Hello!
As I've told you before in my last chapter, I'm practicing with my fighting scenes. I'm sorry if it's not good but I'm hoping to get better.

And a huge thank you for all those that have reviewed. I was incredibly suprised to come home from school and see that my reviews had jumped from four to twelve! I've gotten some really good feedback and ideas from you guys and I love you for it!

Comment Replies
Loveless an the living fantasy - Sorry about that, I was thinking you'd be a girl, but I wouldn't want to offend you. I didn't know Genesis gave more of a lover feeling than Angeal. However, it is good that you told me because now I know whether or not to tone it down or not (maybe I might add a love triangle... -shifty eyes-). Thank you!

willow, poke girl 3000, the fading dream - I would be ashamed if I suddenly dropped this story while knowing I had so many supporters. Thank you for reviewing and tell me your thoughts. I really appreciate it.

horse maniac - I was thinking of making the story longer by having Tristis and the gang hunt around for Hojo once she saves all her friends from their fated death. I don't know about DEEPGROUND or Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo because I also wanted them as enemies to spruce up the story. However, I will think about it. Thank you very much for giving me your ideas, it will make the story much more better, I assure you!

valentina - Yes, I've got a special role for Vincent in this story. I'm thinking about how to introduce Vincent and I came up with a great plan. It might not be expected, but I think it made be a little bit of a surprise and earn a bit of a chuckle from you guys. Let's just say our favourite SOLDIER boys eavesdrop on a certain conversation.

misty - Haha, I'm glad you found it funny. I wasn't sure if it'd add a bit of humour to it. Thank you for telling me your opinion1

hoshi no rika - Yes, Genesis does have his sweet moments. Especially when it comes to Tristis because she is his childhood friend. As I've said before (to loveless an the living fantasy), I might make a small love triangle or some sort. But I'm not very good on those and it'd be ultimately unfair for poor Genesis.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter!

I do not own anything to do with Final Fantasy VII (That right goes to Square Enix), I only own the original character, Tristis Memoria/Nix Somnium and the twists added to the plot.

Chapter Six - Her Weapons Of Choice

Cloud walked down the corridors of the upper class SOLDIERs rooms. For obvious reasons, Tristis's room was stationed on the same floor as the first class SOLDIERs. He did notice the lack of occupied room on this floor and he wished that someday, he would be in one of those rooms.

One of the reasons why Cloud was heading this direction was for Tristis. He knew she was friendly towards Genesis, Sephiroth, Angeal and Zack, but then again, who isn't Zack friendly to? As much as he liked Zack's friendly nature, he only felt comfortable with Tristis. Everyone else was far too superior than him and he felt a little... well, little. But when it came to Tristis, she was physically smaller than him but also very encouraging.

He heard Tristis had gotten the test results for her mako tolerence. She had slipped a copy of it under his door the day afterwards. He couldn't understand it. It claimed that she already had a substantial amount of mako laced within her blood stream. But how was that possible? With so much mako in her system, she would surely perish. She texted him to report how it had gone. She said Angeal and Genesis were watching the professor like a hawk. Zack had come to him worried, spouting out about how she was a girl and that she was very fragile.

He would have believed that, if not for her exceptional melee skills. She was, to be honest, great at swords, guns and incredible with hand to hand combat. When the cadets got to try out a low leveled fire materia, she had ended up being the best in the class. During those times, it was as if she was in a rush, concentrating on the flames everytime. Their instructor had told them that if they impressed him enough, they could take the exam earlier or completely skip it and get promoted as a SOLDIER third class immediately. Obviously he had been lying because no matter how much Tristis concentrated, worked and impressed, he had taken no notice of her except for a pat on the back and congratulating her for doing a great job.

But at that point, Cloud only knew her as the 'helmet guy'. He had no idea that she was the one pulling him to the side lines, correcting his positions and makng him train harder so he could reach his dreams.

He couldn't help but let a small smile grace his face. He had finally reached the door of his childhood friend and carefully knocked on it. "Triss?"

He heard some shuffling on the other side of the door before it swiftly opened to reveal the female SOLDIER

Tristis was wearing a black sleeveless v-neck top that hugged her lilthe form tightly. Her skirt was pleated and navy blue with black shorts underneath (and by short, he meant really short because he could hardly see them beyond the length of her skirt). She had silver belts criss-crossing over her chest and back. His eyes wondered back down to see a garter attached around the middle of her thigh with a small pouch. Two long white ribbons were attached to her shoulders and cascaded down her back, reaching the back of her knees with golden bells attached at the ends. She also wore her signature colorful bracelet (that Zack told him he had made for her) around her wrist with a pink ribbon around her upper arm.

"Cloud?" He heard her soft tone, as if expecting to comfort him, "Did something happen?"

He cleared his throat awkwardly, "Uh, you... You look nice, but... Isn't it a bit... tight and short?" He gestured towards her new customized SOLDIER outfit.

She chuckled and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Thanks, but they made the uniform and claimed it to be 'good for battle'. Something about distracting the enemy or something."

Hell yes that would be distracting if the enemy was a hormonal teenager. He frowned at the thought of all the other SOLDIERs looking at her. She was his friend and knowing other guys would be looking at her like that made him protective, much like how he felt when he was with Tifa... The thought of her made him blush. "Anyways, what do you need, Cloud?"

He snapped out of it with a bright red face. "Huh? Oh yeah. Do you want to train with me? I'm not entirely up for training with your friends and... you know, they're too good for me- Uh, not that you're bad, Triss. I just-" Before he could say anything else, she grabbed something from the side of the door (the wall was blocking his view from seeing what it actually was), locked the door and began dragging him down to the training room.

"Cloud, listen. I know that you admire them and stuff, but that doesn't make them any better than you or vice versa. Who is best at looking like a chocobo? You. Who's good at making ladies swoon? Probably Sephiroth or Genesis."

That didn't make him feel any better and he frowned, before noticing something. "Did you just call the General by his name?"

She glanced at him by the corner of her eyes (thank Goddess they were still emerald and not ruined by any mako), "Yeah, he didn't mind a few days ago either. Besides, you got to remember he's still human, Cloud."

Huh? Of course I know he's human... Cloud thought, but decided to say nothing.

They arrived at the training room a few minutes later. During that time, Cloud had pondered whether or not they were lost. But Tristis had told him she remembered where everything was already and of course, Tristis was right.

As he began to search through the storage rooms filled with training weaponsm he noticed that Tristis had brought her own weapons with her. To his shock, she had gently placed a scythe onto the ground. The curved blade was wrapped with white bandages for some strange reason.

Afterwards, she reached to the side of her hip, smoothly unattaching a coiled object. It was silvery blue and looked incredibly smooth. As she unrolled it, he realised that it was actually a whip. But when she sharply snapped it at the air, it had become jagged and segmented into several arrow-headed blades linked together with some sort of metal with the tip partically sharp looking, like a normal blade. She snapped it a couple of times in the air, as if getting used to the feel of flicking it around with her wrist. It made a clean cutting noise every time.

"Where did you get that from?" He asked in awe.

She looked at her well crafted whip carefully before gazing straight into his eyes, "It was given to me by a friend of mine." She simply replied before whipping the air again, only this time the blades retracted and it became a smooth surface again. "I don't know what it's made from, but it's great and reliable."

"How about that?" He nodded his head in the direction of her scythe.

She fell silent, looking at the blade with haunted eyes. The emerald in her eyes seemed to dim and he couldn't help but wonder why. "It's been with me for... a very long time." She said cryptically before casually shrugging. "I only carry it around with me, I don't actually use it because it's a bit heavy."

Cloud didn't know whether or not she was lying because the scythe certainly looked heavy, but why would she carry it around then? "Do you want to train using specific weapons or do you want to train using hand to hand combat?" She asked.

Cloud had picked out a sword from the storage and spoke, "Can we spar with swords?" He knew what type of weapon he wanted and could use. He was average when it came to guns, above average when it came to materia but excellent when it came to swords. He used to get bullied all the time during his childhood, a few years after Tristis had moved away. It was those days that he had figured how to swing a branch like a sword. He had become fascinated with the particular moves you could do with swords and pursued in using them when it came to being a SOLDIER.

"I knew you'd say that." Tristis smiled, coiling her whip and placing it back at her side before grabbing a sword and letting it cut through the air with just a flick of her wrist.

She encouraged him to do a little warming up with her before starting the battle. He agreed beause he honestly didn't want to get any strained muscles. He had had enough of those during his cadet course. He began to stretch his limbs and swinging his sword in precise movements with Tristis in sync with him.

After five minutes of warming their bodies up to the battle to come, they stood quite a distance away from eachother. "Ready?" She called out.

"Ready." And saw that she had immediately begun charging at him.

A second later, their swords were clashing. She was repeatedly slashing at him with weak, yet very deadly moves that would be fatal if he had not blocked them. Sometimes, all he could do was dodge because she left no openings for an attack. They were parrying, countering and over powering each other. Fighting with Tristis had made him realise that his balance was not right. Everytime she would attack with more strength than he'd expect, his balance would waver considerably, making it harder for him to focus and defend properly.

Cloud had found a weak point in her and tried to let his blade fall vertically down on her, but she had used her previous swing to smoothly swing back and knock his feet over (luckily practice blades were extremely dull and caused no harm of cuts). He found it especially annoying on how flexible her small frame was. When she had brought the blade to his head, he successfully blocked it and tried to get a hit when she was in mid-air, only to have her back flip. Once she landed on the ground (which only took a fraction of a second) she propelled herself forward in such speed that she was nothing but a blur and tackled him right to the ground.

Taken back, Cloud had found himself laying on the training room floor with her blade to his neck. Her eyes were narrowed into a deadly glare with darkness clouding her emerald eyes. He couldn't explain it, but there was a swirl of emotions flickering across those usually loving orbs. Pain? Anger? "...Triss?" He whispered her name, as if it was forbidden to let her out of her trance.

Tristis flickered to life and her cold expression melted to an awkward smile, "Sorry, Cloud. I was caught up in the moment..."

He didn't know whether to smile or ask her what was wrong... He chickened out. "Get off me now?"

She laughed good heartedly and took their swords back to the storage room. He watched as she got her scythe and heaved it onto her back to strap it on one again. The bells in her ribbons tinkled with every movement. She didn't look relaxed and somehow, he thought she looked... a bit forced. That's just my imagination... He thought before leaving the room with her beside him.

Sorry I didn't really put much effort on the fighting scene. I'm a bit tired and I was watching Monty Oum's Dead Fantasy on youtube to try get some ideas for the fighting scenes. You can sort of tell I'm more of a romantic writer than a action one. So sorry for that.

Another mystery added to Tristis... her weapons. It's true that they've been with her for a long time, but how so?
Go ahead and ponder on it. (Although I must say, you guys will probably understand it sooner or later anyways).

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!

-Lolimochi

P.S Sorry if my chapters have had typos/spelling mistakes/ missing words. I type my stories out on wordpad which has no automatic corrections and lately I haven't been checking as hard as I should be.