A.N: Hello readers! :) This chapter actually came out after a short refractory period, which is good news to those who are actually following this self-insert adventure! Hope you enjoy the chapter and thank you Anonymous Potato for your kind review, you potato you! Hope you find this chapter enjoyable and revel in Ilona's highly exaggerated personality quirks towards the end of the chapter LOL! *hearts*
On with the chapter!
Chapter One- Reunion
Location: ShinRa Headquarters
Rebecca and Ilona stood awkwardly beside each other in an empty office, staring at each other's attire. Before one of them could begin commenting on the other's appearance, they were rudely interrupted.
"Lookin' sharp ladies!" Rebecca fought the urge to lunge at the insufferable red-head who chose that moment to casually able into the room. Instead she ignored him and turned her attention to adjusting the cuffs of her new 'uniform'. She wore black, loose fitting slacks and a short-sleeve blue button-up blouse under her partially zipped up black blazer. She absolutely refused to wear the shiny, lace-up leather shoes that were provided to her by her new 'employer'. After finishing high school, she had vowed to never wear those god awful shoes again. The grip on them were terrible after all. Instead, her feet donned a ratty pair of well-loved navy blue converse. Wiggling her toes contentedly, Rebecca finished shoving her straw coloured hair into a loose bun before turning her attention to Ilona.
Ilona wore the black slacks, black shoes and a pale yellow blouse, foregoing the uniform blazer for the moment. The younger woman of the two grinned up at Reno, spreading her arms to her sides in an attempt to show off her new outfit.
"You really think so? I've got to say, I thought that these uniforms would be really stuffy but they're pleasantly comfortable!" Reno nodded at Ilona's enthused comment, striding past Rebecca and taking a seat on the two-seater situated against the wall of the small, yet neat office.
"Yeah, only the best for the Turks. You rookies have a lot of shit to learn so you might as well be comfortable during your torture." Rebecca watched as Ilona flinched visibly before turning to glare at their 'superior'.
Reno ignored this as Ilona piped up.
"Torture? You mean 'training', right?" Ilona raised her eyebrows in a hopeful expression, her hands clasped in front of her chest as if in prayer. Reno merely waved at her dismissively, continuing to grin at the glaring woman in front of him.
"Yeah, yeah- same thing, yo." Rebecca rolled her eyes at him and turned her back to the annoying man. Making eye contact with her best friend, she sent her what she had hoped was a meaningful look.
Ilona looked back at her, her face completely blank. So much for meaningful. Sighing, Rebecca gestured to her new phone's (which was referred to as a PHS device in Gaia) time display.
13:47.
It had been approximately one hour since they had been brought before Tseng, second in command of the Turks, and they barely understood how or why they were being recruited into the Department of Administrative Research. The meeting was short and sweet, just as Reno had promised them, much to the chagrin of Rebecca. She was really looking forward to ripping him a new one if he'd lied to them. For reasons she could not articulate, Rebecca found the inappropriately casual Turk excruciatingly moronic- and this really grated on her nerves. Of all the people to be 'found' by, it had to be him. Reno, being annoyingly perceptive, had noticed this hostility and had quickly quipped that being found by himself was better than being found by Professor Hojo.
Both Ilona and Reno had shuddered at the name, so Rebecca presumed that this new Professor Hojo character was a bad guy.
Then again, based on her limited Final Fantasy VII research, the Turks were also the bad guys.
Rebecca shook the irrelevant thoughts out of her head and continued to ponder about the meeting she'd just had. It was fairly obvious that the Turks were an exclusive bunch- it wasn't every day that they found two clueless young women in an alley way and threw uniforms in their direction. Tseng had briefly explained that much. However, his knowledge of their 'foreign-ness' was disconcerting.
Tseng paused in his obligatory explanation of the exclusivity of the Turks and the gory job description and took the time to observe the two women's reaction to the new information. Rebecca stood comfortably with her arms folded in front of her and a sceptical look on her symmetrical features. Ilona stood straight, at attention and even nodded along to what he was saying with a thoughtful look in her dark eyes.
"Let me cut to the chase. It's obvious that you two are not from this world. We've had a similar disturbance observed in the Sector 5 slums and in the SOLDIER training room on level 49 of this building. The Board of Directors do not know what to make of this situation, but it is obvious that you are not hostiles-" Tseng was cut off by a rather obnoxious cough from Rebecca.
"So what? You're going to offer us jobs?" she scoffed slightly before continuing, completely ignoring Tseng's annoyance, pronounced by his clenched jaw. "You're a bright bunch, aren't you? ShinRa's head honchos can rest assured with you guys watching their backs!" Ilona's eyed widened in shock as she glanced at both Tseng and Rebecca in quick succession.
"Sir, I am so sorry about her. When she's uncomfortable, she becomes sarcastic! She means no harm…" Rebecca openly laughed at Ilona's half-baked apology/excuse.
"She's lying, I'm always like this." Ilona shot her best friend a tired look before staring pleadingly at the tall, annoyed man standing behind the desk. He sighed, bringing his fingers to his temple and rubbing gently as he considered what he was going to say next. Rebecca grinned in triumph while Ilona silently prayed for mercy. From what Michelle had told them about the Turks, they were a funny, yet dangerous bunch. Ilona was worried that if Rebecca pissed Tseng off enough, he could dispose of both of them quickly, quietly and efficiently, leaving no evidence behind regarding their murders for anyone to find!
Not that anyone knew or cared about them enough to look into their murders/disappearances in Gaia. Besides Hannah or Michelle… or anyone else who had been sucked into the Final Fantasy VII world along with them…
Ilona stopped her silent praying, her eyes widening in realisation.
They'd detected another similar disturbance in the building…
Could it be Michelle?
Ilona abruptly stepped forward, an excited glint in her eyes as she leaned forward on Tseng's desk. Tseng looked up slowly, a frown marring his exotic, masculine facial features.
"You said there was another disturbance like ours in the building, sir. Could we, maybe… go and see if we can identify the person?" Tseng regarded Ilona with a cautious eye, looking for any malicious intent in her demeanour. Being met with only a child-like excitement and naïve hope, the second in command sighed heavily and glanced at a slightly more alert Rebecca. Seeing that the two were obviously interested in seeing the new arrival who was currently housed in the Infirmary, he conceded.
"Fine. But first I'll need you to sign these employment contracts," he pushed two small piles of forms in the girl's direction. Looking up, he saw them both eyes the papers apprehensively. He let out a dry chuckle at their guarded facial expressions. "Don't worry, they're just standard work place contracts. After you go through these, I'll have Reno escort you to a private office where your uniforms are laid out for you." Rebecca raised her eyebrows at this.
"You don't even know our sizes." She deadpanned. Tseng raised his eyebrows in challenge.
"We're Turks, we don't need to take your measurements to know your sizes." Contorting her face into one of disgust, Rebecca dramatically recoiled from Tseng's general direction.
"You should rename your division 'The Creeps'. Seriously, that's so weird." Ilona couldn't help but agree with her best friend even as she warily signed her name onto the dotted lines. Despite this, she looked up after finishing and made direct eye contact with the intimidating, no-nonsense man standing before her.
"After we're ready, you'll take us to see the person?" Tseng nodded immediately in affirmation.
"If there are no pending missions, I'll personally escort you. If I am called away on short notice, I'll send our third in command." Rebecca snorted at this, gaining Tseng's exasperated attention. Looking up, Rebecca grinned up at him cheekily.
"Our? Getting a little ahead of yourself there Mr. Turk!" Tseng blinked once at the cheeky young woman before him and sighed as he took in the sight of her pen hovering over the dotted line. Reaching over to push her hand softly, yet firmly onto the paper, he eyed her warily.
"Just sign the damn paper work."
Rebecca chuckled mirthfully as she thought about the meeting. Tseng was fun to mess with- that was for sure. Still, he hadn't told them how he knew they weren't from Gaia. That was what kept Rebecca wary despite her outer apathy towards the situation. Stealing a glance of their new 'escort', she barely stopped herself from letting out a sarcastic comment about his obviously dyed red hair. She couldn't even fathom how such an asshole became a Turk, and at that, the third in command.
His rank would suggest that his skills were on par with the no nonsense Tseng. Rebecca shuddered at the thought. If Reno really was as skilled as Tseng's impressive aura suggested, maybe she should consider turning down the sarcasm and sass.
She stole another covert glance at Reno, who was now pulling on Ilona's soft hair playfully with a cheeky grin on his face, ruining her friend's previously neat hair do. Rebecca shook her head, a small grin of her own playing on her lips. Nah, she'd continue the sarcasm and sass- it didn't look like he was offended by it anyways.
"So," Rebecca spoke loudly, interrupting Reno's tugging and Ilona's pouting. "Are we going any time soon?" Reno smirked as he stood from his comfortable position on the couch and tilted his head at the door.
"Yeah, let's go." Ilona quickly re-tied her hair, grumbling slightly as she stood up and hastily made her way past an amused Reno. Rebecca offered Ilona a genuine smile before linking arms with her best friend and mimicking Reno's head tilt, this time gesturing at the hallway that lay ahead of them.
"After you, hot shot." Reno rolled his eyes at her, but quietly led the way to the elevator. Ilona took in a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves.
If they were lucky, it really would be Michelle. Then they could collect Hannah from where she was staying in the slums and then be safe together, working out how to get back to planet Earth and continuing with their lives. For surely, their friends and families back home would notice they were missing and would be worried sick.
Ilona let out her breath as both she and Rebecca- Junior Turks- followed their third in command into the elevator.
Surely… they would strike it lucky and find someone they knew at least.
Location: ShinRa Infirmary
Sean's eyes widened in horror as he spotted a familiar hunched figure in a lab coat amble over to his cot, a malevolent glint in his bespectacled eyes. That was not a good sign, not from this man.
"Why is he here?" Sean turned to Director Lazard, who in turn offered him an apologetic look.
"All SOLDIERs go through the same procedure. Mako injections are just part of the program. We had you tested while you were knocked cold. You have an abnormally high resistance to the substance." Sean found himself frowning at the man who was technically his boss now.
"So that's why you offered me a job as SOLDIER. Because I have a high tolerance to this stuff…" The SOLDIER director merely shot Sean an exasperated look before nodding at Hojo, who grinned happily. Sean's eyes landed on the silver brief case the crazy professor had brought along with him. Settling it onto a small mobile table, he opened up the combination locks and furrowed his brows as he measured out the glowing fluids he'd brought along with him in little vials. Sean's eyes widened further at the sight of the toxic looking substance. Feeling scared, he turned his head towards the Director and shot him a pleading look. Lazard ignored his pathetic gaze and glanced at his silver watch with raised eyebrows.
"Oh, look at the time! I've got to go to a mission debriefing," Lazard glanced at Sean briefly, barely taking the time to look at the young man's pained expression before waving dismissively. "I wish you all the best, you'll be fine." Sean moaned pathetically, before realising that his efforts of gaining Lazard's sympathy were for naught. His moan turned into a pained grunt as he felt a needle plunge into his forearm.
He wasn't too worried about the mako. They had already said that the tests had been completed with great results. No… it wasn't the mako. It was the needle. Sean absolutely hated needles. Even those little finger pricking things that took a minute amount of blood from one's finger tips scared the crap out of him. He definitely was not a fan of sharp, pointy things.
Mere moments after he realised that there was a needle in his arm, Sean began to panic, thrashing his sore arms and legs around in an attempt to throw the professor off his arm. This effort was to no avail, however, as Sean's fatigued limbs screamed in protest against the movement. Professor Hojo merely smirked in Sean's direction, pulling the needle out of his forearm and slapping a band aid onto his patient's arm without a care in the world for Sean's comfort.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Hojo sneered at Sean. Sean grimaced back at the professor, bringing his assaulted and sore arm to his chest.
"You're crazy man," Hojo scoffed at this, turning his attention back to his silver brief case, packing away his equipment efficiently.
"That's not the worst I've been called. You should consider yourself lucky boy. Other men would be writhing in pain by now. Surely, if I had my way, you'd be strapped to an observation table in my lab and I'd soon hold the secret to creating a proper super soldier!" He cackled maniacally at this admission, causing Sean to scoot back on his cot to put more distance between Hojo and himself. The man was creeping him out and he was in no condition to run from the demented, yet admittedly brilliant, man. Sean frowned as he pondered over the professor's statement. Didn't Hojo already successfully create the best super soldier in Gaia? From what he'd learnt from playing Crisis Core, Hojo had definitely one-upped Hollander regarding his questionable human experiments. Sean shook his head sadly at the thought of the three great SOLDIER First Class personnel. Judging by Zack's rambling about Angeal's recommendation for him to move up to First Class rank, Genesis had already defected. Angeal was definitely aware of the degradation and Sephiroth… well Sephiroth was feeling betrayed and alone.
Sean sighed again, suddenly feeling completely helpless. Lost in his own thoughts, he hadn't noticed that Hojo had been ushered out of his infirmary cubicle and was promptly replaced by the smiling nurse and a familiar looking red head wearing what looked like an unkempt black suit. Blinking rapidly, he looked between the two newcomers raised his eyebrows in question.
The smiling nurse stepped forward, holding a cup of cold water and a few white pieces of paper.
"SOLDIER Director Lazard asked me to give these to you to sign after the procedure had been completed. And I thought you could use some hydration after that mako injection." Sean nodded in appreciation, throwing the jolly woman a bright smile before gulping down the water desperately. He hadn't realised how thirsty he was. In his rush, he began to choke on the water, inciting amused chuckles from the man standing in the room.
"Calm down, yo! No one's gonna take ya water." Sean shot a sharp look at the familiar man through watery eyes as his coughing fit slowly receded. He took in the appearance of the man and just barely stopped himself from gasping in surprise. Standing before him was Reno of the Turks in all of his unkempt glory. Averting his eyes from the man, Sean wondered what was happening now. After a moment of pondering, he decided to introduce himself as it was only polite and it was clear that he's be seeing the man around more often in the future.
"Hey, I'm Sean." Reno nodded, waving an arm dismissively in Sean's direction.
"Yeah, Nurse Joy here already briefed me on ya." The smiling nurse frowned at Reno's remark, her arms promptly placed on her hips.
"I resent that. My name is Matilda." Reno ignored her, opting to step closer to the now-SOLDIER on the cot.
"You're the guy who randomly popped up in the training room," Reno's eyes took on a serious glint as he took in Sean's appearance. "Dude, I don't know how you survived all your injuries but Tseng's mighty disappointed he didn't get to ya before SOLDIER did." Sean frowned at this.
"Um, why is that?" Reno sat himself down on a chair he'd pulled from somewhere and placed his feet on Sean's cot, reclining backwards like he owned the place. Sean ignored the dirty shoes on his white sheets and looked at Reno with curiosity.
"Well, we need all the people we can get, ya know? SOLDIER's already big enough as it is. The Turks need some love too- how else will our funding increase?" Sean nodded along, understanding where Reno was coming from. It was clear that the more people involved in the operation of the Turks, the more money would be allocated to their operations. The newly appointed SOLDIER Third Class felt slightly regretful- being with the Turks would have been cool. However, being scouted into SOLDIER in the manner he had been wasn't something to scoff at. Sean grinned up at Reno, leading the Turk to adopt a bewildered look on his face.
"Well, I'm sure there are plenty other people out there who want to be assassins and extortionists." Reno frowned at Sean's cheery statement of 'reassurance'.
"Gee, thanks yo." The red head deadpanned. Sean nodded in acknowledgement.
"Any time bro. So, what are you doing here?" Sean relaxed, easily slipping into conversation with the Turk. The young man couldn't help but bring down his guard in front of the laid back Turk- it was clear that all Reno wanted to do was drop by to observe him. Sean chuckled internally; the Turk could observe as much as he wanted to. He wasn't about to go anywhere or do anything until he felt better and figured out how on Earth (or Gaia) he wound up in this peculiar situation in the first place.
Reno smirked, raising his eyebrows suggestively all of a sudden. Sean gave him a look of distaste and turned away from the man's suggestive look.
"Oh calm down, will ya? I'm just kidding- I don't swing that way man. I got some new recruits wantin' to see ya." Sean's eyes widened at this.
"New Turks?" Reno nodded.
"Yeah, just don't be too disappointed when they lose their enthusiasm at the sight of you." Sean winced.
"Am I that gross looking right now?" Sean panicked slightly- he hadn't even gotten a chance to check over his appearance in a mirror. What if he looked hideous? Sean prided himself on his looks, even though he wasn't too vocal about it. He didn't want the first actual women he'd meet in this world to thing he was a complete mess of a man!
Reno rolled his eyes at Sean's visibly paling tan complexion.
"Geez, you look hawt. Now I'm gonna call them in- who knows, maybe you know them…" It was Sean's turn to roll his eyes at Reno's retreating back.
"Yeah, just go." Reno flipped Sean off without turning around, making Sean grin. Reno was a tolerable and fun man to talk to. Maybe they could even become good friends…
Sean was rudely brought out of his thoughts as two familiar voices floated into the room.
"… wonder if it's actually her." An airy, high voice resounded in the room. Sean sighed, bringing his fingers to his temple to massage them soothingly. He knew that voice.
"If it is, I'm going to hug her. And then I'll kick her ass for making us worry." Sean shook his head, realising that he also knew the second, sarcasm laden voice.
"How many times do I have ta tell ya? The person in there's a dude! Like, with a penis and balls and shit." Sean rolled his eyes at the description as he heard a shocked gasp coming from the high pitched voice.
"Gawd, you are so gross Mr. Reno sir!" Sean watched the group enter the room with an amused smile on his face. He instantly recognised the two girls who wore the Turk uniforms standing behind a bewildered looking Reno.
"Rebecca and Ilona, right?" Sean spoke, nodding at the two hyper young women. Rebecca stopped poking Ilona's face long enough to glance his direction, her happy face falling first into shock and then into slight disappointment.
"Oh, it's just Michelle's brother." Ilona stopped gaping at Reno's idiocy as he insisted that everyone refrain from calling his 'sir' in case he didn't respond in a dire situation despite his higher rank, and rounded on the cot in the room. Her eyes took in the rugged appearance of Sean before she sighed, her eyes slightly tearing up in disappointment.
"This sucks eggs. Boiled eggs." Rebecca nodded, patting Ilona's head in consolation.
"That's something Michelle would have said." Sean frowned, tapping his fingers onto the dirty linen at his side, courtesy of Reno's dirty leather boots.
"Thanks guys. I feel so safe and secure now that I have met people that I actually personally know of. I'm glad you share the same sentiments." Reno nodded, stepping towards Sean in support.
"Yeah, seriously guys, show some support for the dude. If he's this 'Michelle's' brother, then he'd be just as eager to find her as you guys are." Ilona nodded, shaking her head as if she were shaking the disappointment out of it. Rebecca merely stood beside her best friend, staring at Sean as if she were willing him to magically morph into Michelle.
Reno noticed this and reached out to obnoxiously click his fingers in front of her face. Startled at the loud, sharp noise, Rebecca whirled on him, her grey-ish eyes attempting to burn holes into his face.
"Take a picture of him, it will last longer. I mean, sure, he's not going anywhere at the moment but sooner or later he's gonna be out and about and you may not get the chance ever again." Ilona blinked, confused at the direction the dialogue in the room had gone.
"Um, what do you mean?" Reno looked at the shortest person in the room, sighing dramatically with his hand raised in a surrender position.
"As in, take a picture, duh! Ilona, if you're going to be a good Turk, you're going to have to start paying attention." Ilona folded her arms, her eyes narrowing in protest.
"Hey, I was paying attention until you guys started talking about taking pictures of Moosh's brother!" Reno raised his eyebrows at the mention of a 'Moosh'.
"What the f**k is a 'Moosh'?" Rebecca rolled her eyes at his crude enquiry.
"It's Michelle's nickname, dick weed." Ilona giggled at the insult thrown at an unaffected Reno.
"Hehe… dick weed." Sean cleared his throat, attempting to gain the three Turks' attention.
"Um, guys… I don't mean to be rude and interrupt but… you mind filling me in about my sister and everything else that's going on?" Reno blinked innocently down at Sean, who was now glaring impatiently at the red head.
"Dude, why are you lookin' at me like that? I thought we were cool?" Sean sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He just wanted all of this nonsense to begin making sense. And soon.
"We will be cool the moment you fill us in on what you know about our situation and where Michelle is, if she is in fact here in this place at all!" Reno stared at Sean, contemplating his options before letting out a frustrated groan as he rolled his shoulders back. Ilona and Rebecca looked between the two men in the room before exchanging questioning glances between themselves.
Ilona leaned towards Rebecca, speaking in a low tone of voice so that only Rebecca could hear her.
"Do you feel the sexual tension?" Rebecca shot her best friend an incredulous look.
"Really Ilona? That's all you can think of right now?" Ilona glared up at the taller woman.
"Don't pretend you don't feel it. They're fighting like they're gonna jump each other any moment now!" Ilona didn't notice that Sean's face had contorted into one of extreme disgust aimed in her direction.
"I thought you were innocent!" Sean cried. Ilona jumped, startled at his loud voice. Reno chuckled, winking at Ilona's now mortified expression as Rebecca broke into hysterical laughter at Ilona's expense.
"SOLDIERs and their enhanced senses, huh? Most of the time they're really handy," Reno shot an amused look at the disgusted looking SOLDIER perched on the cot. "Other times, they're a curse, yo!" Sean glared at Reno.
"Shut up. Just tell us what's going on." Ilona quickly agreed, still blushing a violent red. Rebecca vainly tried to contain her laughter as Reno shot the foreign group an amused smirk.
"Yeah, yeah- let me make a few calls and then I'll let ya know what you can head on over to the Briefing Room on Floor 49." Sean raised his eyebrows at the Turk, who was turning around to leave the room.
"Isn't that the SOLDIER Briefing Room?" Reno nodded.
"Your point?" Sean shook his head.
"Nothing, nothing. Just hurry it up. I'm confused and hungry." Reno's face took on a thoughtful expression before his green eyes widened in what Rebecca thought was a 'eureka!' moment. Reno turned to the two new Turks and pointed to the temporarily immobile man on the cot.
"Your first mission: make the man a sandwich!" Sean's eyes widened in shock as he took in Ilona's slowly changing facial features. She looked livid at the seemingly innocent suggestion. Reno cocked his head to the side in question. He wondered why the small girl was getting so worked up.
And then she exploded.
"Years of progress for women, all that effort by the feminist movement! All unravelled by one stupid request by an idiotic superior who is a man to go and make a sandwich for another man! I can't believe this! I thought that this world was above patriarchy and misogyny! I guess I thought wrong!" With a huff, Ilona stormed out of the room, shoving past a bewildered Reno. Rebecca stood rooted on the spot, her gaze lazily tracing Ilona's journey down the hallway. Turning her eyes to an exasperated Sean and then to a severely confused Reno, she mock saluted her superior Turk.
"I'll go make that sandwich, hot shot. Then I'll go find Ilona and tell her that you didn't mean to be a woman hater." Reno nodded dumbly as he watched the tall blond woman walk out the door of the infirmary cubicle.
Turning to Sean, he was met with an apathetic gaze as the immobile SOLDIER shrugged his shoulders.
"Don't look at me, man. I wasn't the one who asked for a sandwich." Reno sighed, shaking his head before lazily throwing a salute at his new SOLDIER friend and making his way towards the Turk Director's office to organise an information briefing session for the new arrivals.