A/N: PSYYYYYCHE! Ahahaha once in a while I end a chapter too evilly and just can't leave you guys hanging without feeling guilty. IT'S ONLY BEEN TWO DAYS, but here. A little more to make you feel better.

And for those of you who are out of the loop-this is the second of two new chapters. Make sure you've read chapter 13! I just posted that on December 8th.

Enjoy. I have finished my writing binge, and I will now be returning to real life.

"Thank you."

Sitting there in one of the pews, head tilted back to catch the rays of sunlight streaming in through the window, I smiled lightly.

"What for?"

A giggle. "You sent him here on purpose, didn't you?"

"Oh. That." I sat back up so I could look at her.

Aerith was on her knees, tending to the flowers with gentle fingers. Her braid fell over her shoulder and she brushed it back before returning to her work. There was a very familiar pink ribbon in her hair.

She smiled as she spoke. "He's very sweet. He even helped me build the flower cart I always use."

"I know, he told me," I replied with a laugh. "Sometimes he can't stop talking about you."

"Really?" That caused her to look up at me a little too quickly, and her cheeks flushed a bit. But she looked happy, and I knew she was smitten and it just gave me a hardcore case of the warm fuzzies.

"Really," I confirmed.

She stared at me for a moment, eyes sparkling, and then turned back to the flowers with a small laugh. "No way."

"He says you're cuuuute," I sang.

"Stop!" She laughed again, her blush deepening.

"Fine, fine."

Grinning, I gave up, leaning back in the pew once more. It was nice coming down to visit again; Aerith was a sweetheart and she reminded me of Colette in many ways. This was only the fourth time I had seen her since we met, and yet it felt like I had been friends with her for a while. Coming here was relaxing somehow.

We were silent for a minute or so as she worked and I tried to savor the moment, to take a mental snapshot. A serene moment with Aerith in the old church. Listening to the sound of her quietly humming a tune to herself as she gardened.

I swallowed, squeezing my eyes shut for a second as I was struck by the sudden urge to cry. Moments like this… they slipped through your fingers, blown away like dust in the wind. Time passed me by and someday, someday I might have to watch you die.

"Did you meet him yet?"

The sudden question caught me off guard. I had to take a breath before sitting up again, not wanting my sorrow to be visible on my face.

"Who?" I asked.

She straightened, giving me a curious look. "I'm… not sure. But the Planet seems so fond of him… I'm sure you'll know who he is when you see him."

Who else could it be? My eyes widened a bit. "You mean Cloud?"

"Cloud." She tried out the name, offering me a radiant smile. "That's him."

The Planet knew him… could It see his future, his heroism? It was so comforting to see Aerith smile like that, like on some level she knew it was him, it had to be him with the name so familiar on her lips.

"I'm supposed to meet him today," I told her, grabbing my PHS to check the time. "In…oh. Oh. I'm late."

Aerith giggled at my expense. "Too busy loafing around?"

"I've been hanging around with Zack too much," I groaned, stumbling to my feet.

"You're right. He's late too," the girl said, tilting her head. "He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago."

"Okay, I need to scram," I said, panicking a little. Late for my meeting with Cloud and nearly butting in on a date? Not good.

Then I remembered something. "Oh, but before I go… any way you could hold on to some stuff for me? For safekeeping."

"Sure," she replied. "What is it?"

I held out a small bundle of things, wrapped in my old survival blanket. All evidence of my origins was wrapped in there: my wallet, my old iPhone, and a single shard of the Exsphere. The rest of the shards had been buried in various places around the world while I was out on missions.

"You can look if you want," I told her. "I don't mind. Just… please keep it somewhere secret. If a day ever comes that I get to go home, I'll want those things back."

"You can count on me," she said, tucking the bundle under one arm. "Now shoo! You're late."

"Right," I said, jolting into action. "Late! Gotta go!"

She was laughing as I ran out the door; I passed a very puzzled Zack on the way. At this rate I was gonna be twenty minutes late… oh, poor Cloud was gonna be sitting all alone in the briefing room wondering if he was in the right place.

Dammit! I ran faster, hoping I would make the next train to the upper level. Wait for me, Cloud!

When I finally made it back to HQ and entered the SOLDIER floor, I was relieved to see a familiar blond sitting at the table in the briefing room, looking bored. Whew… he was probably going to be at least a little annoyed with me, but at least he hadn't assumed I wasn't coming and ditched.

I had to stop for a moment and gather my bearings before I went in. It didn't matter how many times it happened—meeting people I already knew still hadn't gotten any easier. Now it was Cloud, and Cloud had been another huge figure in my younger years, even before Zack. Before I could even play FFVII I had watched my brother and Cloud had always been the coolest, the guy with the spiky hair and the motorcycle and the big sword.

Now he was just a cute, somewhat shy, considerably less damaged teenager. It was weird; how had he made it into SOLDIER, anyway?

Well, enough reminiscing. The Cloud I knew was barely scratching the surface of the Cloud I was about to meet. I was excited to meet another one of my heroes, even if it was way before he became a hero. Agh, I was so abducting him and making him join the merry crew I had formed with Kunsel and Zack.

No! Stop grinning. I needed to at least have the decency to look sorry when I walked in. First impressions were important.

Straightening out my expression, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly before walking up to the briefing room door.

The blond looked up when I entered. I sheepishly raised a hand in greeting.

"Hey. Sorry to keep you waiting." Now I walked up, lowering the hand and holding it out to him. "Cloud, right?"

"…Yeah." He shook my hand, meeting my gaze. His eyes glowed from the mako treatments, sharp and alert and… why did he look so wary? I wasn't going to bite.

"My name's Brittany Furness—SOLDIER, Second Class," I returned, introducing myself with a smile. "Nice to meet you; welcome to SOLDIER. I'll be showing you around and helping you get settled in."

"Thanks," he replied.

I tilted my head, suddenly understanding how Zack must've felt when he first met me. I was bubbling with questions and wanted nothing more than to talk to him, but Cloud was being strangely reticent. Or maybe that was just his normal nature—he had never seemed like the overly talkative type, even as a kid.

Still, I would've thought even he'd be overflowing with excitement at this point. Hadn't he just accomplished his childhood dream? He had made it into SOLDIER; now he could become strong like Sephiroth.

Oh well, I would just have to introduce him to Zack soon—that'd get him to open right up. In the meantime, though…

For the next few minutes I was busy showing him how to log into the company network using the computer and his PHS. He caught on easily enough. In the back of my mind I was thinking of all the things Kunsel did with me my first week, and I began developing a simple mental to-do list. It was already a given that I would be accompanying Cloud on his first assignment; I wondered what it would be.

"As you can see, it's pretty simple," I said. "I'm not gonna give you a long tutorial or anything, since it looks like you can figure out the rest on your own. All right, next I'll give you a quick tour and show you to your barracks. It might seem like a lot at first, but trust me, you'll—"

"Ah. There you are."

"No," I said, stiffening.

In front of me, Cloud blinked; that same wariness was there, but I could see curiosity and surprise now too. He was looking behind me.

I turned around, scowling at Genesis, who had just barged into the room like he owned the place.

"You are not horning in on this." I pointed at the door. "Out. I'm busy."

"You never deigned to show up for training this morning," the First purred, eyes glinting dangerously. "All that awaits you is a somber morrow, no matter where the winds may blow."

"I sent you a message," I said, exasperated. "I told you I was busy."

"And there was such a miserable lack of detail in your explanation that I felt inclined to investigate," he shot back breezily, eyes roving the room. Then they settled on Cloud and lit up with interest. "Ah. Cloud, is it?"

"I just wanted five minutes," I whined. "Five minutes to get the rookie situated. You couldn't even give me that." I had known all week that he was going to do this, butt in on my moment. He was just too curious about Cloud, the hero, and he couldn't resist.

"And now he gets to meet a First—what better introduction to SOLDIER could there be?" the redhead smirked, and then turned to hold a hand out to Cloud. "Genesis Rhapsodos. Most people do call me Commander—please ignore my student's brazen disrespect."

"Says the guy who barged into a meeting unannounced," I muttered under my breath.

Cloud shook his hand, watching him carefully. "Nice to meet you… sir."

"There is no hate, only joy

For you are beloved by the Goddess

Hero of the dawn, healer of worlds."

Now the blond's eyes widened with surprise at Genesis' recital. "LOVELESS…?"

The First smiled. "Ah, so the boy is cultured. You've read the poem?"

"A long time ago," Cloud replied quietly. "That verse…"

Genesis was being all mysterious again but I knew exactly why he'd said those lines, and I wanted to punch him in the nose. How was a rookie supposed to react to hearing words like that from a famous SOLDIER First?

"Genesis," I huffed. "I'm trying to work."

He sent an arch smile my way. Of course, he had also come here because he was an expert at pushing my buttons by now. This was war, naturally, but it had never been openly declared. Genesis appreciated subtlety; I was determined to beat him at his own game.

The First offered a sweeping bow, ever the gentleman. "You have my sincerest apologies." Not sincere at all. "Fine; I'll leave you to it, then. Best of luck, Cloud Strife."

"Thank you," I sighed, refraining the urge to roll my eyes. At least he wasn't going to hang around and be a nuisance. He probably did have other things to do.

Genesis stopped just before he went out the door. "And Brittany?"

"Yeah?"

He sent a very evil look my way. "We start early tomorrow. Double time to make up for today. Five o' clock sharp—be punctual, or I will wake you."

The thought of being woken up by Genesis that early in the morning made me cringe.

"I'll be on time," I told him, making a face.

With that, Genesis smirked, turned on his heel, and left the room. The door hissed closed behind him and I was left alone with Cloud once more.

Shoulders sagging, I heaved another sigh. I had been trying to look somewhat dignified in front of the person I was mentoring, but it looked like all hopes of that had flown out the window. Oh, well. I guess it was too much to ask, to hope that maybe Cloud himself would maybe think of me as sort of cool.

"Well." I rubbed the back of my neck and turned to him. "There's a warm welcome, eh? You've caught Genesis' attention."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Cloud asked dryly. Oh my, dry humor? Sarcasm? If he had the capacity for sass, he was going to fit right in around here.

I made a seesawing motion with my hand. "Eehhhh, depends on how you look at it. But as long as you're here, it can't hurt to have friends. Gen is the one who recommended me for Second—if not for him, you'd probably have some lame other SOLDIER as a mentor."

Like Kunsel… except Kunsel probably would do a better job. He didn't ramble on unnecessarily about dumb things like I did.

"Anyway, I won't waste much more of your time," I said, gesturing for him to follow me. "C'mon."

The blond got up obediently enough, and followed me around the floor as I showed him all of the different facilities. He seemed intrigued by the training room, so I promised to take him back there soon; other than that, he listened to my explanations in relative silence, taking it all in.

When the tour was done, we ended up right back where we had started. In the end Cloud didn't have any questions for me—none save for one. He asked me to tell him how I had ended up being recruited into SOLDIER. Honestly, that story ended up being the longest part of our entire meeting. Cloud didn't react in nearly the same way that Zack had; when I mentioned the Zolom, he raised his eyebrows, but he was merely impressed rather than in awe.

It was all kind of… perturbing. I wasn't sure how I had expected Cloud to act, but I remembered his scenes in Crisis Core; he had responded to Zack's conversations easily enough, and they had shared some laughs as well. It was before the Nibelheim incident changed everything, so he'd been bright-eyed and quick to smile.

How had Cloud ended up being recruited into SOLDIER? Originally he couldn't make it in when he tried, but this time around he'd actually been scouted. What had happened? Somehow I felt that was very important, and it had a lot to do with his current disposition.

After we said our goodbyes, I watched his retreating back with a troubled frown. My primary goal was to save Zack, but I also fully intended to prevent the burning of Nibelheim, to protect Cloud's home. I wanted to save him too, in a way. But somehow, it just… it felt like I was too late.

My brow furrowed and I clenched my jaw, pulling out my phone and searching through the contacts list until I found a particular name. I needed to know what was going on with Cloud.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kunsel." I relaxed immediately. "You still over at Foxwoods? There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Cloud Strife? Sure, I've heard a thing or two."

Kunsel and Zack were still at the bar when I arrived, and now we were all sitting in the usual booth. Zack had just been on his way back from visiting Aerith, and Kunsel was here gathering intel for his latest mission; people were so used to seeing him here that they forgot just who he was sometimes, so he always came here to listen in on conversations. He had too much mercy to ever make a good Turk… but he definitely possessed all the right skills.

"Hey—isn't that the new recruit you're supposed to be showing around?" Zack crossed his arms, frowning skeptically at me. "What're you doing digging up dirt on him?"

I held up my hands. "It's not like that. It's just, he seems… it's hard to explain. I was just wondering how he ended up getting recruited. Something feels off. Call it a gut feeling."

"Well, he seems innocent enough," Kunsel remarked. "He's sixteen, grew up in Nibelheim. He came to Midgar to visit a friend; the Turks scouted him when he was fighting off some monsters in the slums. His materia use was—well, on par with yours. Pretty impressive for a kid without mako treatments."

"What?" My eyebrows flew up.

Kunsel smiled. "Yeah. Low stamina, but he used multiple second-tier spells. He's got some real promise; I think he'll be good for you. After all, now you'll have to work twice as hard to make sure he doesn't catch up."

Too late. I didn't say anything, but I had actually only mastered second-tier fire spells. I was getting pretty close to being able to cast Bolt 2, but I wasn't quite there yet. I mean, my materia arsenal was much more varied than it had been in the beginning and I liked to think I had a good grasp of things, but… Cloud was already more skilled than me.

"Hey, he sounds like a real diamond in the rough," Zack commented, leaning forward in his seat. "Make sure you introduce him to us one of these days. I bet he'd be fun to spar with. Speaking of which, you still owe me a match!"

I straightened at that; I had completely forgotten offering to spar with him a few days ago. The most I had done with him was practice missions in the training room; I had never actually had a one-on-one.

"Well, I'm free," I told him, a challenge in my voice. "And I skipped training today."

The teen's eyes lit up. "You're on."

Two grueling weeks passed. It felt like I was always training; after the practice fight with Zack and then Genesis' awful three-hour torture session the next day, my muscles never really had a chance to recover. I went on a particularly tough solo mission after that, and then more training with Genesis, and then continuous battles with sim-Sephiroth.

At the end of the first awful week, I actually beat him.

Months had passed of me battling him at least four times a week, usually giving it between two to five tries each time depending on how long I lasted. After a while I was able to last longer and longer in battle, getting better at reading his movements. I realized that his defenses were impenetrable—the sole key to victory was finding a way to catch him off guard, if only for a split second.

After facing him constantly, I was finally able to understand some of his attack patterns enough to figure out what might work. It took dozens of tries to get the timing of my strike just right—and that day I finally succeeded. For the very first time it was my blade piercing his torso, watching his eyes widen with shock.

I spent the rest of the day walking around like I was in a dream, replaying that moment in my mind over and over, wondering if it had really happened or if I had just imagined it. I went back the next day, intending to try and beat him again just to be sure.

Someone had updated the system. Below the first sim-Sephiroth there was a second option: Sephiroth 2.0. Upon doing some research, I discovered that this version claimed to possess a quarter of Sephiroth's true strength.

Sephiroth 2.0 possessed the unique ability of being able to kill me twice as fast as before. He also enjoyed appearing at random—sometimes he would materialize within plain sight like the other one always had, and sometimes he would just jump out from the bushes and cut my arm off. And I had thought the first sim had been absolute hell…

The second week was even more difficult than the first; Cloud was taking on his first few missions, so I was confined to the city in order to accompany him. That meant being present at HQ every day, which also meant the triple whammy of facing Genesis in the morning, fighting new-and-improved sim-Sephiroth in the afternoon, and then fighting monsters with Cloud after that. I slept like a corpse.

My suffering was far from over, but at least today was the last day I was officially teaching Cloud. After this, he was on his own as far as the company was concerned. I fully intended to continue acting as his mentor (it was too entertaining having someone to call 'rookie'), but I was glad I didn't have to go on a bunch of extra missions anymore.

Cloud turned out to be as strong as Kunsel said. He ran out of energy fast, but he was definitely improving. I had no idea how he could be using second-tier spells with that stamina level, though. Second-tier required a good knowledge of how to use materia. Learning how to use materia required practice, and practice built stamina. It didn't make sense—it was like he had skipped a middle step somewhere.

As far as swordplay went, he was decent, though a bit clumsy. Again, he was improving. He was definitely on par with the other Thirds, if not better. I could see him making Second someday; he reminded me too much of how I had been when I first joined.

But this was Cloud. He hadn't been able to even make SOLDIER originally. I mean yeah, I had seriously altered things by saving Genesis, but how could that have affected Cloud? Had I done something else without realizing it? It was like he was an entirely different person than the kid I remembered from Crisis Core.

I offered him a sidelong glance as we walked down the hallway on the eastern end of the SOLDIER floor. He was staring straight ahead, looking about as deep in thought as I was. So pensive… when was I going to see that cute smile?! It wasn't fair. He was supposed to be all young and impressionable.

"What is it?" Whoops, he had noticed my staring, and now he was giving me a strange look.

"Do you ever smile?" I blurted out.

He looked at me for a moment, and then his lips twitched. I groaned.

"That was painful, rookie, just painful."

"Maybe if you stopped calling me rookie," he suggested.

"Never gonna happen," I replied breezily. "I mean, unless you want me to think of a different nickname."

"No." Cloud said it a little too quickly; clearly he saw the danger in that.

Our walk had taken us to the entrance to the training room. I had told him again and again that I would come here with him, though until now we had both been too busy. Genesis was on an assignment today, so I actually had free time aside from my usual duties.

"Well, here we are," I said, strolling into the antechamber with him. "This is the control room; you can adjust the settings of the main chamber from here. There are plenty of different options to choose from, though as a Third you'll need a superior with you in order to access a lot of them. I can show you a few things tomorrow, but for now I'll just pick one of my preset practice missions to save time."

I played around with the controls for a second or two, having gotten pretty good at it by now after spending so much time in here.

"Is it always this empty?" Cloud looked interested, peering through the observation window into the chamber.

"Only certain times of day," I told him. "Early morning's usually a good bet. Angeal usually takes a regiment of Thirds in here in the afternoons. Most of the Seconds will be here in the evenings, and the middle of the night is usually when they tinker with the system. I like coming by once in a while then just so I get to test out new programs first. Well… except when Hojo's here."

A pause. "...The head of the Science Department."

"Yeah. I guess they help design some of the monsters used in the simulations. Makes sense, I guess," I replied, straightening. "But listen, rookie—steer clear of Hojo. And I mean that literally; if you see him on this floor, turn tail and walk the other way. He's bad news."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Ugh, enough of that serious talk. Thinking about Hojo made me feel a weird mix of anger and the heebie-jeebies, and Cloud looked too tense at the warning. I opened the door to the main chamber and gestured for the blond to follow me inside.

"All right, on a lighter note, check this out," I said with a smile.

We walked further into the chamber and our surroundings dissolved; Cloud looked around with surprise as the metal floor was replaced with the hard-packed, cracked dirt of the wasteland surrounding Midgar. Though it was morning outside, here the sky was a red hue, the sun beginning to set.

I had been favoring this landscape lately since it was another relatively easy terrain to handle during a heated battle; there were a few cliffs and rock formations, but the ground underfoot was typically flat. It was a good place to battle particularly large monsters.

Last time I was here I had been testing out my casting precision, seeing how well I could cast Fire 2 on a scattered group of Grand Horns. When I was in the control room I had hit the button to resume my last setting, so this was going to be interesting. Before I had found a good vantage point so I could pick them off from afar; now we were just going to be surrounded.

"How far does it go?" Next to me, Cloud was looking out at the horizon.

I shrugged. "I've never really tested it, but I've never hit an invisible wall or anything. I think each landscape is a few square miles."

"Seems a little excessive," he remarked.

"Shinra always aims to impress," I told him with a snort. "Anyway—"

"There's something here." Cloud cut me off, frowning and looking around.

I grew a bit more alert, looking around as well. "Yeah, about that… we might get swarmed by monsters. Like, a lot of monsters."

He paused long enough to shoot me a disgruntled look. "Thanks for the advance warning."

I flashed an unapologetic grin. "Just keeping you on your toes, rookie. You should—"

Something was wrong. Too quiet. Too quiet.

All evidence of Cloud's previous expression was gone. He was staring over my shoulder, eyes wide.

A deep chuckle. "Welcome back."

Shit! Wrong setting!

He was already behind me; there was no way I could avoid getting stabbed in the back. Maybe if this had been the first version of sim-Sephiroth… but I still wasn't close to being fast enough to best this one.

Then Cloud sucked in a sharp breath, roughly grabbing me and practically throwing me behind him, then lifting his own blade just in time for it to clash with Masamune. I gaped as he actually held his own for a moment though he looked like he was drowning, each hit of metal on metal a desperate bid for survival.

"Cloud!" I yelled. What was he doing? I didn't want him to end up force-quitting his first time in the training room—what a shitty first experience that would be, and especially against sim-Sephiroth!

The blond was thrown backwards; he flipped in midair and landed on his feet beside me, readying his sword again and immediately moving to stand in front of me. He and Sephiroth clashed swords again and again and then Cloud was stabbed in the shoulder and tossed to the side but he got up and went back for more, a wild look in his eyes.

"Cloud!" I couldn't get him to break away. He wasn't listening. "Dammit—abort mission!"

Sephiroth backed off and went exclusively on the defensive, giving me just enough time to pull out my PHS and confirm the command. Our surroundings shattered into nothing. It was jarring and sudden, and then Cloud was standing in the middle of the room, panting. He looked around with unseeing eyes, dropped his sword, and clutched a phantom wound.

"Hey," I hissed, my heart pounding. I ran up, gripping his shoulders and giving him a good shake. "Cloud. Come on—!"

He let out a shuddering breath and then finally seemed to snap out of it, meeting my gaze. "Sephiroth. Where—" He looked around the empty room and his shoulders slumped.

"Part of the simulation," I said, releasing him. "I'm sorry, I—when I picked one of my preset programs, I must've picked the wrong one. That Sephiroth sim is brutal, sometimes he shows up out of nowhere. But damn, Cloud…"

"Simulation…" he repeated, running a hand through his bangs.

"Are you… okay?" I asked, feeling cold.

"I'm fine." Though he looked a bit shaken, he seemed like himself again. "I just…"

"You weren't expecting it. I know."

I found myself making excuses for him, trying to rationalize what I had just seen—but it wasn't working. Everything was falling into place. It all made sense now. The way he had reacted, it had been instinctive. Sephiroth was the hero of the Wutai War; he was certainly formidable, but he was on our side. But Cloud's very first action was to put himself between me and him, to protect me.

He had seen Sephiroth about to strike behind me and it had been Aerith to him all over again.

You're not alone. Everything's going to be okay.

"I can fix the settings," I offered, my mouth still moving though my mind was numb with shock and disbelief. "Do you want to try again?"

Unsurprisingly, he shook his head. "Why were you fighting Sephiroth?"

"Ah… sim-Sephiroth has a quarter of the strength of the real deal," I replied. "I, uh, I'm working my way up. Someday I'd like to prove a match for the real thing."

"You should stop."

"Huh?" I raised my eyebrows, but Cloud was already walking away. "Hey, Cloud…"

He paused in the doorway, not looking at me. "Sorry. I just remembered there's something I have to do."

I gritted my teeth, not liking this at all, not sure how to react. Was he really—? This changed everything. But what… what was I supposed to do?

"Rookie!" I finally called before he could go.

This time he did look over his shoulder at me, silent.

"I expect you back here for training tomorrow," I told him in tone that I hoped was firm.

For a moment I thought he was just going to walk out without a response. Then I saw it—he met my eyes, offering a curt nod.

Then the door slid shut behind him, leaving me alone in the chamber.

Still feeling numb, I stood there for a good thirty seconds before leaving myself. I ended up going back to my room and flopping down on my bed, staring at the ceiling.

The serious disposition. That perpetually wary look in his eyes. Too skilled with materia, like he had picked it up and mastered it without having to practice. Clumsy sword skills—always attempting things above his current level. He moved like he was uncomfortable in his own body.

Because he wasn't actually sixteen, was he? Maybe his body was, but those eyes told a much different story.

God, the way he had reacted to Sephiroth.

"Time traveler," I whispered to the ceiling.

Could it really be? This kid—could he actually be the man who had lived through it all? And if he was, what did that mean? How had he gone back? Too many questions, not enough answers.

Aerith had known. This was what she had meant. I had thought I was alone; I was the variable, the person who didn't belong, the outsider with the ability to alter things. But Cloud…

He didn't know what I was. He would never trust me, not with the stakes so high, not when he held a secret so huge. If I was right about this…

Maybe this could be a very good thing. I just needed to get him to listen. But this was a delicate situation, and I would have to deal with it accordingly.

My phone buzzed, causing me to jump. I picked it up and glanced at the screen, raising my eyebrows. Well, that was convenient timing… I had been offered a higher-priority mission with Cloud as my backup. It would be his first challenging assignment as a SOLDIER. And boy, was it just perfect.

Smiling slyly, I typed out a quick message.

To: Cloud

Subject: See your new assignment yet?

Funny, because my mission last week was to control Don Corneo's excessive forces in the slums. He's been getting a little too greedy lately—can't believe he's actually stolen corporate documents this time, now he's really in for it.

This sounds a lot more like a Turk job, but I guess he does have a lot of manpower. We'll probably have to sneak into Wall Market. Well well, being a girl SOLDIER does come in handy every now and then!

How about it, Miss Cloud? I have the perfect dress, and I bet you clean up real nice.

Next time: Parallels. Wall Market. Sephiroth.