Two Shades
A fresh graduate of the Shinra Military Academy is tossed into the (none too wonderful) world of Turks for about several months, and suddenly she finds herself promoted, ranking among the higher echelons of the shady organization, partnered with none other than Reno himself. (I SUCK at summaries, so I will stop here.) NOT an OC/Reno romance. Will deal with somewhat mature themes in later chapters.

Chapter 2
Promotion

Toril was bewildered—her eyes quickly ran along the length of the short barrel of the weapon, and her mind was operating rapidly, almost furiously. Was the safety on? It wasn't on, it was off, and she was sure that gun was loaded, she had heard a click¸ he had cocked the gun, and he was aiming it at her, his finger was pressing the trigger lightly, he was going to shoot at her—

Tseng spoke, quietly, evenly. "Rookie, think fa—"

She had never heard a word he had said, her defensive instincts had immediately, automatically kicked in, milliseconds after he had started to speak. Years of hard, grueling training did that to her. She launched into a smooth roundhouse with her left leg, the flat of her foot meeting with metal—

The gun flew across the room, out of Tseng's hand—he turned to look at the gun, taken by surprise, and turned back to look at Toril to see her counter-kick, her right foot coming, flying towards his face, ready to assault him with an ax-kick.

Tseng ducked, and slid across the floor for his gun back. Toril landed on both feet on his desk, regaining her sense of balance rather quickly, and gracefully launched herself into the air, diving for his gun as well.

He had reached for his gun first, scrambled to sit up on the floor, and aimed at Toril, who was still jumping, in mid-air. He fired—she avoided his shot by a few millimeters by twisting her body, contortioned in a way she never thought possible of herself while not on solid ground or on a soft mat of any sort—and grasped for the gun, wrenched it from his hand. She landed atop him, pinning him down onto the ground, sitting atop his torso.

She was sweaty from the action, and gasping for breath—her tie had come undone somehow, and her immaculate black-and-white suit had gotten all mussed up and unbuttoned. The blood was pumping in her ears, she could feel the adrenaline rush within her, and a voice inside her was screaming at her to GET OUT OF HERE, HE WANTS TO KILL YOU!

She stared down at Tseng for what felt like a long, long time. No words came out of her mouth, because she didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to feel—she just acted, but that was all on instinct, now that she had him, she didn't know what to do—

Tseng exhaled. He too, seemed winded from the barely two-minute scuffle. "Good work, Toril."

What? She didn't get off from atop him, and she didn't understand. "Excuse me, sir, 'good work'?"

He laughed, somewhat. He sounded tired. "That was a test. I wasn't really going to shoot you, I wanted to see how you'd react. You did fine, rookie." He made motions with his hand. "Now, please get off me and hand me back my gun."

It all clicked and came together inside Toril's head. Oh.

She got up, thinking about dusting herself off but instead pushing the thought to the back of her head, choosing to give her superior a hand up instead. "I'm, I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to…" Maybe she had gone a bit too far.

Tseng laughed a bit louder this time. "No offense taken rookie, that was the point of the entire thing, how you'd react." He settled back into his seat, organizing the papers that had flown about and around his desk when Toril had turned his desk into a lever of sorts into semi-neat piles. "Have a seat again, Toril."

She was still somewhat shaken up by what had just happened, and the adrenaline that was still pumping furiously throughout her didn't allow her to sit back into the bench again and relax. She also found that she was gripping the gun so tightly, her knuckles were turning white. She lowered the gun gently, almost reverently, back onto the table. "If you wouldn't mind sir, I'd like to remain standing."

Tseng nodded. "Toril, I have a somewhat unorthodox offer for you."

xx

She exited the office numbly, the thoughts in her head stumbling upon and over each other, as they were coming in so fast, she could barely keep track of any of them.

Promotion…top-secret missions…top levels of intelligence…work with the best of the best in this organization…

'We've noticed', Tseng had said earlier, within the confines of his room, 'that you seem frankly, quite…bored…with what you have, right now. It isn't enough for you, what you're being given to carry out, what you do, it does not challenge you.'

Toril had vehemently denied it all then, but Tseng, it was almost as if he did not even hear her. 'We have an opening. One of our agents, Hikaru—you might have heard of her?—was killed, quite suddenly, on a mission to Mideel the other week. Her absence is greatly felt, and we'll be needing someone right away, to fill in her shoes—and I will go straight to the point, you seem to be the best choice, we are confident that you will be able to achieve much in her place. You haven't been around for long, but you show extraordinary strength and skill.' He had stood up at this point. 'You are now officially one of the top-ranking agents in this organization. Congratulations—I'll send your new partner to brief you on everything you will need to know later on.'

She had thanked him profusely after that, and allowed herself to be ushered out of the office. Then she began the long walk, back towards the dormitories, mostly because she didn't really know where to go.

Toril blinked. Partner. She had forgotten that in the higher levels, they did not work individually anymore—they were each paired up with another agent, who was to become their partner, their other half—they were supposed to think like a unit, act as one, it made for easier missions, teamwork and all. They even roomed together—she had seen the dormitories for the higher-ups, they had two identical beds, basically everything in a single room, just doubled. And the rooms were much bigger.

She knew there were possibilities of coed partnerships, and even they had to share rooms. There was a rule though, against 'consorting' with the other, taking advantage of the fact that they would share one room even at night, et cetera. Romantic connections between agents were frowned upon, and it was very much a grave, shameful offense—it was PROHIBITED, if it happened to be your partner that you had such a relationship with. Toril had heard rumors of many a pair getting kicked out of the organization for 'abusing' the fact that they shared a room, but she had never really bothered to listen. Toril also found that rule unfair though, as it wasn't as if you could really choose who you fell in love with. But rules were rules.

She found herself wondering who her new partner was going to be. She still remembered Hikaru—she had never gotten to know her, since she was still fairly new around the place, and Toril had been a rookie, the higher-ups never really spoke to the rookies. But she knew Hikaru, faintly. She had been a tall, statuesque woman, with her long yellow hair (the color of corn silk) always in plaits. She had almond-shaped, laughing blue eyes. She had always seemed so vibrant, so happy, so, alive--she didn't seem like a Turk, not at all.

Hikaru died? It was only then that it sunk in, that she had passed away. On a mission, in Mideel. Tseng didn't go into details. Of course he didn't go into details, it was probably some top-secret deal, and she had died, in the middle of some wild gunfight. Toril felt somewhat sad, though she had never known Hikaru personally, they had never even exchanged a single word. But she liked to think she knew her. She believed that she could know people just by watching them carefully and watching.

Her thoughts floated back to her partner. She was probably going to get Hikaru's previous partner. She couldn't really, for the life of her, remember who Hikaru's previous partner was. Hikaru was such a big (she was tall and slim, but her personality was big), vivacious person that Toril guessed she just never noticed who Hikaru's partner was because she…or maybe he, yes, she was sure it had been a he, had been overshadowed by her, half the time. She'd find out soon enough, though.

She got back to her room, unlocked the door, stepped in—and started.

Lying, sprawled so very comfortably (or at least, that's how it looked to her) on her bed (immaculately made-up bed, but immaculate it was not anymore), was a long-legged, sloppy-looking, red-haired young man, also in a black-and-white suit. Toril assumed he was a Turk too, then, judging by the clothes he wore. But she couldn't understand for the life of her, why he was here, in her room, of all places, and lounging so comfortably in her bed like he had been here, all his life.

He was awake. His eyes shifted lazily towards her, or in her general direction, at least. "Can I help you?" he drawled out, in a most sluggish, half-asleep manner. His arms were folded behind his head.

Author's note: Yeah, Hikaru. (laughs) Again, took the liberty of adding characters. Any guesses on as to who the red-haired man is? (It should be blatantly obvious by this point.)

I know it sounds funny and somewhat improbable, Toril being the wonder kid that she is and all, but hey, it's a fanfic, it's fantasy, and um, yeah. Give her time. She'll grow on you. (Well, at least I hope so.) I want to develop her characters, I don't want a flat representation of her where she's perfect and can do no wrong. That would make a Mary-Sue (and okay, it's kind of a Mary-Sue already, I'll admit) but I owe it to you guys to at least make it a nice and interesting Mary-Sue, right? The damage has been done.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII, or any of their characters, they belong to Squaresoft, etc. You know the drill.