Here we are, chapter four!
Enjoy!

Again, I do not own anything other than the plot twists and the character Tristis Memoria/Nix Somnium. Final Fantasy VII character's and the game itself belongs to Square Enix.

Chapter 4 - Following The Bells

Zack had entered as a SOLDIER at the age of sixteen and had bumped up the ranks until he was finally a second-class. Now, he was the student of 19 year old first class SOLDIER, Angeal Hewley.

Zack was indeed lucky to have Angeal as his mentor. He acted older than his age and was gentle yet firm with his beliefs. All of Angeal's talk about honor, pride and dreams was stuck in his head. Infact, his mentor reminded him slightly of a certain girl.

He touched the necklace dangling at his chest, the angel wings gave him a soothing feeling that left him wondering if his childhood friend really did work some type of magic onto it because she definitely seemed to have the magical touch.

"Are you going to go see the cadets?" A voice from behind sounded.

It was Genesis, the other first class SOLDIER and childhood friend of his mentor. His mako blue eyes peered into his violet ones. He had always wondered what color they were before the change from the substance.

Mako was something that was part of the life stream- the world's blood basically. SOLDIERs were injected with mako to give them extra strength, speed and heightened senses.

"Yeah. I heard it's fun to watch." Zack replied smoothly.

They chuckled together before moving towards the training rooms, where the test were held.

When they had arrived, Zack was particularly shocked to see Angeal squinting his eyes in confusion. He was so focused on the new cadets that the normally relaxed, yet alert mentor didn't even flinch when they slammed the door shut. Curiously, Zack peered to the other side of the glass to see how the cadets were doing. They were doing one on one duels to see how many moves they could do and how they could fight with pressure of knowing one of the famous SOLDIERs was assessing them harshly.

He was once in that room with Angeal doing the exact same thing. He was so nervous that he found it hard to stay still in the same line when they were instructing what to do. However, when it came to the sparring, he was a master at hand to hand combat.

"I give up!" A cadet yelped as he was thrown to the ground by another.

It looked fairly impossible to do so when the winner was smaller then him with a slim figure. He was wearing a helmet that covered his whole face from being seen which was a disadvantage to him because helmets weren't usually known for the great field of vision it gave the owner.

"The fifth one..." Angeal mumbled.

"The fifth what?" He asked.

Angeal finally glanced at him, his eyes widening for a moment as he realised he was not alone before calmly looking back to the cadets, "The fifth cadet he's beaten."

He's that good? Zack thought. He had remembered on his test, he had only managed to defeat three because the lack of time. He tried inspecting the cadet further, but it was hard when he was already sparring with a new person. Man, was he good. He was flexible and agile.

But one thing caught his eye most. There was something colorful underneath his long sleeves. Something on his wrist... He could barely see it as they were fighting, but Zack could definitely tell it was familiar just from a glance. Unconciously, he reached for his necklace, tracing the curve of the wings against it's smooth surface. He began to close his eyes, exactly the way his childhood friend had taught him.

He ignored the soft breathing of Genesis and Angeal, the grunts of fighting men and thumps of fists... He was sure that if he listened hard enough, he would hear what he wanted. He could already imagine each thump belonging to the cadet wearing the helmet as his punch collided at his opponent.

Then he heard it. It was very quiet, almost non-existent. But it was still there... The sound of chiming bells. Her bracelet! He thought. It must have been the bracelet he had made of his childhood friend. That doesn't make any sense… He thought. He had given the bracelet to his childhood friend whom happened to be female. The person he was staring at was a male, although there was no obvious bulk of muscle nor face to prove it.

He began worrying and struggling to think of a proper explanation… But he couldn't even imagine anything but a poor little Tristis lying on the road bleeding from a ferocious attack from monsters as she travelled. The cadet might of taken it and that made Zack's temper flare. There was no other way, after all, Tristis would never sell or give it away… She had given him a heroine's promise, as naïve as that sounds.

"Times up." Angeal spoke before exiting through the door to meet face to face with all the cadets. They saluted him with so much respect relfecting in their star struck eyes, except for Mr. Helmet boy but Zack was sure he'd be doing the same thing as the rest.

There was another cadet that caught his eye. The cadet had spiky blonde hair with sky blue eyes. He almost mistook them as mako eyes.

"You six stay here, the rest leave." His mentor instructed, gesturing to the six men, including helmet boy and the other one he noticed.

If looks could kill, Angeal's stern expression would have made them melt. The blonde-haired boy kept a straight face, yet Zack could see his fists shaking with nerves while the mysterious cadet just stayed dead still. The rest of the cadets figetted uneasily, although one or two did look slightly more confident than the rest. "Congratulations, you've passed the test. We just need to check if you're stable for mako in your system and you'll be in SOLDIER."

They all cheered, given eachother high fives and pats of the back. They were about to exit, but Zack quickly found his moment to speak up, "Hey, wait! Helmet guy, come back here!" He called out, grasping his arm to stop him.

He went rigid, yet let Zack drag him into a position so they could face each other. "Pull up your sleeve. I need to see something."

"Zack, leave him alone." Angeal spoke out, but Zack quickly cut him off.

"It's important, Angeal."

He knew his mentor trusted him not to do anything stupid with the new recruit, so he backed off. He stared at the boy, trying not to look unfriendly although the thought of Tristis was burned into his mind. "Can you pull up your sleeve?"

The boy hesitated before pulling up both sleeves. His eyes saw the beaded bracelet. So it was true... He thought. "Where did you get it?"

He didn't reply. "Did you steal it?" His eyes hardened as he stared accusingly at the silent recruit.

"... No... It was given to me by a friend." The voice was soft, muffled by the helmet... But something seemed off. It made him seem like a pervert, but Zack was sure a man's skin couldn't be as smooth as the recruit had.

"Take off your helmet." He demanded, which caused the recruit to flinch and pull his wrist away.

Angeal grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back, "Zack, I don't know what's going on, but just because that bracelet isn't important."

Zack felt his temper flare again, "You don't get it, Angeal! That's the exact bracelet I gave my friend! I made that bracelet, there is no way he could have it!"

Seeing as Zack was being stubborn again, Angeal sighed and shook his head. "Take of your helmet, recruit. It's the only thing that can calm him down."

Again, the boy was hesitant but eventually brought his hand up to his helmet and pulled it off. But it wasn't a boy... The face was prim with soft emerald eyes and beautiful brown hair rolling down her back until it stopped near her hips. Her pink lips were curved into a sheepish smile. "Happy now?"

The world seemed to have stopped at that moment as Zack's thoughts began to process the whole situation. This girl? No way... Impossible... Zack's eyes were wide as he examined every inch of her body. Her eyes! They were exactly the same as long before. His favourite shade of emerald green.

"T-Tristis?" He stuttered weakly.

Her smile softened and her eyelids drooped to give an apologetic stare, "Sorry. I didn't know if SOLDIER accepted girls or not, so I had to keep quiet."

The next few moments were all a blur as he scooped Tristis up into his arms and twirled her around, "You're really here! You're alive and well and... And you're just... Here!" Zack laughed hysterically before roughly placing her down to look at Angeal.

"This is the girl I was always talking about, Angeal! My childhood friend!"

Angeal was in shock, but quickly regained himself with a shake of the head. He also recognised this girl. Although she was much older since he had last seen her with Genesis. He almost couldn't believe it. The fragile little girl was now a young woman strong enough to take down five men that were all larger and probably older than her. "It's nice to see you again, Angeal. It's been a long time..."

He shook his head again, "Appearing out of nowhere after disappearing for so many years." He muttered before looking into her eyes. "Genesis looked all over for you, he almost got injured thinking you had fallen down somewhere."

"I'm sorry. My parents suddenly had the spirit to go travelling again, I didn't have the chance to even tell you." She explained sincerely.

He gave her a small smile, "Don't worry, you're here now. Even though we'll need to explain the situation with Lazard."

Do any of them sound OOC? I hope not... This chapter was really hard to write... I don't really know why...
Anyways, so there we have it! Tristis Memoria is now in SOLDIER and is reunited with two of the childhood friends!
Of course the blonde kid was Cloud. Genesis and Cloud will most likely be in the next chapter. Hopefully, I can put in a bit of humour with a bit of Zack's stupidity and pranks!
The target? Most likely Angeal, Genesis or Sephiroth. The poor elders, haha joking.

Have a good day and thank you for reading (and reviewing if you are going to or have done so!)

-LoliMochi.