Chapter 7 - Through Glass
Of all the things Aerith expected and dreaded on her first day of training, it wasn't this. She sat in a room, in front of her a table full of empty drinking glasses. Her instructor, an older SOLDIER with a scar across his face paced around the room. He had introduced himself as Sargent Crawford, but said nothing else. Aerith had been sitting in the room for about thirty minutes after being told to report to this training room and to sit and wait patiently. She was starting to grow a bit restless.
"Umm, sir...," began Aerith.
As if that was what he was waiting for, Crawford immediately turned. "Did I give you permission to speak, SOLDIER?"
"No sir," murmured Aerith, going silent.
Crawford moved to the opposite end of the table, but did not sit. "I suppose a dog should be thrown a bone. You did decent I suppose. Thirty minutes before questioning orders."
He leaned forward over the glasses. "I expected at least an hour, though it should have been never."
He pulled back and began pacing. "I have been told you are green as hell. Not a lick of experience in the army or as a SOLDIER. I have been tasked in training you with both. As a member of Shinra's forces, regardless of being a SOLDIER or not, you are expected to follow orders. If you are told to sit on your hands and wait, you do so until your told otherwise. Until you have actually earned the right to be a SOLDIER, you ain't got the right to even think nor speak unless told to. Are we clear?"
Aerith pursed her lips and spoke in as even a tone as she could. "Perfectly, sir."
Crawford eyed her briefly before motioning to the table. "Your first lesson. Tell me, what do you see?"
"A table full of empty glasses," said Aerith.
"Wrong," he barked, "What you should see is an exercise in restraint. There are exactly one-hundred none-reinforced glasses. Your lesson is to learn how to pick them up without breaking them. If you can do so without breaking them all, you pass. If you fail, not only are replacements coming out of your first paycheck, but you are going to do it all over again. Until you learn control, you are a liability to Shinra, everyone around you, and even yourself, in order of importance of course. You are not leaving this room, even if your here for a bloody fricking month, until you can do so. Are we clear SOLDIER?"
"Yes sir," said Aerith, reaching for a cup.
"Did I say you may begin?" barked Crawford.
Aerith pulled back. "N-no sir."
Crawford narrowed his eyes. "Speak clearly, plainly, without hesitation, without a tremor, and for god's sake, don't stutter. You will be eaten alive if you show weakness."
"Yes sir," she said quietly.
"Now, you may begin," said Crawford.
Aerith eyed the nearest glass and slowly reached a hand for it, trying to be as gentle as possible. She slowly picked it up, managing to get it a little off the table before...
CRUNCH
Aerith hissed in pain as the glass shattered and embedded in her hand. "Owww!"
Crawford scoffed. "Oh get over it. It's a bit of glass, pluck them out and try again."
Aerith bit her lip and began to slowly pluck the pieces out, trying to be gentle about it. When she finished, she stared down at her bloody and cut up hand.
"What, you never seen blood before?" barked Crawford, "Pick up the next glass, I ain't got all day."
"Shouldn't I get a cure materia or at least a bandage?" said Aerith.
Crawford scowled. "There you go again with the questions. SOLDIER, wipe your hand off, hold it out in front of you, and stare at it until I say otherwise."
Aerith felt awkward wiping her blood off on her clothes, but did as ordered and stared at her hand. Her eyes went wide to see her cuts slowly starting to heal.
"Those little nicks are not worth the energy to cast a cure nor the money to buy a bandage," said Crawford, "You are a SOLDIER, if not by right, then by the mako they pumped into you. Your wounds will heal at an accelerated rate. Big ones, like a shotgun to the gut, will still drop you without immediate medical care unless you've got a will of steel, but little cuts and scraps are nothing. We don't even acknowledge those."
He cleared his throat. "When a normal soldier gets shot. There is a whole mess that needs to be done. Immediate first aid, rushing to medical, surgery, and a whole lot of recovery. For a SOLDIER? We take stray shots, fish the bullets out, and keep on going through the pain. Depending on the situation, you might have to keep on going even with a bullet in your gut for days on end. Regardless, a day or two of rest and the wound will be gone."
"What I am saying SOLDIER, and you better damn well listen, is that you will not be babied, and if you are expecting to, then you better get over it quick or get out, are we clear?" said Crawford.
Aerith nodded. "Yes sir."
"Pick up the next glass then," ordered Crawford.
For the next hour, Aerith went through one glass after the other, the sharp pains of the shards embedding into her hand, fishing the pieces out, wiping her hands off, and try again. She kept hoping Crawford would speak, offer some trick or suggestion on how to better do this, but he remained silent, watching her critically. Aerith did her best to not grow frustrated, she knew it would only make it harder, but, she was down to the last thirty without any success. She stopped picking them up and stared at the remaining glasses, eyes furrowed and thinking.
"There's gotta be some trick to it," muttered Aerith.
Crawford scoffed. "Trick? There is no 'trick'. It is plain old and simple practice. If you think you can get the hang of it that quickly, you are fooling yourself."
"So I'm expected to fail?" she clarified.
Crawford frowned. "You are expected to try until you succeed."
He grinned. "Though I imagine we will be down several hundred glasses and half of your first paycheck before you do."
Aerith shrugged and went for the next glass. "I don't care about money," and proceeded to accidentally break that one too.
Crawford laughed, though, it was more like a barking laughter. "Then you haven't had a chance to dine in our oh so glorious Shinra grade cafeteria. Let me tell you something SOLDIER, most SOLDIERs spend most of their money on either take out, eating out, or if you become 2nd Class and get a shared room with a kitchen, buying their own food. There is a reason for this, the food cooked for us at Shinra is highly nutritious, but, completely tasteless if not worse."
Aerith stored that little tid-bit away and continued trying to pick up glasses, shattering them over and over again until there was none left.
Crawford briefly left before returning with a broom and a dustbin. "Clean up SOLDIER and I'll go get the next set. I expect this floor shard free. If I can not walk across it barefoot without glass getting stuck in my foot then when we begin your physical training you will regret it. Am I clear SOLDIER?"
"Yes sir," said Aerith.
Aerith waited until he left before giving out an extremely frustrated sigh. "Sir sir sir sir sir. How in the world did Zack put up with this?"
She grumbled to herself as she started sweeping up the glass floor. "This is obnoxious. Maybe I should have been a Turk instead..."
She frowned briefly. "On second thought, considering what they do, no."
She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I still can't believe Reno dropped the plate on Sector Seven just like that. I could never be that cold blooded..."
Aerith froze, a tingling sensation running down her spine. She stood upright and glanced around, confused. It felt like someone had just been staring directly at her. Her eyes flickered to the upper corners of the room, but she didn't see any cameras or anything. Strange...
She shrugged it off and resumed cleaning...
Sephiroth's lips curled into a smug grin as he stared through the looking glass into the room Aerith was in.
"So... why are we watching the Ancient break glasses and clean up?" said Genesis, his voice exasperated, "She's mildly interesting simply because of what she is, but not to this degree."
"For that very moment," said Sephiroth offhanded, "When she's alone, she reveals more than she intends."
"Yes, the Turks are cold blooded killers, what of it?" said Genesis, not caring in the slightest.
"That's not the point Genesis," muttered Angeal, a heavy frown on his face, "The Turk's don't just do things like that without a purpose. Why would they have crushed the entire Sector Seven?"
"I don't know, why don't you ask her?" said Genesis before giving Sephiroth a smug smile, "Or do you believe that she is hiding something hmm? Not the innocent trustworthy little flower one would think her to be, as I said."
Sephiroth cleared his throat. "I never said she wasn't hiding something Genesis. To your point, if asked, she probably would tell. That of course ignores the point that she would want to know why we are asking, and that would reveal that we are watching her."
He gave Angeal a pointed look. "And try to refrain from staring at her directly when she says something like that. This room may be shielded, but a warrior's sense can work around that."
"Yes, a curious thing isn't it," said Genesis, "She isn't a warrior, yet had that reaction, felt and knew someone was watching her. That's something that ought to have developed over a period of time, perhaps in a war, or a long journey filled with strife. Perhaps it's from being an Ancient, but somehow I'm not so sure."
"According to what Seph got out of the Turks, she's been living in the slums, she'd have to keep her eyes open and senses peeled," offered Angeal.
Genesis snorted. "Ah yes, dreaded pickpockets, I must certainly keep my eyes peeled lest I lose a few coins."
Sephiroth didn't pay attention to their banter, though he could admit Genesis did have a point. She shouldn't have developed such a sense yet. He doubted she could pick up such a trait from her visions. Perhaps it was indeed because she was part Ancient. Perhaps not. Just another curious little observation about her. He was starting to make a collection out of them.
There was a heavy sigh from the room as Aerith dumped a dustbin full of glass into a trash bin and stared down it. "Cloud, Zack, how the heck did you make it seem so easy?"
"Cloud?" murmured Sephiroth.
"Oh, we got another name now," said Genesis, rolling his eyes, "Lovely."
"I'll go through our records for a SOLDIER named 'Cloud'," offered Angeal, fishing out his PHS, "I wonder if this was the 'second love' she mentioned."
Sephiroth nodded, but didn't turn to face him. He watched Aerith carefully, not fully with his gaze, but out of the corner of his eyes. When she was alone, she seemed to move with an odd heaviness, an odd weight, on her. Her shoulder's slumped, brooding. That weight wasn't something a young teenage girl should have. To be frank, from what little interactions he had with her, she often seemed much older than she appeared. So unlike what the Turks had noted about her in her personality profile. In fact, there were quite a lot of inconsistency with their profile and the girl he saw now.
Could a simple vision, even if she supposedly lived through it, inflict changes that should have taken years to happen naturally? The whole thing smelt fishy, but not in the usual sense. He did not believe she was lying per say. But she was clearly hiding something in what she had told them. He had no concrete theories that weren't completely farfetched, but he threw no theory out. He had no experience with the Ancients, he knew very little of what they were and what they could do.
He would correct that lack of information soon, even if she was the last Ancient, a hybrid one at that, and the only one who that information would be useful against.
"We ought to be out hunting Hojo," said Genesis dryly.
That drew Sephiroth's attention, and annoyance. "Hojo could be anywhere in the world right now. Looking for him blindly is foolish."
"He had to have had hidden laboratories somewhere, mad scientist and all" said Genesis dryly, "I'm sure there are records of them somewhere."
"Yes, and by the time we find them, he will have already collected what he needed from them and moved to a new location to set himself up," said Sephiroth, "Hojo is many things, but an idiot is unfortunately not one of them. Unless we have a lead, our part to play in the hunt is over. The Turks are in charge of the hunt, and considering the raw gratitude Veld obviously feels to the Ancient, they won't stop anytime soon."
Genesis nodded slowly, his eyebrows furrowing in thought, but said nothing else.
Yes, it was a curious thing, to see such a change in the Turk Director. That extra spring in his step. The concealed smile that the man had to force himself to try to not to allow to break through his normally controlled and hardened face. The increased patience. To have his daughter and his partner back had... what was the right word to use? Changed him? Healed him? He wasn't quite sure. But the Turks had certainly noticed it of their director, and what made their director happy, made them happy. The Ancient would not lack allies out of the Turk Department. That alone was a very dangerous advantage in the Ancient's favor.
On the note of Veld's partner...
Something was very off about Vincent Valentine. Whatever Hojo had done to the man changed him. When Sephiroth had briefly met the man, and the man's eyes had flickered gold ever so briefly, he actually felt danger. Few people he had met could trigger any kind of warning sense from him. Genesis and Angeal he knew to respect. Hojo he knew to be wary of. But Vincent Valentine?
He felt dangerous, actually dangerous.
He'd have to keep one eye on the man. He wondered if the man could wield a sword. He always hungered for a good challenge.
"Alright SOLDIER, here's the next batch," came Sargent Crawford's voice.
Sephiroth watched as the man wheeled in a cart of one hundred stacked drinking glasses into the room and began setting them on the table slowly, one at a time.
Genesis scoffed. "Why not just have her pluck them off the cart, this is a waste of time."
"Patience Genesis, it's part of the lesson," said Sephiroth, "It's to show her what can be done. He sets each glass on the table, proving and showing how easily he does so. There will be not one broken glass, not even a crack when he is done, compared to the full one-hundred she just broke."
Sephiroth grew amused. "And if you were paying attention, you'd see the Ancient watching his every moving, as if trying to decipher some secret method."
Angeal chuckled. "It's kind of funny in a way. Perhaps we should use this method as a part of the actual training new SOLDIERs get. It would be a good laugh."
"Yes, wonder how many your puppy would have broken fresh from his mako shots," said Genesis dryly.
"A few hundred at least," said Angeal, his eyes on his PHS, flicking through some file or the other.
A minute later Angeal spoke, "There is no 'Cloud' currently in SOLDIER."
Genesis shrugged. "Perhaps a future SOLDIER then."
"Perhaps, and yet, there is something that makes me question that," said Sephiroth, "I quote: 'Sir sir sir sir sir. How in the world did Zack put up with this.' You notice she did not say Zack and Cloud, while she paired them together while alluded to having enhanced strength."
Angeal whistled a little. "Good catch."
"She might have just forgotten to say his name," said Genesis, though Sephiroth could see the man trying to work out the possible implications in his mind.
"Perhaps," said Sephiroth, but didn't say anything else.
There were a few possibilities of why this 'Cloud' was not associated with her 'sir' rant. Perhaps he had joined SOLDIER and then gone AWOL at some point. Perhaps he joined and never respected the authority of his superiors, he knew a few SOLDIERs like that. Perhaps he joined to late in the visions she saw, dying to the mayhem of a future where the three of them in this room went mad in one form or another. Perhaps he was exposed to Mako and got his enhancements that way, though, that was exceedingly rare to an inane degree, uncontrolled mako exposures or injections were almost always failure. There was also the unfortunate possibility that this 'Cloud' had the ill fortune of being one of Hojo's unwilling abducted experiments.
He resisted the urge to shudder at that last thought and hoped he was wrong. He would never wish that on anyone.
Sephiroth's ears twitched at the sound of glass shattering and the Ancient cursing under her breath.
"So, how many do you think she'll go through?" said Genesis dryly.
"Depends on how frustrated she gets," said Angeal, "Another hundred or so if she keeps her cool. Much more if she doesn't. For someone green like her, frustration will make this far more difficult than it should be."
"Fifty more," said Sephiroth.
Angeal raised an eyebrow. "That quickly?"
"She's getting the glasses closer to herself each time," said Sephiroth, "She is for one, not male. Not to be biased against or towards a gender, but, females are said to have a more delicate touch. This one in particular was said to be gentle, and handled flowers in her daily life. She is unused to this strength, but she will adapt quickly, if only for the sake of not wishing to harm others."
Genesis scoffed. "Lovely, we have a flower loving SOLDIER. Our reputation will never be the same. Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul, pride is lost, wings stripped away, the end is nigh."
Angeal laughed, and Sephiroth allowed himself a soft chuckle.
It turned out Sephiroth was wrong in his assumptions. Not even twenty glasses later...
There was a squeal of delight from Aerith, holding a glass up a bit in front of her chest. "I did it!"
Shatter
"Dammit!" swore Aerith.
"Ha," said Crawford, "Not bad SOLDIER, but you still have a way to go. Losing focus even for a second and you can lose control of yourself. It will come as second nature in time, but you still need to be mindful of your strength when around civilians."
"Also, do not ever," said Crawford, "Let me hear you squeal like that again. It's unbecoming of a SOLDIER."
"Yes sir," said Aerith bashfully, an embarrassed red spreading across her face.
Sephiroth mad a ticking noise with his tongue. "Unfortunate, we wont have an opportunity to see her alone and speaking unguarded this session."
"We could call Crawford away and make the opportunity," suggested Angeal.
Sephiroth considered it before shaking his head. "We will be patient. We have already learned something this session, and there will be plenty more to come. We will learn more, if not from watching her train, then through her interactions with us, with others, and with Zackery."
Angeal frowned and crossed his arms. "I still don't like that you did that Sephiroth. Asking Zack to spy on her?"
"It was not a request to 'spy'," said Sephiroth, "But to be observant. He is not to press her about what she saw in her 'visions', but if he happens to overhear anything important..."
Angeal sighed. "You are using her connection to him in her visions against her Seph, I don't approve of it."
Sephiroth shrugged. "That is your choice, but beyond that, she cannot have such reactions as the one she had when she first met him on a regular basis. She will have to learn to deal with him."
"I still think you could just go and ask her," said Genesis dryly, "She'd probably fold and spill her guts easily enough. Doesn't seem like the type that likes to or is very good at keeping something secret. Its far to obvious to tell she's hiding something, and that's beyond her not giving all the details of her visions, just the major stuff concerning us, and even that isn't in full detail."
"Perhaps," said Sephiroth.
"Ah, but of course, I forget, you just love your puzzles don't you?" said Genesis, "And straight up asking her would be cheating, wouldn't it?"
Sephiroth's lips curled into an amused smile, but he didn't answer his friend. Besides...
He frowned. "She already did me a unfathomable service. Asking more from her when she gave me the opportunity to change my fate is something I will not do."
Genesis and Angeal went silent at that.
Her gift to him, to them, was the one and only reason he had allowed her into SOLDIER when she had unknowingly gone behind their backs to get a Mako injection and become one of them. What she had warned him of...
To go mad, to be the one who ended the world was a grim fate. But beyond that, what truly horrified him was the fact that Genesis, his friend, had been sent against him at the end, and he had apparently killed him, without a second thought. The Ancient had not alluded to some epic or remorseful battle. She simply stated Genesis had died, said almost like an afterthought. While he could respect Genesis's strength, if Sephiroth cut loose, he knew his friend wouldn't stand a chance.
The notion of really hurting his friend hurt. People called him cold, but that wasn't exactly true. He could admit, he was not a warm 'bubbly' man like Zack, and never desired to be so, but he would give respect to those who deserved it. He simply didn't know people, most people made no effort to see him as anything but an object to be admired, feared, or used. If someone couldn't bring themselves to try and get around that to truly befriend him, for it was on them to do so as he certainly did not need to be the one to initiate such a thing, then they were not worth the effort to get to know on a level that he did with Angeal and Genesis...
Genesis might be insufferable at times, but, that he had murdered his friend in cold blood, driven by madness or not, it shook him...
Sephiroth forced himself to push the thought away. He'd brood to himself alone later. He refocused in time to see the Ancient successfully hold a glass up in the air without breaking it.
"Good, now, set it back down," said Crawford smugly.
Aerith winced a little before slowly trying to do so...
And a crack spread along the glass as she set it down a tad to hard in the table, causing it to rattle, and one of the glasses on the edge to fall off and shatter.
"Again," ordered Crawford.
"So, are we done then?" said Genesis, drawing Sephiroth's attention.
Sephiroth glanced briefly back at him. "You can go if you want."
Genesis took his leave. "Have 'fun' with your Ancient puzzle."
Angeal slowly shook his head and stood up. "Ought to go back to training the pup. I'll see you later Seph."
Sephiroth nodded. "Very well."
He stood alone, observing the Ancient. Such a conundrum this one was. Her odd presence. The inconsistencies with what was known of her prior to her 'visions' and her now. The determination she showed at times, even for this simple little exercise. He recalled how she had stood up to him when he was calling her out for joining SOLDIER the way she did...
The Ancient closed her eyes for a moment, took a breath, and let it out. "Sephiroth..."
She opened her eyes and met his. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry I went around you and your process like this. It wasn't my intention to cause trouble, but prevent it. I'm sorry if this is causing... problems or something, with how things work. However..."
She grew a bit forceful. "I do not regret the act in itself. I HAVE to be strong enough in case something goes wrong. This goes beyond Shinra, beyond the rules you and those who follow you live by. The planet does not care about most individuals or entities when compared to it's own death via Jenova."
"Though, it is very unhappy with the mako continually being bled out of it by the reactors," she added in.
Sephiroth slightly arched his eyebrows, but did not respond.
She narrowed her eyes a bit. "I'm willing to earn my keep, and prove myself to SOLDIER, but only in regards to helping people or countering any threat Jenova or Hojo may create. I will not be some thug the President can use to hurt people and force obedience. I will NEVER take an innocent life, so you can forget about me ever stepping foot in Wutai as part of the war."
Acknowledging her need to prove herself, but putting her foot down, directly showing defiance against him. No, not defiance, drawing a line and standing for what she believed in. She intrigued him, he could admit that. He'd be watching her carefully. For now, as he strode out of the observation room, he'd allow her the privacy of her small victory today, content with pondering what he had learned about and from her and what it could mean...
Aerith, finally in her own opinion, managed to lift a glass and set it down on the table.
"Good," said Crawford, "Now, I want you to do it for each and every remaining glass. You are to move them all to the other end of the table."
Aerith resisted the urge to groan. It was one task after another with this guy. Even if it was just moving glasses, he was kind of a slave driver. Or who knows, maybe all SOLDIER instructors were like this. Oh well, she supposed it was good practice for her. She could admit, she was kind of embarrassed about how good it felt to just hold up a glass without shattering it. Simply put, after shattering so many of the blasted things, it scared her to think of what would have happened if she tried to hold a baby, or tend to someone injured. She'd have hurt them, easily, maybe even killed them on accident.
Aerith carefully went about Crawford's task, only shattering a few more before she put the remaining at the end of the table.
"Now, pick one up, and pass it back and forth between your hands," he ordered.
Ugh...
Task by task, hour by hour, Crawford made her perform one act after the other repentantly. Tossing and catching drinking glasses up in the air. Running around the room with one in her hand. Doing the opposite of trying not to break them, but to see if she could practice slightly squeezing them harder without breaking them. He said that exercise was in-case someone pissed her off at a lunch or dinner, didn't want to shatter glasses in public if she got a little mad as it looked bad in the media. She went through roughly another hundred glasses and dozens of exercises before they were interrupted...
By Aerith's growling stomach.
"Ha, suppose that'll do for now," said Crawford, "Go get some grub SOLDIER, after lunch, I expect you back here for more."
"But... I did the exercise," said Aerith.
Crawford scoffed. "'Congratulations' you managed to pick up a glass and do some tricks with it. If you think that's close to enough then you are sorely mistaken. Next you get to practice shaking hands. Let me tell you SOLDIER, break any of them, and well... I suggest not doing so to begin with. Your dismissed SOLDIER, unless you want to skip eating."
"No sir," said Aerith.
"Thought not, now git," said Crawford, "I'll clean up the mess."
Without a further word, Aerith left, hungry and eager to eat, but slightly terrified of the food Crawford said everyone ate out to avoid...