A/N: This chapter is kind of just a chapter to reveal something about Silvia. It doesn't have alot of plot in this chapter, but it does serve a purpose. I want to thank, again, all those who have reviewed, favorited, alerted or just looked at this story. I would like to give a special thanks to Loveless an the Living Fantasy and Dongottaclue88. Thank you for the reviews guys! Anyway, Enjoy the newest chapter of Beyond the Sands of Time!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Final Fantasy 7 characters from either the games, the short anime, or the movie. I do, however, proudly own Silvia and Shadow and all ideas pretaining to them except for anything pretaining directly to Deepground.

Chapter 7: Betting Poll

Silviana smiled slightly. Over the past couple of days, she had been training with Tseng a bit. The Turk had decided to test her abilities to see what kind of Turk she could become. Tseng had been surprised to learn she could hack into computers (thanks to Shelk's teaching before she had been left for dead), pick-pocket, stealth, stealing something without even being noticed, shooting, and martial arts.

Today though she and Reno had decided t o have a sparing match in one of the SOLDIER training rooms. They would have to sneak in, but most of the SOLDIER's were busy today, so it was perfect for the duo. Both had been looking forward to the spar for a while now.

"I can tell you are excited. But, be careful not to go too far." Shadow told her softly as he walked next to her.

It was a bright, sunny day. Well, as sunny as days could get in Midgar. Silvia smiled down at her friend. "I will. Don't worry." She assured him.

Together the duo made their way into the building. It was still rather early in the afternoon so not many Shinra employees were around. Silvia and Shadow made their way toward the elevators and waited for them to open to take them to the training floors. When the doors opened, Silvia blinked in surprise. Rude stood in the elevator, and once the door opened he moved to the side to make room for the girl and wolf. She smiled and entered the elevator.

"It's good to see you Rude. Are you going to stay to see the sparing match?" Silvia asked, being politely to the bald Turk.

Rude nod in answer, a small unseen smirk twitched at the corners of his mouth.

'Just one week'. Silvia thought to herself in amusement. 'And already Reno and Rude saw her at least once a day.' The four of them, Silvia, Shadow, Reno and Rude were becoming close. Reno and Shadow had been rocky a first, especially when Reno made the mistake of mentioning mint around Shadow. The wolf creature always dropped everything at the word 'mint'. Both Turks were surprised when Silvia had told them Shadow didn't eat meat like they thought, instead he was an herbivore and the wolf absolutely loved mint leaves.

The only thing bothering Silvia was the fact she felt enclosed. She hadn't been assigned any missions outside the Shinra building just yet, but she could tell it was only a matter of time. She couldn't wait to finally go on an official mission. She couldn't wait to get out of the Shinra building, off the plate and out of Midgar.

They finally arrived on the training floor and the three made their way toward the designated training room. Again, for the second time that day, Silvia stopped in confusion. Not only was Reno waiting for them outside the room, but Tseng also waited outside the door along with Rufus.

"What are you two doing here?" Silvia questioned when she, Rude and Shadow finally stood in front of the door as well.

Rufus grinned cockily. "I thought it would be good to see how you have been progressing. Plus, my office was getting rather boring."

"I, on the other hand, wanted to see this little spar. It is about time someone knocked Reno down a few pegs." Tseng answered.

Reno eyed his superior. Placing a hand dramatically over his heart he replied, "You wound me, Tseng. You real wound me."

Rude snorted behind Silvia at the red heads acting. Reno heard however and scowled at his partner. But it soon turned into a smirk. "Well, we will just have to see who's better. Aien't that right, Silvia."

"You bet. This will be fun." Silvia answered with her won grin.

Everyone entered the training room a shut the door behind them. Silvia and Reno took their place in the center of the room. Tseng, Rufus, Rude and Shadow went to the far side and sat down against the wall to watch the sparing match. Though only Shadow and Rufus actually sat down, the other two stood leaning against the wall. Rufus was smirking slightly as the two in the center of the room took a ready stance.

"Give'm hell kid." Shadow encouraged the Ex-Tsviet.

Reno struck first leading with his electro rod. Silvia, on reflex blocked the rod with one of her wrist daggers, and redirected the attack from her body. However, she had forgotten the 'Electro' part and got the first shock she had felt from the rod for a while. Even in the past the thing sure packed a punch.

Backing up, Silvia released the second dagger in her opposite wrist sheath. Without giving Reno the chance to attack first this time, Silvia covered the ground between them and attacked the Turk with four consecutive slashes. Reno blocked the first one with his EMR and barely dodged the second but the other two hit home. Silvia, however, made sure to only hit Reno with the backs of the blades so as not to hurt the man. Reno growled and came at her again. The Ex-Tsviet knew she had to pull back on her attacks and not attack with everything she had.

The Ex-Tsviet was waiting for him though. As soon as he began to attack, leading with his EMR she quickly resheathed her daggers and pulled two of the four poles from her sheath, and used them to block his attack. Reno smirked victoriously, knowing the poles were metal, so they would help him when this fight. His smirk vanished when the EMR hit one of the black poles she used to block with, and instead of being zapped again nothing happened.

Now it was Silvia's turn to smirk. She quickly broke away from him and started to strike back. Soon, both were exchanging blows across the room. It almost seemed like Silvia was trying to dance with the Young Turk as the two moved about the room. Reno was left with trying to dodge her attacks as well as he could. Rude, Rufus, and Tseng watched the sparing match transfixed. Shadow smiled watching Silvia move so gracefully. It had been a long time since he had seen the girl actually get involved in a fight. Even after being on her own with Shadow for those years after the fall of Shinra she had trained, but after Deepground was all but destroyed, her training had diminished until it stopped all together. He was proud the doom and gloom atmosphere was gone from the girl.

As the spar continued in the training room, no one realized three sets of eyes watched from the observation room above.

XxXxXxXxX

Sephiroth sat in one of the chairs in the observation room, watching the spar in the training room below. Genesis sat to one side with Angeal on his other side. All three were watching Reno and Silvia. The three SOLDIER 1st's had only learned of the scheduled sparing match by complete accident. Zack had been walking happily down the hallway when he had heard of the scheduled duel. He had run immediately to Angeal. It had taken everything Angeal had to stop his student from running the Turks and demand to be allowed to see it. The Lieutenant had then told Genesis and Sephiroth.

"I don't see anything special." Genesis said breaking the silence of the room. Angeal could tell the man was exasperated.

"Maybe, if you actually watched, you would notice that Silvia is holding back." Sephiroth replied coolly.

Angeal almost laughed when he saw the scowl on his friend's face at the General's words. The temperamental red head just turned back to watching the spar below.

The three 1sts had decided to look up what information they could on the girl. But, they were shocked when they realized the girl seemed to be a 'ghost'. Only a small file, with hardly any information existed on Silvia Lark. Angeal had been shocked when Sephiroth had showed them the evidence. It just didn't make any sense. Why would a girl, who Sephiroth and Genesis had claimed had mako eyes, have little to no information about her in her file?

Another puzzling fact showed itself when not only her sparing partner, Reno's partner, and Shadow enter the room; but Rufus and Tseng had also entered. Why would Rufus, the Vice President of Shinra Electric Company be watching a duel between two of its employees?

Glancing over at his superior from the corner of his eye, Angeal could see the determination in his friend's eyes. When Sephiroth decided to investigate something, the man did it with every skill he possessed.

"It seems Genesis and I will be dragged into this as well." He said in amusement. This sort of thing was not one who held strongly to his SOLDIER pride but he could trust Sephiroth wouldn't take it too far. But, glancing at Genesis, Angeal realized he would be dragged into whatever Genesis and Sephiroth had planned. It would appear Genesis was already on board.

All three 1st's brought their attention back to the on-going fight below.

XxXxXxXxX

Silvia smiled happily as she and Reno dodged, weaved, attacked, and blocked their way around the room. She could even clearly see Reno smiling slightly as well. The fight really wasn't that challenging to the Ex-Tsviet but it was still fun to spar with someone else. With a final parry, Silvia glided her pole easily around Reno's EMR and sent it flying through the air. As Reno watched the EMR travel through the air, Silvia quickly stepped in and brought one of her wrist daggers against his neck.

"I win." She stated when Reno looked down at the blade in shock.

Reno quickly smirked and held up his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright. I give."

Silvia took a few steps back and resheathed her dagger. "That was real fun."

Reno snorted. But, before he could say anything, both fighters heard the sound of rustling. Glancing over to their spectators that noticed they were trading Gil. Shadow gladly accepted the Gil Tseng handed to the wolf. Rufus laughed as he too was given Gil from the Turk's second-in-command and Rude was given some as well.

"Hey, Yo! What's going on here?" Reno called walking over to the four against the wall.

Rufus smirked. "Well, you see Reno we all decided to start a little betting poll. Shadow, Rude, and I bet that Silvia would beat you while Tseng bet that you would beat her. I am just collecting my winnings."

Reno frowned at his partner. "And here I thought were supposed to be partners, Yo!"

"That doesn't mean I can bet she can beat you." Rude answered with a straight face. Silvia laughed at the man. She just couldn't help it when the bald Turk said something like that with a straight face.

Tseng, Reno, and Rude stared at her in shock. They hadn't heard the girl laugh since she had joined them over a week ago. True Reno and Rude had heard her somewhat subdued laughter on their way to the Slums, but this was the first time she had laughter out loud.

"I never knew you could laugh like the, Yo." Reno pointed out.

Silvia's laughter finally died down and she smiled bitterly at the Turk. She didn't elaborate further on the subject much to Reno's disappointment. He had hoped to get her to spill a little about herself.

Tseng coughed into his had to grab everyone's attention. Once everyone turned to him Tseng began,"Silvia, I have noticed you hardly ever use that weapon on your side. Why is that?"

"You mean Thantos?" She asked. Tseng nodded. Silvia thought for a few seconds before answering. "Thantos is a very strange weapon. I got in DG and was trained how to use it. It is a weapon specially designed for my use." Pulling out the four black poles Silvia began to demonstrate its uses. "This first pole with the curved blade folded along its length is the main part to it. I can either use it by its self for close combat situations or I can connect these other poles to it to extend its reach. Altogether it reaches just a few inches taller than my five foot five."

Expertly, the Ex-Turk connected the poles together faster than the normal human eye could follow. In her had she held a pole that was just shy of six feet in length. With a flick of her wrist the blade snapped into position. The blade was a total of a foot and a half long. Spinning the blade along the length of her arm Silvia demonstrated a few advanced moves with the bladed weapon. She stepped gracefully across the floor twirling and slashing around her in a series of fast, powerful spins. Finally, she brought the weapon to rest behind her, the weapon diagonally across her back holding it in a ready stance.

"Whoa, Yo! That's a scythe!" Reno remarked completely surprised at the young woman's weapon. He had never seen anyone wield a weapon like that before. Especially a scythe.

"I see." Was all Tseng said to the development?

Rufus shook his head. "Alright everyone. The SOLDIER's will soon be back on duty and will soon be coming here to train. I believe we should go over the rest of our schedule for today in my office."

Rufus began to make his way to the door to the training room without waiting for an answer. The others followed silently behind him while Silvia dismantled her scythe and resheathed it on her side.

XxXxXxXxX

Cat-like green-blue eyes watched the group leave the training room. The girl definitely knew how to use not only daggers but that scythe she used as well. Sephiroth wasn't afraid to admit that he was quite impressed a girl her age could wield such a weapon. It would seem his earlier suspicions that the girl, Silvia, had had mako injections. But where exactly did she get them? Only SOLDIER's were given injections. It would appear he had another question to add to the growing pile that was piling up around the mysterious girl. But, he did get one answer out of this experience: he knew now that Silvia Lark worked for the Turks.

Without saying anything to his two friends and fellow 1st's, he swept out of the room. Genesis smirked but picked up his beloved book and followed with Angeal right behind them.

Sephiroth had much on his mind. The familiar tread of his friend's boots followed behind him as he headed to his office. A girl with such skill with a bladed weapon would make an excellent edition to SOLIDER even of she was a girl. The General never was one to judge someone on their gender. As long as they had the skills, they were welcome in SOLDIER. Silvia was no exception. He would find out why the girl was training as a Turk and not a SOLDIER.

If Sephiroth had noticed that Genesis Rhapsodos' face had a thoughtful cast to it, he would have realized his friend was just as intrigued as he was. Genesis had watched the girl fight. He was impressed at the gracefulness of her moves and the way she fought. It was almost as if the girl were dancing. He was quite intrigued with the girl as well.

Maybe, while Sephiroth conducted his own investigation, Genesis would head his own. He knew Sephiroth wouldn't hack into anything Shinra related. He would do everything by the book. The red commander, however, decided to do what he knew Sephiroth wouldn't.

XxXxXxXxX

Of course Silvia had to end up in the one place she had been dreading since arriving in the past. Again she found herself surrounded by white walls with medical supplies everywhere in the room. Silvia had dreaded her first visit she would make to Hollander.

The doors across the room slid open with a soft hiss. A portly man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sandals walked into the room. This man was definitely one of the strangest men she had ever seen. The sound of a growl drew her attention to her shadow. Silvia could just make out a pair of red eyes looking out of her shadow on the floor and staring hatefully at the man. It would seem she wasn't the only one who disliked scientists.

With a careful flick of her wrist, the Ex-Tsviet watched her purple coat drift to the floor and land on the floor, obscuring Shadow's eyes from view. Rufus had mentioned that she should keep Shadow hidden when around scientists and Silvia decided that that small amount of advice would not be ignored.

"Ah. Silviana." Hollander smiled in the girl's direction. Silvia rolled her eyes slightly upon hearing her full name spoken by the man. "So, you have come for you first mako injection here in Shinra."

"Yeah. I don't think I have ever met you before though?" Silvia answered, feigning ignorance. She knew full well who the man was, but he and the others didn't know that. It was better to keep up her act.

"Oh, right. Well, I am Hollander. You are no the only patient I am taking care of, however." Hollander introduced himself.

'Not the only patient? What did he mean?'

Her blue-gray eyes swam with confusion. She cursed herself for not paying attention more when she had first gone through this in her past. "Who is your other patient?"

Hollander chuckled slightly. "I am also keeping an eye on two others. They are SOLDIER 1st, Genesis and Angeal."

"I see."

Hollander reached over a picked up a needle from a tray on a counter across from the bed Silvia was sitting on. The tube was filled with a strange, glowing substance. It was something Silvia knew well. After all, it had been something of a torture device to the Tsviets every day.

The scientist told her to hold out her arm so he could administer the mako. Silvia did so without complaint, though she did flinch as the needle pierced her skin. Mako injections were unneeded after Shinra had fallen. The Ex-Tsviet had found out that she didn't need mako injections every single day. She wasn't exactly sure why, but she hypothesized it had something to do with the connection herself and Shadow had.

Once done, he placed the needle onto the tray and smiled kindly at her. "There you go. You're all finished. I suggest you get back to your apartment before the mako kicks in."

Silvia blinked in confusion at the man. Was he actually being nice to her? Or was it only because she looked seventeen? What ever it was, it confused Silvia. Scientist, that she had been around in the past never acted like that.

With a word of acknowledgement, Silvia retrieved her coat from the floor, slung it over her shoulders and made her way out of the lab. Shadow emerged as soon as the doors closed behind her. Together the duo started the trek to the elevators. However, as she rounded the corner, her eyes widen in surprise. Leaning casually on one side of the elevators was Reno and Rude standing calmly next to him. Reno grinned when he saw her and Shadow.

"Thought you would like some company on your way back to your apartment." He answered her unasked question.

Shaking her head, she continued walking toward them until she drew even with them. Glancing from one to the other, she tried to sense some type of ulterior motive, but she didn't see any.

"You didn't have to, you know."

If possible, Reno's grin grew even bigger. "Helping out a friend is what a friend does."

Glancing over to Rude, she saw him nod slightly in confirmation. A soft grin broke out before she could real think about.

"Friends, huh? Having a few friends is really nice."

A/N: I know the primary weapon Silvia uses isn't one would imagine for A Deepground Tsviet. However, in the game Dirge of Cerberus, each Tsviet has their own unique weapon. Even the swords Weiss uses are unique because they aren't your typical sword. So I decided to stick with that idea and gave Silvia a unique weapon of her own that I imagined someone wouldn't think of. I hope you like the idea! Please Red and Review everyone and let me know what you think!

Also, The newest chapter of my side story that follows this main fic, Normal Days Within Shinra (the Untold Stories) will be out soon! Be on the look out for it!