomed the mess from her fur before getting on her strong back and heading her to the castle. "I can't believe he is going to escape. I thought he was there for good. I guess I thought wrong. Why was I chosen to be the Hero of Time? What was so special about me?" Link shook his blonde head and rolled his pretty blue eyes. "Everybody thinks that it would be so cool to be a hero, but it's just a bunch of hard work. Fighting, bleeding, sweating, and death are all that come out of being a hero. I mean I don't even get to keep a cool sword like the Master Sword when I'm done. Instead I'm left with. a Great Fairy Sword." Young Link shuddered at the thought of the ugly sword that he had been rewarded with in Termina. "That sword is so stupid looking its not even funny. You know that Epona? Anyway, back to Ganondorf. I have to stop him as soon as he escapes. Just hopefully that doesn't happen before I get to the Temple of Light." Link and Epona rode off into the moonlit field further. The arrival of Stalchildren, and Poes had already increased by a lot, and Ganondorf hadn't even escaped yet. Link and Epona avoided the evil monsters as they made they're way to the castle. This was going to be another nightmare, and Link knew it. Ganondorf had planned his scheme well obviously. It was unheard of to escape the Evil Realm, but Link was getting faint reverberations as Ganondorf's minions increased so rapidly. "This is bad."
Shinra headquarters was massive. With several hundred, randomly lit, office windows lining each floor of the massive tower, Shinra Headquarters was the largest building in the world. The Headquarters was only the hub of the massive city of Midgar though. Midgar was considered to be the capital of the planet. The city alone was about the size of a large island. The entire city was actually split in two, horizontally though. The city above was held up by massive pillars. The pillars held up another main component of Midgars structural design, the plates. Otherwise known as Sectors, the plates were actually cities within a huge city. There were eight sectors altogether and each was connected to a massive mako reactor that powered the city and ultimately, Midgar itself. Below, however, there was a slum set of interconnected sectors. They were all dirty and filled with scrap. Thousands of poor people lived in the slums. Crime rate was more than triple that of the city above. Most of the strongest people in Midgar lived in the slums. They were forced to fight to stay alive, ever since they were children. Sephiroth sat quietly among several other test-taking cadets inside of the huge headquarters. There was a First Class SOLDIER Officer sitting at a desk awaiting them to finish taking they're tests of admittance. It was considered an honor to even remotely pass the test. Few people did, but Sephiroth seemed to breeze through it easily. It all seemed basic to him. There were fighting questions, such as how to block with a certain weapon and when not to attack with another. It was all just a review of all the skills he had already mastered. The magic was of the easiest portion. He was so skilled with materia and weaponry that he rarely was hit by an enemy. He had eventually gained immunity to status bearing magic over his years of training and elemental damage was almost seventy percent ineffective against his body. The last question that the test asked was 'What do you most wish to accomplish by joining the SOLDIER program. List as many objectives as needed.' Sephiroth had written three things down. His first goal was to obtain his ultimate weapon. His second goal was to learn the most powerful limit break, and his third goal was stated blatantly. His third goal was to eclipse every record and become the most skilled fighter on the planet. Sephiroth brushed his long silver hair back and handed his test in before any of the others had even finished. The test was over fifty pages long but he had definitely completed it all as the officer checked everything. An hour later, everyone had completed the test and were waiting quietly in they're seats. Another SOLDIER, in his middle twenties, of much higher rank walked into the room coolly as the officer was stacking the papers swiftly. The officer snapped up and saluted the higher ranked man instantly and handed him the papers. Within minutes the noble SOLDIER looked up from the tests and pointed to three of the seven young cadets. The three, including Sephiroth arose and saluted sharply. Sephiroth studied the man who had just ordered him, with his catlike green eyes. The man was tall, at about six foot three, and had long black hair. The shiny locks were combed back tightly into a mane down his back. Long hair meant high rank. The longer a man's hair was, the longer he had been in the military. His SOLDIER uniform consisted of a rank belt engraved with an emblem, a set of black fighting pants, sleek leather combat boots that fit perfectly to the knee, mythril armlets attached to each forearm, a black ski sweater that fit tightly to his strong frame, and two silver bangles covering each shoulder. His eyes were glowing brightly with the mako energy as he studied his new recruits. "I am General Rayze of SOLDIER. I am the current Top Officer. As you know there is only one Top Officer in all of SOLDIER and that title only goes to the most powerful fighter. I am here to give you your final exam. It will be a one on one dual with me in the training facility this afternoon. You may use any weapon you wish against me besides a gun because a gun is dishonorable and does not exploit true fighting ability. So without further ado, you are dismissed. The rest of you who did not pass the test will be taken back to the university to continue on with your studies" "You have the rest of the morning to prepare for your tests. Meet me at the training floor at twelve PM sharp. If you are even a nanosecond late you fail and will be escorted back to Shinra University. Dismissed." General Rayze saluted sharply and turned on a heel towards the doorway. He carried the files of all of the boys in the room. The ones who had failed had ashamed looks upon they're faces as they were escorted out of the room by the officer. Sephiroth paid no mind to the other two cadets who had passed the test. He exited the room and sat on a bench in the front lobby of the massive building. He placed a hand on the hilt of his black Katana at his side and unsheathed the finely crafted sword. The ten- inch handle was traditionally wrapped with black grip. Materia slots were cut out between the diamond-shaped areas where the grip material crisscrossed. In each of the four materia slots there was a mastered materia of Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth. Sephiroth buffed any fingerprints off of the beautifully crafted, curved Katana blade. Satisfied with the battle ready weapon he sheathed the fine sword into its companion sheath and tied it to his belt. His body armor glinted in the light as he arose and headed out to study the building that he would be spending the most part of his life at.
Back at the training floor, General Rayze and Professor Gast were sitting at a computer console talking. Rayze was flipping through the tests that the three admitted cadets had just taken. The papers flicked against each other, giving off a faint clicking sound. "They are three of my best. I hope they go far with you. The one I'm really betting my money on is Sephiroth though. He is a child prodigy, a phenomenon of a student." "Tell me, what is so special about him? Certainly you must know." General Rayze glanced down at the elder man. Gast paused in silence for a few moments and then replied. "Well. It seems you have noticed the conspiracy." Gast focused his spectacles and looked back up to the General of the SOLDIER squadron. "Sephiroth doesn't know it but he is the son of two of Shinra's aspiring scientists. You probably already know that I resigned as the leading scientists to Professor Hojo. That is why I am teaching at the university for extra money. My wife and I plan on moving away after we get enough money." "And this makes him special how, do you presume?" "Special is not the word. Technically he was just given an early start. Hojo had plans when he got his wife, Lucrecia, pregnant. While Sephiroth was still in the woman's womb, they injected a small set of Jenova cells into his blood stream. When he was born they showered him in mako, just as if he were a SOLDIER. If you haven't noticed, he was the only cadet with mako eyes." Gast glanced back to the computer, which showed statistics of the boy. "That is sick and deceiving. How could they do this to but a helpless child?" Rayze cracked his knuckles as he remembered how odd Professor Hojo had seemed during all the times he had spoken with him. "And this is kept secret why?" "It's kept secret because the results haven't completely been shown yet. It is deceiving but what Shinra plans on reaping from the efforts will be grand." Gast kept on reading while Rayze just stared and listened, intrigued. "No one has ever had a chance to grow naturally with mako and Jenova in they're system. Sephiroth had an early start in his SOLDIER admittance. When you guys recruit him you won't even have to mako shower him. Naturally, he has grown with the enhancements. Nothing artificial like most SOLDIERs nowadays." Rayze gave a cold glare in Gast's direction. The elder scientist hadn't even paid attention that he had just offended the great General of Shinra. "And you say that he is going to be someone important?" "Super SOLDIER is the title that Hojo spoke of. If Sephiroth succeeds he plans on creating a branch of Super SOLDIERs, possibly creating a new branch of the military with them." Gast laughed. "Watch out General Rayze because he might even take your place one day." "I doubt it. Nobody has ever compared to what I have accomplished." Rayze set the papers down on the table and headed to the door. "I have to give them they're real admittance test now. Goodbye professor."
The training floor was very large. It took up the entire level of the basement. There was exercising equipment in one large room, completely lining the walls and center of the room. In the room furthest from the entrance there was a fighting simulator where you could dial in programmed atmospheres, ranging from underwater, to a thick jungle, or even an arid desert. The walls were lined with weapons of every type. The options ranged from laser bladed swords, to regular broadswords, to rifles, lances, staves and more. The three cadets just stared in awe at all the different types of armor, fighting suits, and materia that were contained within the preparation room. "This is amazing," uttered one of the young cadets. He had brown eyes and short, black hair. Another with blue eyes and brown hair nodded as he examined all of the weapons on the wall. Sephiroth just flipped his silver hair back and studied all of the Wutaian swords such as the different types of Katana, Yoshiyuki, and Murasame. There were even a few rare swords that he had only seen in books. Oriental swords such as Juntachi, Muramasa, and Kikiuimoji. They all were similar to his Katana sword. They're curved, razor sharp blades seemed to taunt competition through his eyes. They were his only weapons of choice. "I see that you all have made it here on time. If you will follow me to the fighting simulator, we will begin your individual tests." As the quartet walked into the huge room, a heavy door slid shut, locking them in. The three cadets stood in waiting as Rayze typed at a small computer console. His hands, which were fit perfectly into a black set of gloves, moved so swiftly that they were as a blur. At the click of the 'enter' button the environment changed from that of an empty room, to that of a forest. It was so realistic that the leaves actually fell from the tall trees and were swept away by the rushing breeze. "Which one of you is Mike Gonzalez?" The cadet with short black hair stepped forward instantly. He was about five foot nine inches tall and had short, spiked hair. He wore the same black body armor suit as the other cadets and had an average broadsword sheathed on his back. He sure didn't seem like anything special, Rayze was thinking as he unsheathed a duo of two beautiful Murasame swords. The ninja swords seemed to have they're own desire to kill as he pulled them into his fighting stance. One blade was held horizontally in front of him while the other blade was positioned behind his head. "Your impression upon me will decide your rank SOLDIER." Mike went deathly pale as he perceived what the General meant with his words. Mike unsheathed the four- foot sword off of his back and held it in front of him as he had been taught at the university. At the sound of an electronic bell, the fight began. The instant the bell rang, Rayze had already sliced a gash in the kid's black armor. Mike was taken aback by the speed at which the attack had come. The next time he was prepared though. He blocked one blade with his own and dove under the other as it came towards his left armlet. Rayze tripped him swiftly with a slide kick and attempted to bury one of his Murasame into the kid's shoulder. Mike swiftly cast a burst of Fire from his palm as an escape route. The flames engulfed the SOLDIER General with an exceptional display. Mike leapt out of the General's range and looked up only to see the talented fighter walk out of the flames with a grin playing across his face. "It will take more than that to take me down son." Mike ran forward with his blade and performed a triplet of slices. Rayze didn't even bother blocking the blows, he simply weaved in between them skillfully. Mike finished his attack off with a powerful downward slice of his broadsword. Rayze performed a skillful upward slice to parry the blade and succeeded in slicing the less powerful sword into two clean pieces. Swiftly switching over to his other sword, Rayze met Mike's throat with the tip of his razor sharp Murasame. "Not too bad. I'll assign you to Fifth Class." "Yes sir. Thank you sir." Mike saluted and retrieved the broken blade of his sword from the leaf-covered ground. "Oh, and you may retrieve any weapon that you wish from the wall in the next room. You are dismissed to wait in the weaponry room for us. You will be issued your equipment after we are finished." Rayze took his battle stance ten yards away from the other two and motioned for the brown haired SOLDIER recruit. "Cody Davis, the same goes for you." "Cody stepped up. He unsheathed a sword similar to Mike's, except his blade was thinner and had a longer, wooden handle. Cody took his fighting stance with his sword crossed in front of his body. His heart pounded through his chest like a rapidly firing canon. Rayze's mako enhanced hearing sensed the nervousness through the body armor that the kid wore. The bell went off and Cody instantly leapt towards Rayze with his sword poised to kill. Rayze blocked easily and spun in a circular motion with his blades, gnashing a rip in the boy's armor with both. Cody was a lot more skilled than Mike and did a reverse heel kick that only succeeded in leaving an open space for a blade jab. Cody took advantage of his opportunity and stabbed as if fencing at the long- haired Top Officer. Rayze grabbed the blade with both of his own and threw it back in Cody's face. "Damn!" Cody paced back a few steps and avoided the ripping slices that seemed to purposely come close to his face. As the finale of bouts came, Cody did a front flip over Rayze's head and sent an Ice spell pummeling from above at the General. Rayze all too easily cast a Reflect spell and disregarded the pathetically weak hail of frozen water back to its caster. Cody ducked out of the way of his own magic and blocked several blows from the other's swords. Finally Rayze stopped playing around and flicked the young SOLDIER's sword out of his hand and left him stranded. The airborne sword found its resting place in the trunk of a fallen tree as it came falling back to the ground. "Very well done SOLDIER. You held up better than most have. Your skills are easily within the Third Class rank. You may also choose any weapon of your choice from the weaponry room. Dismissed." Rayze prepared for the next fight by dousing an elixir over his body to restore any lost energy from the previous fights. When he looked up from his fighting stance, Sephiroth was already prepared. He had unsheathed his black handled Katana from the black sheath and was holding the blade horizontally. Instead of standing with the broad of his body face forward, he stood sideways as if he were the batter in a baseball game. His blade was poised horizontally, parallel with his broad shoulders. He had done his own study of fighting stances and had chosen his fighting stance due to the fact that the default way left more open to be attacked. Holding your sword vertically out in front of you degraded the speed at which attacks and guards could be made. With his fighting stance he didn't have to hold his sword ready to guard because it was already prepared to guard and attack. The stance also easily allowed him movement of his arms and a double-handed grip on his sword hilt. The electronic bell rang with a fading echo, and instantly the two SOLDIERs were clashed together. Rayze sliced in a quintuplet of crisscrossing slashes at the silver haired kid with his Murasame swords, and found each of his blows easily parried and countered by the boy's five-foot long Katana blade. Sephiroth flicked both of Rayze's blades out of the way and delivered a breathtaking spin kick to the man's stomach. Rayze softened the blow by grabbing the swift kid's leg and turning him over. Sephiroth quickly levitated off of the ground in an upside down reverse flip from his palms and fired a quick burst of Lightning Three at the powerful General. Rayze took the full-fledged blast of energy as if it were nothing and retaliated with one of his own volleys of elemental magic. In a swift burst of Earth Three and Fire Three heading towards him, Sephiroth leapt high into the air and kicked off of a tree branch. Both magical attacks missed him, as he had hoped for, but Rayze was already prepared for the airborne attack that was falling towards him. Both of the Murasame blocked the speeding Katana blade in the shape of a pair of scissors. "My god. This guy is pretty good. He's actually putting up a good fight for General Rayze." Mike and Cody watched intently as the two fighters battled it out. Within a millisecond, Sephiroth dove under the taller man and dropped his Katana to the floor. He grabbed the stronger General around the hips and tackled him backwards like football player. Falling down to the leaf covered ground on top of the fighter, Sephiroth began his onslaught of brutal punches in the man's face. After the third strike, Rayze dropped his swords and performed a Judo flip and threw Sephiroth off of him. Sephiroth landed face first a few yards away and leapt to his feet. He had a small gash in his forehead from a sharp rock but was prepared for the violent array of punches and kicks that the General already had charging at him. Few of them made it past the silver haired kid's sharp defense, but the final blow caught the underside of Sephiroth's chin and sent him soaring. Suddenly, to the General's shock, Sephiroth called upon his Jenova abilities and telekinetically pulled his Katana to his grip from across the room. "Impressive. but I'm terribly sorry." General Rayze ripped forward like a shockwave and thrashed a wave of mako energy at Sephiroth from twelve feet away. Even with Sephiroth's lightning reflexes, the wave grabbed him like a ball of gravity and threw his one hundred and sixty pound, muscular body into a tree twenty feet behind him. The fighting simulator switched off at the sound of a buzzer and Sephiroth realized that it was actually a wall that he had been thrown into. He lay on his back on the ground with a confused look on his face as General Rayze looked down at him. He leant a hand down and Sephiroth grabbed it after studying it for a moment. "How.did you. do that?" Sephiroth wiped blood from his forehead as the mako enhancements in his body sped up the healing of the wound. "In my four years of training no one has ever wiped me out in one blow like that." "That was my first level limit break. Nothing special." General Rayze did just as Sephiroth had done before his defeat and telekinetically pulled his swords to himself from across the room. Sephiroth sheathed his own Katana sword at his side and awaited the General's decision. "Extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. I am at a loss of words to describe how well you fought Sephiroth. I'm not sure how to rank you." "Thank you sir, but what do you mean General?" Sephiroth blinked questionably. Rayze glanced at the catlike pupils and studied the mako glow around them. The mako in the boy's eyes seemed to swish around into different shades of blue and green as the mako enhanced vision took in every detail of everything. It was obvious that Sephiroth's mako enhancements went further than even Gast had studied. "SOLDIER First Class has a required age minimum of eighteen years of age. You are only sixteen. Your skills easily match that of any of the First Class SOLDIERs under my command, though." Rayze paced for a few moments as he thought. Sephiroth sighed in discontent at the news, but at the same time was overwhelmed that he would be considered into First Class. "I can however accept you as a personal student. By law of the SOLDIER program, any Top Officer can only accept one student at a time. If you train with me for just less than two more years you will be accepted. Until then you will accompany me on missions, peace agreements, and inspections. Is that acceptable enough for you? Remember, you won't be of rank." "Yes. I would be more than willing to train under you until I'm eighteen, sir." Sephiroth saluted sharply but Rayze just waved the motion off. "There will be none of that. As of now you are not in the SOLDIER program. You will continue obtaining master degrees at the university and training under me. I am only your teacher for the next two years, not a commanding officer." Rayze patted him on the back and turned to the doorway where the other two SOLDIER recruits were watching suspiciously. "Oh and you won't have to worry about flying back and forth between here and the university outside of sector four. During the fall, when the weather is so acceptable we station SOLDIER there." "So what should I do for the rest of the day," Sephiroth asked with a nod. Rayze glanced back at his new student. "I have a date tonight with a girl I met in Sector Three so we won't be training for the rest of the day." Rayze grinned mischievously as he opened the huge metal slide door. "Go scope out the girls in Sector Six. There are some real hot girls there I have heard. You know? This will be fun I believe. I always have to keep such a strict attitude around the ranks. Now maybe I can have an actual partner to loosen up around." "Yes.me too I guess." Sephiroth and Rayze straightened to they're full height as they walked out of the simulator and met with the other two Fifth and Third Class SOLDIERs. They had peculiar looks written upon they're proud faces. They were quickly erased when Rayze's eyes met they're own. "It is time for you both to undergo the mako showering. When you are done you will be severely enhanced. Your senses will pick up even the slightest environmental change such as a speck of dust falling from the ceiling or even an enemy creeping up on you in your sleep. Your hearing will be enhanced by eighty times what it is now. You will be able to hear things that you can't hear now. Your eyesight will be enhanced by ninety times. You will be able to focus as if looking through long-range binoculars. Your sense of taste, smell, and touch will be followed suit to your hearing enhancements. Eating a certain type of food may be a lot more enjoyable than it was before or exactly the opposite." "Naturally your fighting statistics such as speed, strength, magic power, endurance, dexterity, and immune system will be enhanced greatly. You should be able to jump higher, move faster, handle things ambidextrously, lift heavy objects, and cause more damage with your magical attacks. You will naturally become immune to status ailments also. You will be able to do strenuous things for very long periods of time also, therefore you will only need about an hour of rest per week." The new recruits eyes widened with excitement as Rayze explained the effects of the mako shower. "Also, along with the mako showering, you will have a small amount of Jenova Cells injected into your blood stream. These cells will give you the special abilities that only SOLDIERs are allowed to possess. You will gain the abilities of Telekinesis, Telepathy between other SOLDIERs, and the famed Supercharge ability. Those are to name a few, later on during your First Class training classes, you will learn the use of gravitational manipulation, and mind tricks. Also, your rate of learning will increase tenfold after you wake up from the process." "Don't be startled when you wake up because your muscles will be much more defined and your current eye color will be much brighter with the mako induced in the corona. Aside from the side effects, your senses will hurt very badly for the first hour and a half. You will quickly learn to block unnecessary disturbances, so don't worry about it." General Rayze walked over to a slide doorway and pushed a button. The door slid open with a hiss. "I will issue you your uniforms before you are directed to the laboratory to meet with Professor Hojo." General Rayze reached into the closet and pulled out a blue and a purple SOLDIER uniform much like his own. He handed the blue uniform to Cody and the Purple to Mike. Next from the closet he retrieved two computer-enhanced helmets. They covered the entire head and had a three hundred and sixty degree computer screen inside the thin, lens like visor view port. A small antenna protruded from the left side of the head and retrieved radio transmissions. They were very sleek looking and gave a superior air to the person wearing one. Mike and Cody accepted gratefully and dismissed to the laboratory on the higher floors of the building. "I'm going to give you a First Class uniform like mine but you will have to use your own utility belt because the SOLDIER belts signify ranks with a carven symbol. You'll get a First Class belt in a couple years." Rayze handed Sephiroth a black SOLDIER uniform like his own and started for the door. "I suggest changing before heading out because you won't get much respect with that ratty body armor you were issued at the university. I'll set you up with an apartment across from mine tonight. Just ask the secretary on the first floor for the key." "I don't even know where the apartment complex is." Sephiroth crossed his arms. "Its in Sector One. You can't miss it. Its huge." After Rayze left the room, Sephiroth changed into his new uniform in the restroom. He strapped on the shoulder bangles and leather pads underneath, and locked the heavy mythril armlets to his forearms. He studied the knee high combat boots before putting them on. They had no laces, only silver fasteners below the knee that tightened the boots perfectly to the lower half of the leg. As he put them on he noticed that they were very comfortable and versatile. He was also pleased to see that they made him an extra inch or two taller. The black ski sweater fit perfectly, defining and making his muscles intimidating to the eye. The loose fighting pants also fit well. With all of the uniform adorning him, Sephiroth looked very sleek. Before walking out of the training floor, the cat-eyed trainee tied his Katana sheath to his side. The combination of black matched his long silver hair perfectly. This was better than being a SOLDIER. Now he didn't have to take orders from people. He was training with one of the most important people at Shinra.
A long radio antenna slapped against the chalkboard sharply. The crack of the collision snapped any sleepy military cadets in the room to attention immediately. "Stay with me class! Now when mako energy is condensed it is biologically transformed into the solidified structure of a materia orb. Now, a materia orb may seem like just a stone with magic, if you will, contained within it, but it is much more in depth than a simple crystal." A short, spectacle-adorning man of about fifty years stood before a large class. He adjusted his golden-rimmed glasses with his left hand while he spoke and pointed to diagrams that he had drawn on the large chalkboard in front of him. "Contained within the materia orbs are, once again in theory, generations of knowledge perceived by the old inhabitants of the planet. When we use magic, which in turn is not a suitable title for such an energy force, we call upon the knowledge of the Ancients in the form of magical energy. This energy takes on the form of whatever the ancient that created it conceptualized it from. That is how we get elemental, and status magic. The origin of summon magic has yet to be proven, but speculation states that it is the contained life-forces of ancient beings that were unable to be regenerated by the planet." "Professor Gast. When you say the word regenerated, do you mean absorbed as a form of kinetic energy or actually reused by the planet?" A young cadet of about sixteen years old spoke up. He sat in the front row, as if eager to learn, and had a perplexed look upon his handsome features. The cadet had long silver hair that fell just below his shoulder blades and a set of two long bangs that draped around the corners of his odd eyes. His eyes were very peculiar and professor Gast found it difficult to focus on them directly for too long. They were bright emerald green, and glowed strongly with the power of the mako induced in his body. The only difference of his eyes than to his fellow cadets were that his pupils were catlike. As weird as it seemed though, they were quite beautiful to look at, as the girls often spent much time doing. All around, the cadet was an intimidating, sharp, young man. "Do you mean to say that the lifestream theory is of fact?" "Excellent question Sephiroth. The theory of life returning to the planet as a life force is not proven by scientific record but after researching it for many years I have come to the personal conclusion that it is the only acceptable explanation. It is more of a model observation to show how the planet works." Gast turned from his board swiftly and dabbed the antenna in the cadet's direction. "So, in reality, both of your observatory questions are effective to this study. And for the record, I do believe in the lifestream theory." "Thank you professor." Sephiroth typed a few side notes in his black laptop computer after the professor turned away. The shiny surface of the small panel gleamed as he clicked the screen shut and slid the piece of equipment into a small satchel. Professor Gast dismissed the class as the silver haired young man arose from his seat and started for the exit. "Oh, Mr. Sephiroth, if I could have a word with you before you leave I would be appreciative." The cadet nodded and headed over to the elder professor. "Yes Professor Gast?" Sephiroth tossed his hair back and walked over to the large, paper stacked desk. The young cadet was quite tall compared to the average cadet that quickly shuffled past him to reach the exit. He was about six feet tall, and his body was quite fit for someone of his age. He was well above average muscularly due to his training over the past few years. He seemed to be older than he actually was. "Well Sephiroth, I have been watching your studies over the past few years very closely. I have never had a student as successful as you have been. As I look at your attendance and point records here it is clear that you miss nothing. There are one million, two hundred thousand, and fifty three points out of one million, two hundred thousand here. It is obvious that you have never missed a point and have over fifty extra credit points backed up. Your fighting skills are above even most of the SOLDIERs that we have here at Shinra Incorporated." Gast clicked the small mouse in his right hand and brought up more records. "Your fighting skills are what I am most interested though. It appears you have excellent knowledge of many types of weaponry, specifically the sword. Your overall analysis percentages rate you as having an astonishing ninety nine percent degree of the entire university of Shinra. That means that your statistics eclipse ninety nine percent of our cadets. The one percent difference is just the minority of dropouts." Gast focused his spectacles and Sephiroth crossed his arms. "So what is it that you needed me for?" "I want you to stop gaining all of these useless Master Degrees at this university and move onto the ranks of SOLDIER. I'm setting up a time tomorrow to have you take the final exam and test out of this university." Gast sighed and looked up from the humming computer console. Sephiroth had the happiest face he had ever seen on such a stern person. "Thank you professor!" Sephiroth's emerald eyes narrowed with determination as he saluted the elder man and exited the room. Sephiroth sprinted down the halls, his laptop barely hanging onto his shoulder. He turned a corner sharply and nearly ran a considerably cute girl over in his celebration. She huddled up away from him in shock but melted against a locker in ecstasy as he pulled her in and gave her the biggest kiss she had ever had. All of her girlfriends instantly began to shriek like girls at a boy band concert. He stopped abruptly when he came to his dorm room. The overjoyed young man fumbled with his keys excitedly as he entered the small dormitory. He slammed the door and turned on the stereo at full blast as he prepared his fighting suit and weapon for the next day. Out of the closet came a black suit of body armor that had been issued to all cadets at the start of they're freshmen year. He laid the fighting suit across a table in the corner of the room as he scanned the wall for his weapon. Hanging on the wall, held by two hooks, was a black handled Katana sword. The curved blade was casketed inside of the black sheath but it still looked vicious as he grabbed the five-foot long sword from its resting place. He placed his best materia into the materia slots of the hilt and hooked the sheath to the waist of the body armor. "Time to start building my dreams.SOLDIER."
It was early morning at Hyrule Castle, and everything was just starting to get going. The shops were opening quickly so that the early bird shoppers could get an early start. Everything seemed well. The beautiful sun was just rising over the horizon of the castle, and joyfully cast it's rays upon the bustling town folk in the market. It was a sight to behold, as many people just stopped what they were doing to watch the amazing sunrise. Back at the castle, though, there was fear bursting across young princess Zelda's face. "Father, father!" Zelda burst into the king's chamber and dashed into her father's arms. He questioningly looked down at her and hugged her back. "The nightmare, the prophecy, it's back and it's closer than ever. I can hear the echoes of Ganondorf's threats and curses now! We need Link back here immediately. Ganondorf is going to escape! The sages cannot hold him for much longer!" "Ho, ho! Calm down my dear. We will send a messenger to the boy immediately if you really believe that this is about to happen." The king patted her daughter on the back. Zelda leapt up and thanked her father before dashing out of the room and heading to the post office on the first floor. The beautiful, young princess threw open the creaky, wooden door and walked inside. "We need you to deliver a letter to Kokiri Forest, if you will." Zelda grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled down her message quickly with a fountain pen. The postman in the office just arched an eyebrow in question but nodded with respect. "Give this to Link. Tell him that it is urgent and he must read immediately. Thank you." "Yes your highness! I will leave immediately." The postman stuffed a red hat on his messy brown head and scuffled out of the room the instant she handed him the letter. Zelda walked out of the room and headed down the large stone stairs that lead out of the castle. None of the knights paid attention to her departure. They just stood silently around the courtyard. The young princess pattered down the dirt path towards the main gateway to the market. A slight breeze cut through the small valley as she made her way and tossed her beautiful golden hair about. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, taking in the aroma of the peacefulness. "Please come, Link." Zelda whispered into the wind with hope tainting her words. They drifted like an echo in the draft as she made her way towards the gateway. The knight opened the gate for the young princess and she headed into the Hyrule Market. Nobody really noticed her as she slipped inside the Temple of Time, which stood ominously in the back of the town. Her silky, pink, dress blew in her descent as she glided to the stone alter. The room was perfectly silenced. One could have heard a pin drop. The walls were crafted with finely cut stones. The gray pewter color of the bricks seemed to glow ominously all around the room. No building in the entire kingdom could have possibly matched the Temple's beauty and perfection. The alter was crafted of carven onyx gemstone and had the three spiritual stones of forest, fire, and water floating above it. There were three small placements in the stone that were glowing with the power of the spiritual stones. With all three powers united, the golden Triforce symbol glowed brightly above the doorway of time. The three golden triangles seemed to stare at the teenage girl below, staring at them. Zelda often came to this place to speak with the Sage of Light, Rauru. He was an elderly man with an impressive gut and beard of the same. His eyes told stories of millennia of war, evil, and heroes. Zelda mentally connected inside the Temple of Light to speak with the elder Sage. "Are you in there Rauru?" "Yes Zelda. I am here as always." Rauru's booming voice echoed in Zelda's mind through the telepathy connection. "What do you need?" "I can hear you struggling in my dreams, Rauru. How much longer do we have before Ganondorf escapes?" Zelda rubbed her temples as she awaited the powerful sage's strained reply. Rauru was the only sage left in the Temple of Light. He was the only sage left to keep Ganondorf held within his cell in the evil realm. "Yes princess. The power of this evil has grown tenfold since we placed him in there. It has only been a year since we sealed the portal to the evil realm and he has already almost broken the seal." Rauru cried out in pain as Ganondorf fought against the gateway. Zelda began to sweat as she heard the commotion. "I can't.hold him.for very much.longer." "Hang on Rauru, don't let him defeat you!" Zelda shouted as she felt the sage's power begin to fade. "Summon Link.I can't hold on.for much.longer." Rauru broke the telepathy transmission with his plea. Zelda leapt to her feet. It was late. She must have been meditating for several hours to keep such a long telepathic wave. She straightened out her wrinkled dress and headed out of the temple. Sun was down and people were just beginning to close they're shops.
The night was silent. Link stood atop the castle like a gargoyle. His beautiful Master Sword dripped with blood like a river of death. Ganondorf's slain body lay before him in a pile of dead meat. He had sliced him to pieces, his hatred vented through the edge of his sword. "Finally." "Mr. Link! There is a message from the princess of Hyrule for you. It is urgent she says. Read immediately!" The postman had just reached the Kokiri Forest by ten PM. He thought that it was ridiculous that he had to deliver letters for children but his duty was to serve the royal family, and that he did. Link walked out of his sleeping quarters and yawned. His hood had fallen off and his should length hair fell around his face and ears. He squinted to see who it was and did a front flip off of the high balcony of his small home and landed before the man. It was a twenty- foot drop but he was skilled at landing like a feline. The postman scratched his head and walked out of the woods after Link thanked him. He was amazed at the versatility the kid had. He reminisced when he was young and could move around easily. Now he was middle aged and wearing a red hat. He started his two- hour walk back to the castle. "An urgent letter from Zelda that must be read immediately? Good timing on her part considering I just got back." Link opened the small envelope and unfolded the letter. It read:
Dear Link,
I am terribly sorry to greet you home with this kind of news but Ganondorf has almost broken the seal to the evil realm. In a matter of days he could escape and destroy us all. Rauru has commented that his evil power has increased tenfold. It is undoubted that we need your help. As the Hero of Time, putting Ganondorf away the first time, it is my request as the princess of Hyrule that you take the Master Sword once again and stop the King of Evil. Please Link. You are our only hope.
Sincerely Princess Zelda
"Oh my god. This can't be happening. I must hurry to the Temple of Time before the seal breaks." Link quickly climbed the long wooden ladder that lead to his room and threw open the curtains viciously. "I need to get some equipment quickly." The blonde haired boy grabbed his red- rimmed Mirror Shield off of its hook on the wall and strapped the heavy shield to his back. He kicked his chest open and grabbed his red and blue tunics and tossed them, along with his Golden Gauntlets into the satchel he had just unloaded them from only a few hours ago. He tossed his three magic crystals into the bag and did the same with his Longshot and Fairy Bow. From his sword display he grabbed his Gilded Sword and sheathed it on his back. Before dashing out of his home he threw his four special masks into the bag. The barely fit with all of his belongings stuffed inside the satchel. Link dashed outside and leapt off of the edge of his balcony. He landed with ease and headed toward the large, hollowed out tree trunk that acted as an entrance and exit to the large forest. Moss seemed to grow out of every little crack and crevice in the old wooden hole. Link paid no heed to the sights of the forest as he awakened Epona from her resting place next to the large log. Dew covered her brown back and some leaves were stuck to the moisture. Link groomed the mess from her fur before getting on her strong back and heading her to the castle. "I can't believe he is going to escape. I thought he was there for good. I guess I thought wrong. Why was I chosen to be the Hero of Time? What was so special about me?" Link shook his blonde head and rolled his pretty blue eyes. "Everybody thinks that it would be so cool to be a hero, but it's just a bunch of hard work. Fighting, bleeding, sweating, and death are all that come out of being a hero. I mean I don't even get to keep a cool sword like the Master Sword when I'm done. Instead I'm left with. a Great Fairy Sword." Young Link shuddered at the thought of the ugly sword that he had been rewarded with in Termina. "That sword is so stupid looking its not even funny. You know that Epona? Anyway, back to Ganondorf. I have to stop him as soon as he escapes. Just hopefully that doesn't happen before I get to the Temple of Light." Link and Epona rode off into the moonlit field further. The arrival of Stalchildren, and Poes had already increased by a lot, and Ganondorf hadn't even escaped yet. Link and Epona avoided the evil monsters as they made they're way to the castle. This was going to be another nightmare, and Link knew it. Ganondorf had planned his scheme well obviously. It was unheard of to escape the Evil Realm, but Link was getting faint reverberations as Ganondorf's minions increased so rapidly. "This is bad."
Shinra headquarters was massive. With several hundred, randomly lit, office windows lining each floor of the massive tower, Shinra Headquarters was the largest building in the world. The Headquarters was only the hub of the massive city of Midgar though. Midgar was considered to be the capital of the planet. The city alone was about the size of a large island. The entire city was actually split in two, horizontally though. The city above was held up by massive pillars. The pillars held up another main component of Midgars structural design, the plates. Otherwise known as Sectors, the plates were actually cities within a huge city. There were eight sectors altogether and each was connected to a massive mako reactor that powered the city and ultimately, Midgar itself. Below, however, there was a slum set of interconnected sectors. They were all dirty and filled with scrap. Thousands of poor people lived in the slums. Crime rate was more than triple that of the city above. Most of the strongest people in Midgar lived in the slums. They were forced to fight to stay alive, ever since they were children. Sephiroth sat quietly among several other test-taking cadets inside of the huge headquarters. There was a First Class SOLDIER Officer sitting at a desk awaiting them to finish taking they're tests of admittance. It was considered an honor to even remotely pass the test. Few people did, but Sephiroth seemed to breeze through it easily. It all seemed basic to him. There were fighting questions, such as how to block with a certain weapon and when not to attack with another. It was all just a review of all the skills he had already mastered. The magic was of the easiest portion. He was so skilled with materia and weaponry that he rarely was hit by an enemy. He had eventually gained immunity to status bearing magic over his years of training and elemental damage was almost seventy percent ineffective against his body. The last question that the test asked was 'What do you most wish to accomplish by joining the SOLDIER program. List as many objectives as needed.' Sephiroth had written three things down. His first goal was to obtain his ultimate weapon. His second goal was to learn the most powerful limit break, and his third goal was stated blatantly. His third goal was to eclipse every record and become the most skilled fighter on the planet. Sephiroth brushed his long silver hair back and handed his test in before any of the others had even finished. The test was over fifty pages long but he had definitely completed it all as the officer checked everything. An hour later, everyone had completed the test and were waiting quietly in they're seats. Another SOLDIER, in his middle twenties, of much higher rank walked into the room coolly as the officer was stacking the papers swiftly. The officer snapped up and saluted the higher ranked man instantly and handed him the papers. Within minutes the noble SOLDIER looked up from the tests and pointed to three of the seven young cadets. The three, including Sephiroth arose and saluted sharply. Sephiroth studied the man who had just ordered him, with his catlike green eyes. The man was tall, at about six foot three, and had long black hair. The shiny locks were combed back tightly into a mane down his back. Long hair meant high rank. The longer a man's hair was, the longer he had been in the military. His SOLDIER uniform consisted of a rank belt engraved with an emblem, a set of black fighting pants, sleek leather combat boots that fit perfectly to the knee, mythril armlets attached to each forearm, a black ski sweater that fit tightly to his strong frame, and two silver bangles covering each shoulder. His eyes were glowing brightly with the mako energy as he studied his new recruits. "I am General Rayze of SOLDIER. I am the current Top Officer. As you know there is only one Top Officer in all of SOLDIER and that title only goes to the most powerful fighter. I am here to give you your final exam. It will be a one on one dual with me in the training facility this afternoon. You may use any weapon you wish against me besides a gun because a gun is dishonorable and does not exploit true fighting ability. So without further ado, you are dismissed. The rest of you who did not pass the test will be taken back to the university to continue on with your studies" "You have the rest of the morning to prepare for your tests. Meet me at the training floor at twelve PM sharp. If you are even a nanosecond late you fail and will be escorted back to Shinra University. Dismissed." General Rayze saluted sharply and turned on a heel towards the doorway. He carried the files of all of the boys in the room. The ones who had failed had ashamed looks upon they're faces as they were escorted out of the room by the officer. Sephiroth paid no mind to the other two cadets who had passed the test. He exited the room and sat on a bench in the front lobby of the massive building. He placed a hand on the hilt of his black Katana at his side and unsheathed the finely crafted sword. The ten- inch handle was traditionally wrapped with black grip. Materia slots were cut out between the diamond-shaped areas where the grip material crisscrossed. In each of the four materia slots there was a mastered materia of Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth. Sephiroth buffed any fingerprints off of the beautifully crafted, curved Katana blade. Satisfied with the battle ready weapon he sheathed the fine sword into its companion sheath and tied it to his belt. His body armor glinted in the light as he arose and headed out to study the building that he would be spending the most part of his life at.
Back at the training floor, General Rayze and Professor Gast were sitting at a computer console talking. Rayze was flipping through the tests that the three admitted cadets had just taken. The papers flicked against each other, giving off a faint clicking sound. "They are three of my best. I hope they go far with you. The one I'm really betting my money on is Sephiroth though. He is a child prodigy, a phenomenon of a student." "Tell me, what is so special about him? Certainly you must know." General Rayze glanced down at the elder man. Gast paused in silence for a few moments and then replied. "Well. It seems you have noticed the conspiracy." Gast focused his spectacles and looked back up to the General of the SOLDIER squadron. "Sephiroth doesn't know it but he is the son of two of Shinra's aspiring scientists. You probably already know that I resigned as the leading scientists to Professor Hojo. That is why I am teaching at the university for extra money. My wife and I plan on moving away after we get enough money." "And this makes him special how, do you presume?" "Special is not the word. Technically he was just given an early start. Hojo had plans when he got his wife, Lucrecia, pregnant. While Sephiroth was still in the woman's womb, they injected a small set of Jenova cells into his blood stream. When he was born they showered him in mako, just as if he were a SOLDIER. If you haven't noticed, he was the only cadet with mako eyes." Gast glanced back to the computer, which showed statistics of the boy. "That is sick and deceiving. How could they do this to but a helpless child?" Rayze cracked his knuckles as he remembered how odd Professor Hojo had seemed during all the times he had spoken with him. "And this is kept secret why?" "It's kept secret because the results haven't completely been shown yet. It is deceiving but what Shinra plans on reaping from the efforts will be grand." Gast kept on reading while Rayze just stared and listened, intrigued. "No one has ever had a chance to grow naturally with mako and Jenova in they're system. Sephiroth had an early start in his SOLDIER admittance. When you guys recruit him you won't even have to mako shower him. Naturally, he has grown with the enhancements. Nothing artificial like most SOLDIERs nowadays." Rayze gave a cold glare in Gast's direction. The elder scientist hadn't even paid attention that he had just offended the great General of Shinra. "And you say that he is going to be someone important?" "Super SOLDIER is the title that Hojo spoke of. If Sephiroth succeeds he plans on creating a branch of Super SOLDIERs, possibly creating a new branch of the military with them." Gast laughed. "Watch out General Rayze because he might even take your place one day." "I doubt it. Nobody has ever compared to what I have accomplished." Rayze set the papers down on the table and headed to the door. "I have to give them they're real admittance test now. Goodbye professor."
The training floor was very large. It took up the entire level of the basement. There was exercising equipment in one large room, completely lining the walls and center of the room. In the room furthest from the entrance there was a fighting simulator where you could dial in programmed atmospheres, ranging from underwater, to a thick jungle, or even an arid desert. The walls were lined with weapons of every type. The options ranged from laser bladed swords, to regular broadswords, to rifles, lances, staves and more. The three cadets just stared in awe at all the different types of armor, fighting suits, and materia that were contained within the preparation room. "This is amazing," uttered one of the young cadets. He had brown eyes and short, black hair. Another with blue eyes and brown hair nodded as he examined all of the weapons on the wall. Sephiroth just flipped his silver hair back and studied all of the Wutaian swords such as the different types of Katana, Yoshiyuki, and Murasame. There were even a few rare swords that he had only seen in books. Oriental swords such as Juntachi, Muramasa, and Kikiuimoji. They all were similar to his Katana sword. They're curved, razor sharp blades seemed to taunt competition through his eyes. They were his only weapons of choice. "I see that you all have made it here on time. If you will follow me to the fighting simulator, we will begin your individual tests." As the quartet walked into the huge room, a heavy door slid shut, locking them in. The three cadets stood in waiting as Rayze typed at a small computer console. His hands, which were fit perfectly into a black set of gloves, moved so swiftly that they were as a blur. At the click of the 'enter' button the environment changed from that of an empty room, to that of a forest. It was so realistic that the leaves actually fell from the tall trees and were swept away by the rushing breeze. "Which one of you is Mike Gonzalez?" The cadet with short black hair stepped forward instantly. He was about five foot nine inches tall and had short, spiked hair. He wore the same black body armor suit as the other cadets and had an average broadsword sheathed on his back. He sure didn't seem like anything special, Rayze was thinking as he unsheathed a duo of two beautiful Murasame swords. The ninja swords seemed to have they're own desire to kill as he pulled them into his fighting stance. One blade was held horizontally in front of him while the other blade was positioned behind his head. "Your impression upon me will decide your rank SOLDIER." Mike went deathly pale as he perceived what the General meant with his words. Mike unsheathed the four- foot sword off of his back and held it in front of him as he had been taught at the university. At the sound of an electronic bell, the fight began. The instant the bell rang, Rayze had already sliced a gash in the kid's black armor. Mike was taken aback by the speed at which the attack had come. The next time he was prepared though. He blocked one blade with his own and dove under the other as it came towards his left armlet. Rayze tripped him swiftly with a slide kick and attempted to bury one of his Murasame into the kid's shoulder. Mike swiftly cast a burst of Fire from his palm as an escape route. The flames engulfed the SOLDIER General with an exceptional display. Mike leapt out of the General's range and looked up only to see the talented fighter walk out of the flames with a grin playing across his face. "It will take more than that to take me down son." Mike ran forward with his blade and performed a triplet of slices. Rayze didn't even bother blocking the blows, he simply weaved in between them skillfully. Mike finished his attack off with a powerful downward slice of his broadsword. Rayze performed a skillful upward slice to parry the blade and succeeded in slicing the less powerful sword into two clean pieces. Swiftly switching over to his other sword, Rayze met Mike's throat with the tip of his razor sharp Murasame. "Not too bad. I'll assign you to Fifth Class." "Yes sir. Thank you sir." Mike saluted and retrieved the broken blade of his sword from the leaf-covered ground. "Oh, and you may retrieve any weapon that you wish from the wall in the next room. You are dismissed to wait in the weaponry room for us. You will be issued your equipment after we are finished." Rayze took his battle stance ten yards away from the other two and motioned for the brown haired SOLDIER recruit. "Cody Davis, the same goes for you." "Cody stepped up. He unsheathed a sword similar to Mike's, except his blade was thinner and had a longer, wooden handle. Cody took his fighting stance with his sword crossed in front of his body. His heart pounded through his chest like a rapidly firing canon. Rayze's mako enhanced hearing sensed the nervousness through the body armor that the kid wore. The bell went off and Cody instantly leapt towards Rayze with his sword poised to kill. Rayze blocked easily and spun in a circular motion with his blades, gnashing a rip in the boy's armor with both. Cody was a lot more skilled than Mike and did a reverse heel kick that only succeeded in leaving an open space for a blade jab. Cody took advantage of his opportunity and stabbed as if fencing at the long- haired Top Officer. Rayze grabbed the blade with both of his own and threw it back in Cody's face. "Damn!" Cody paced back a few steps and avoided the ripping slices that seemed to purposely come close to his face. As the finale of bouts came, Cody did a front flip over Rayze's head and sent an Ice spell pummeling from above at the General. Rayze all too easily cast a Reflect spell and disregarded the pathetically weak hail of frozen water back to its caster. Cody ducked out of the way of his own magic and blocked several blows from the other's swords. Finally Rayze stopped playing around and flicked the young SOLDIER's sword out of his hand and left him stranded. The airborne sword found its resting place in the trunk of a fallen tree as it came falling back to the ground. "Very well done SOLDIER. You held up better than most have. Your skills are easily within the Third Class rank. You may also choose any weapon of your choice from the weaponry room. Dismissed." Rayze prepared for the next fight by dousing an elixir over his body to restore any lost energy from the previous fights. When he looked up from his fighting stance, Sephiroth was already prepared. He had unsheathed his black handled Katana from the black sheath and was holding the blade horizontally. Instead of standing with the broad of his body face forward, he stood sideways as if he were the batter in a baseball game. His blade was poised horizontally, parallel with his broad shoulders. He had done his own study of fighting stances and had chosen his fighting stance due to the fact that the default way left more open to be attacked. Holding your sword vertically out in front of you degraded the speed at which attacks and guards could be made. With his fighting stance he didn't have to hold his sword ready to guard because it was already prepared to guard and attack. The stance also easily allowed him movement of his arms and a double-handed grip on his sword hilt. The electronic bell rang with a fading echo, and instantly the two SOLDIERs were clashed together. Rayze sliced in a quintuplet of crisscrossing slashes at the silver haired kid with his Murasame swords, and found each of his blows easily parried and countered by the boy's five-foot long Katana blade. Sephiroth flicked both of Rayze's blades out of the way and delivered a breathtaking spin kick to the man's stomach. Rayze softened the blow by grabbing the swift kid's leg and turning him over. Sephiroth quickly levitated off of the ground in an upside down reverse flip from his palms and fired a quick burst of Lightning Three at the powerful General. Rayze took the full-fledged blast of energy as if it were nothing and retaliated with one of his own volleys of elemental magic. In a swift burst of Earth Three and Fire Three heading towards him, Sephiroth leapt high into the air and kicked off of a tree branch. Both magical attacks missed him, as he had hoped for, but Rayze was already prepared for the airborne attack that was falling towards him. Both of the Murasame blocked the speeding Katana blade in the shape of a pair of scissors. "My god. This guy is pretty good. He's actually putting up a good fight for General Rayze." Mike and Cody watched intently as the two fighters battled it out. Within a millisecond, Sephiroth dove under the taller man and dropped his Katana to the floor. He grabbed the stronger General around the hips and tackled him backwards like football player. Falling down to the leaf covered ground on top of the fighter, Sephiroth began his onslaught of brutal punches in the man's face. After the third strike, Rayze dropped his swords and performed a Judo flip and threw Sephiroth off of him. Sephiroth landed face first a few yards away and leapt to his feet. He had a small gash in his forehead from a sharp rock but was prepared for the violent array of punches and kicks that the General already had charging at him. Few of them made it past the silver haired kid's sharp defense, but the final blow caught the underside of Sephiroth's chin and sent him soaring. Suddenly, to the General's shock, Sephiroth called upon his Jenova abilities and telekinetically pulled his Katana to his grip from across the room. "Impressive. but I'm terribly sorry." General Rayze ripped forward like a shockwave and thrashed a wave of mako energy at Sephiroth from twelve feet away. Even with Sephiroth's lightning reflexes, the wave grabbed him like a ball of gravity and threw his one hundred and sixty pound, muscular body into a tree twenty feet behind him. The fighting simulator switched off at the sound of a buzzer and Sephiroth realized that it was actually a wall that he had been thrown into. He lay on his back on the ground with a confused look on his face as General Rayze looked down at him. He leant a hand down and Sephiroth grabbed it after studying it for a moment. "How.did you. do that?" Sephiroth wiped blood from his forehead as the mako enhancements in his body sped up the healing of the wound. "In my four years of training no one has ever wiped me out in one blow like that." "That was my first level limit break. Nothing special." General Rayze did just as Sephiroth had done before his defeat and telekinetically pulled his swords to himself from across the room. Sephiroth sheathed his own Katana sword at his side and awaited the General's decision. "Extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. I am at a loss of words to describe how well you fought Sephiroth. I'm not sure how to rank you." "Thank you sir, but what do you mean General?" Sephiroth blinked questionably. Rayze glanced at the catlike pupils and studied the mako glow around them. The mako in the boy's eyes seemed to swish around into different shades of blue and green as the mako enhanced vision took in every detail of everything. It was obvious that Sephiroth's mako enhancements went further than even Gast had studied. "SOLDIER First Class has a required age minimum of eighteen years of age. You are only sixteen. Your skills easily match that of any of the First Class SOLDIERs under my command, though." Rayze paced for a few moments as he thought. Sephiroth sighed in discontent at the news, but at the same time was overwhelmed that he would be considered into First Class. "I can however accept you as a personal student. By law of the SOLDIER program, any Top Officer can only accept one student at a time. If you train with me for just less than two more years you will be accepted. Until then you will accompany me on missions, peace agreements, and inspections. Is that acceptable enough for you? Remember, you won't be of rank." "Yes. I would be more than willing to train under you until I'm eighteen, sir." Sephiroth saluted sharply but Rayze just waved the motion off. "There will be none of that. As of now you are not in the SOLDIER program. You will continue obtaining master degrees at the university and training under me. I am only your teacher for the next two years, not a commanding officer." Rayze patted him on the back and turned to the doorway where the other two SOLDIER recruits were watching suspiciously. "Oh and you won't have to worry about flying back and forth between here and the university outside of sector four. During the fall, when the weather is so acceptable we station SOLDIER there." "So what should I do for the rest of the day," Sephiroth asked with a nod. Rayze glanced back at his new student. "I have a date tonight with a girl I met in Sector Three so we won't be training for the rest of the day." Rayze grinned mischievously as he opened the huge metal slide door. "Go scope out the girls in Sector Six. There are some real hot girls there I have heard. You know? This will be fun I believe. I always have to keep such a strict attitude around the ranks. Now maybe I can have an actual partner to loosen up around." "Yes.me too I guess." Sephiroth and Rayze straightened to they're full height as they walked out of the simulator and met with the other two Fifth and Third Class SOLDIERs. They had peculiar looks written upon they're proud faces. They were quickly erased when Rayze's eyes met they're own. "It is time for you both to undergo the mako showering. When you are done you will be severely enhanced. Your senses will pick up even the slightest environmental change such as a speck of dust falling from the ceiling or even an enemy creeping up on you in your sleep. Your hearing will be enhanced by eighty times what it is now. You will be able to hear things that you can't hear now. Your eyesight will be enhanced by ninety times. You will be able to focus as if looking through long-range binoculars. Your sense of taste, smell, and touch will be followed suit to your hearing enhancements. Eating a certain type of food may be a lot more enjoyable than it was before or exactly the opposite." "Naturally your fighting statistics such as speed, strength, magic power, endurance, dexterity, and immune system will be enhanced greatly. You should be able to jump higher, move faster, handle things ambidextrously, lift heavy objects, and cause more damage with your magical attacks. You will naturally become immune to status ailments also. You will be able to do strenuous things for very long periods of time also, therefore you will only need about an hour of rest per week." The new recruits eyes widened with excitement as Rayze explained the effects of the mako shower. "Also, along with the mako showering, you will have a small amount of Jenova Cells injected into your blood stream. These cells will give you the special abilities that only SOLDIERs are allowed to possess. You will gain the abilities of Telekinesis, Telepathy between other SOLDIERs, and the famed Supercharge ability. Those are to name a few, later on during your First Class training classes, you will learn the use of gravitational manipulation, and mind tricks. Also, your rate of learning will increase tenfold after you wake up from the process." "Don't be startled when you wake up because your muscles will be much more defined and your current eye color will be much brighter with the mako induced in the corona. Aside from the side effects, your senses will hurt very badly for the first hour and a half. You will quickly learn to block unnecessary disturbances, so don't worry about it." General Rayze walked over to a slide doorway and pushed a button. The door slid open with a hiss. "I will issue you your uniforms before you are directed to the laboratory to meet with Professor Hojo." General Rayze reached into the closet and pulled out a blue and a purple SOLDIER uniform much like his own. He handed the blue uniform to Cody and the Purple to Mike. Next from the closet he retrieved two computer-enhanced helmets. They covered the entire head and had a three hundred and sixty degree computer screen inside the thin, lens like visor view port. A small antenna protruded from the left side of the head and retrieved radio transmissions. They were very sleek looking and gave a superior air to the person wearing one. Mike and Cody accepted gratefully and dismissed to the laboratory on the higher floors of the building. "I'm going to give you a First Class uniform like mine but you will have to use your own utility belt because the SOLDIER belts signify ranks with a carven symbol. You'll get a First Class belt in a couple years." Rayze handed Sephiroth a black SOLDIER uniform like his own and started for the door. "I suggest changing before heading out because you won't get much respect with that ratty body armor you were issued at the university. I'll set you up with an apartment across from mine tonight. Just ask the secretary on the first floor for the key." "I don't even know where the apartment complex is." Sephiroth crossed his arms. "Its in Sector One. You can't miss it. Its huge." After Rayze left the room, Sephiroth changed into his new uniform in the restroom. He strapped on the shoulder bangles and leather pads underneath, and locked the heavy mythril armlets to his forearms. He studied the knee high combat boots before putting them on. They had no laces, only silver fasteners below the knee that tightened the boots perfectly to the lower half of the leg. As he put them on he noticed that they were very comfortable and versatile. He was also pleased to see that they made him an extra inch or two taller. The black ski sweater fit perfectly, defining and making his muscles intimidating to the eye. The loose fighting pants also fit well. With all of the uniform adorning him, Sephiroth looked very sleek. Before walking out of the training floor, the cat-eyed trainee tied his Katana sheath to his side. The combination of black matched his long silver hair perfectly. This was better than being a SOLDIER. Now he didn't have to take orders from people. He was training with one of the most important people at Shinra.