Chapter 5

I do not own Final Fantasy 7 or any of its characters except for Tarae.

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          "100 Gil each? I still don't see why we need them." Cloud complained as he stared at the batteries he purchased. The team was climbing the plate to Midgar.

"I'll take them if you're just going to throw them away!" exclaimed Tarae.

"No, da man said dat we need them to climb da plate." Barret bellowed, "Yo! I think we could use one of da batteries here." Cloud ignored him and looked at the yellow box and the propeller, "If I place a battery here …then maybe the propeller will work." The propeller turned a few times then eventually stopped.

"That was convenient. It stopped in the exact place we needed it." Tifa said, breaking the shocked silence amongst the group.

"Fascinating …I have to ask Reeve about those." Tarae sarcastically said while jumping on one of the fan blades. Soon they reached the swinging bar. Cloud kept jumping too soon and missing the bar. Barret and Tifa were already on the other side waiting while Tarae watched him.

"Hey Cloud, can I have the last battery?"

"Sure." He muttered and tried again. This time he finally made it across.

"'Bout time." Barret muttered. Cloud looked back to see if Tarae could make it across but she wasn't even in sight.

"Where did she go?" Barret and Tifa shrugged to his question. Soon Tarae was climbing down to the swinging bar and jumped to Cloud and the others.

"Here, I found ether with that battery." She said. He just glared at her and muttered, "…Cheater."

"What?" she wailed out while catching up to the team.

          Finally the Shinra H.Q. building was in sight, Cloud, Tifa, and Barret had their weapons ready and nodded to each other. Tarae just gazed at the helicopter that was just landing on the other side of the building.

"I wonder if Rufus is here?" she thought as she followed.

"Hey, you oughta know this building pretty well." Barret said, lowering the volume of his booming voice.

"…Not really, now that I think about, this is the first time I've ever been to Headquarters" answered Cloud

"I've heard of this place before. Every place above the 60th is special and not easy to get to, even for employees. Must be where they took Aeris. The security's pretty light now. Awright, let's go!" Barret tries to run to the front entrance, but Tifa stops him, "Wait a second! You're not thinking of just going right through the main entrance, are you?"

Barret faces Tifa, "Well what else does it look like?! I'm gonna kick some Shinra butt and…"

"That's not going to work! We've got to find another way…" Barret gets angry and continues the argument, "Ain't gonna be no other way! If we keep wastin' time like this, Aeris'll…"

"I know that! But if we get caught here…" Tifa starts to think, then she turns her gaze to Cloud, "Hey Cloud. …What should we do?"

Cloud considers the situation then comes up with an idea, "Let's sneak in quietly."

"I got a good idea." Tarae said as she came out of the bushes. She was in her business suit again.

"I still say we got no time to waste!" Barret shouted as he once again ran towards the entrance.

"Wait Barret! Remember last time we ignored Tarae?" Tifa reminded him. He stopped and decided to listen to her plan.

"You guys could come with me and then once we get past the 60th floor, we go our separate ways. The people in the entrance would just think you're my assistants." She suggested.

"There's only one problem with dat plan. You said you can't get caught helpin' us."

she sighed, "Oh yeah, you're right Barret. Then take the stairway to the 59th floor and get a floor card by stealing one from the guards stationed there."

"Wait a sec Cloud!" Tarae stopped him as the others headed to the stairway, "I have a feeling I'll be seeing you inside and I probably will have to draw my sword and fight you when I do."

"Why?"

"You might run into me while I'm with an executive or someone important. Don't worry too much about it, I'll act like you knocked me unconscious in battle. Oh, and take good care of Tifa." She finished in a babyish voice and pinched Cloud's cheeks.

"Stop that!" he ordered as he slapped her hand away.

          Tarae entered the front office and walked up to the front desk. The secretary was too busy reading a magazine to notice Tarae, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed her short sword strapped to her briefcase, "No weapons in the building please."

She took this as no surprise and answered, "I believe I received permission by the president that I can carry my sword around in the building." The secretary looked up and stuttered, "O-oh! Miss Destine! I-I didn't realize it was you. The president wants to talk to you before the meeting."

"Thank you, I will go see him right now."

The first person Tarae saw when she reached the 69th floor was Scarlet. She groaned inwardly as Scarlet made her way to her.

"Why hello Miss Destine! How's that piece of junk you use as a weapon?" She greeted in a stuck up southern accent.

"Just great! So far I killed 50 monsters with it today. It's so much better than guns. Especially since my weapon wasn't made by an old hag." she had a small smirk on her face from her come back.

"W-What?!"

"If you get hearing aids you might be able to hear more clearly. Of course it might be too late to save your hearing since you stalled for so long. You should have got some when you were 60." Scarlet turned red with anger.

"You should know that I'm 28 years old and should be treated with respect!"

Tarae looked shocked for a second, "With all those wrinkles? Hmm …could've fooled me!" That was the last straw for Scarlet, she prepared to slap her really hard. Suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed her hand before it could make contact with Tarae's face.

"You should know better than to start a cat fight, Scarlet. You're an elder and should set good examples." Rufus scolded after he let go of Scarlet's hand, "Now go set up the meeting room."

"B-but she." Protested Scarlet. Rufus shook his head, "No buts Miss Scarlet."

"Yes sir." She mumbled and headed for the open elevator. Tarae stuck her tongue at Scarlet then turned to find Rufus grinning at her childish act. He quickly turned that grin into an irritated scowl that would scare off anyone, but she just smiled, "Thank you Rufus, you always seem to be there when I'm in trouble. Oh, and the scowling thing may work on everyone else but not on me." He held the look for a while longer, then finally began to smile, "I can scare away the bravest of soldiers and yet you are the only one who can still smile in my presence."

"What are you doing here?" Tarae queried, breaking the long silence between the two since they started walking.

"I'm here to get a short summary of the meeting so I can finish up the work I have to do at Junon." He explained, running a hand through his strawberry blonde hair.

"I doubt the summary will be short if President Shinra is going to present it." She warned.

"At least it will be done before the actual meeting so I can return before its nightfall over there." Before they knew it, they had arrived to the main office and were immediately greeted by the secretary.

"Hello, President Shinra is ready to see both of you now."

"Both of us? Uh-oh this isn't good." Tarae whispered to Rufus as they climbed up the stairway.

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Tarae hated when she was right. For the past 30 minutes, she had to listen to 'President Windbag' give a lecture and worse, another plan to get her to join Shinra. This time he's using marriage to his advantage by convincing Rufus to propose to her. Secretly, she liked the idea but having the president of Shinra Inc. as her father-in-law made it a bad idea. Thankfully, Rufus refused to propose.

"The estimated cost to rebuild Sector 7 is…"

"We are not rebuilding" her eyes flew from her paper to the president.

"What?" asked Reeve with a small tint of anger and shock in his voice.

"We are leaving Sector 7 as it is and restarting the Neo-Midgar plan."

"He ruthlessly killed millions of people and wants to continue to kill the Planet." She thought angrily.

"…Then the Ancients?" Reeve inquired. Shinra nodded, "The Promised Land will soon be ours."

"It will never be yours!"

"I want you to raise the Mako rates 15% in every area." He continued. Then this large man in a yellow business suit jumped up from his seat and began dancing.

"Rate hike! Rate hike! Tra, la, la! And please include our Space Program in the budget!" Palmer sang out, Tarae shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Reeve and Scarlet will divide the extra income from the rate increase"

"Oh man!" he whined as he sat back down next to Tarae.

"Sir. If you raise the rates, the people will loose confidence…" Warned Reeve.

"It will be alright. The ignorant citizens won't loose confidence, they'll trust Shinra Inc. even more." Reassured President Shinra. The other large man, sitting on Tarae other side, began to laugh.

"Ha, ha, ha! After all, we're the ones who saved Sector 7 from AVALANCHE!" He bellowed in his deep Russian accent. Tarae shook her head again before her rival entered the conference room, the president was the first one to talk to him, "Hojo. How is the girl?"

"As a specimen, she is inferior to her mother. I'm still in the process in comparing her to her mother, Ifalna, but for now the difference is 18%."

"Actually, in theory, the offspring inherits half of intelligence, strength, power, and whatnot." Tarae said, interrupting Hojo.

"Yes, well as you said Miss Destine, it is a theory."

"How long will the research take?" The president asked before another argument started.

"Probably 120 years. It's probably impossible to finish in our lifetime. Or in the lifetime of the specimen too, for that matter."

"Too bad you won't be able to keep your precious specimens."

"That's why we're thinking of breeding her. Then we could create one that could withstand our research for a longtime." Tarae nearly jumped in her seat, "He isn't! Not Nanaki!"

"What about the Promised Land? Won't it hinder our plans?" queried Shinra. Hojo thought for a while then said, "That's what I need to plan. The mother is strong …and yet has her weaknesses."

"Excuse me Hojo, but don't you need a specimen of the same type to breed with your new specimen?" Tarae asked while she stood up.

"Yes, fortunately I found that the specimen from Cosmo Canyon is also an Ancient. Why don't you come by my lab to see? I'm going to start the experiment soon." Hojo explained then left the room.

"I think I will. Here sir, this is the modifications and new discoveries of my project." she gave the paper to President Shinra, knowing he still won't take it seriously. She was thinking of winning his favor through a well prepared speech, but Hojo's new discovery wasn't good. President Shinra briefly glances over it and nods, fulfilling her expectations of ignoring it.

"That concludes our meeting." Everyone leaves except for Tarae and Scarlet. Scarlet looks up at the air vent in the ceiling, "Something stinks!"

Tarae looks at her and says, "Well I didn't smell anything until you opened your mouth. You know, there has been an invention called the 'breath mint' that can cure your stinky breath problem." Scarlet huffed and stormed out of the conference room. Tarae glances up to the air vent, "You guys better hurry to the lab." Then she finally left the conference room to see Hojo's new experiment.

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Sorceress Myst: And here's another chapter of Who Am I? What Am I?. Please review and watch out for the next chapter. C ya!