Disclaimer: I own nothing.

It seemed that fate, or much more likely Minerva, was against me as once I'd recuperated myself I found that I'd crash landed into sector 5- just my luck. Fortunately enough, it was the middle of the day and though I had no idea how any of the inhabitants of the underside of the plate could tell, they were all out and working just about anywhere other than here.

I took this as a chance and approached the first house I found breaking in through a window and instantly making a beeline for the bedroom. In retrospect, I realise this was incredibly stupid, but it ended well enough for me; I managed to replace the tattered remains of Hojo's clothes with a black wife beater and jeans. I found some boots, too, and though they were too big for me, three pairs of socks later they were fitting pretty snug.

I also created a rudimentary first aid kit from some things I found in the bathroom in the realisation that although I seemed to have near instantaneous healing abilities, my entire body felt like it was bruised and my continuous headache was not helping in the slightest- bottom line, Panadol was sounding pretty nice right about now.

When I first entered the bathroom, I froze instantly when I looked into the mirror. My eyes, though really it shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise, where glowing blue- almost white in fact. I could only blink as I noticed the way my eyes seemed to pulse a light blue glow. It made me want to hurl. My eyes were supposed to be black! My father had always said that I had my mother's eyes, and as little as I cared when he had said it before... now I'd lost my only connection to her. The only thing I could see in my face was my father; despicable, coward-

I cut off my train of thought and left the bathroom quickly, continuing to ransack the house for anything of value. I found little to no money, but was surprised when I found a television. Curious, I flicked it on, all the while wondering if there had ever been any televisions in the game- I couldn't really remember if there was.

The first thing that came on was obviously some sort of news report; I was instantly able to identify the man speaking as President ShinRa, despite the differences in his face- he wasn't made out of pixels- and was surprised to realise the subtitles running underneath everything he said was in a different language. Everything that came out of his mouth was English but the writing... it wasn't the same.

The film then flashed to a short clip of a lanky woman dressed only in a flimsy medical gown. Long dark hair clung wetly to her body and as she looked up only briefly with glazed over hooded eyes I saw the way her eyes glowed almost blue-white... and although I didn't know what was written, I understood very well the meaning of the subtitles. I was a wanted woman.

In shock, I quickly turned the television off and began to think- they were looking for a woman with glowing eyes? I returned upstairs, only to come back down five minutes later.

I had bound my breasts using bandages from the first aid kit, though I hadn't had much to start off with in the first place- which made the entire thing much easier than I would have thought- and after a bit more rummaging around the place, I found a pair of black sunnies. I internally shrugged, realising that from now on I would be the douchebag who wore sun glasses inside.

I exited the house looking like a new person and trying to act as nonchalant as someone could when hopping out of a broken window. I found myself gravitating south towards a street that, on further observation, was a collection of shops and bars that separated the houses that had fallen well from their prime, and the slums and its shanties.

I went into the first bar I could find, realising that to survive in this world, assuming this wasn't all a really intensive high trip, I would need to get as far from Midgar as I could- maybe I could become the first permanent resident in the Northern Crater I'd always liked the cold- but to do that I needed money and I'd played more than enough Elder Scrolls games to realise that if you needed a paying job, all you had to do was get on the bartender's good side and ask them if they knew anyone that was having difficulties.

God knows I wasn't picky where I got my money from.

So I walked into 'The Drunken Duchess', ignoring the stink of malt and liquor that seemed to emerge from between the floorboards and up to the bartendress. A rather short buxom blond, wearing an outfit that immediately made me think of Tifa-what was it with bartenders and suspenders?

"How can I help you?" she asked, leaning forwards on her elbows and giving me a more than adequate view of her cleavage. I put on a friendly smile, looking very keenly at her face.

"I'm in the need of some help" I answered, sounding more sheepish than I'd meant to.

She stood up straight almost instantly, instead moving to lean against the back shelf with a single eyebrow raised.

"And what sort of help do you need?"she asked.

"I'm a bit..." I trailed off, trying to find the right word "broke." Yeah, that covered my situation perfectly. I watched as amusement crossed her features and the way she stifled laughter.

"So you came to ask the bartender for some jobs or mercenary work right?" she assumed, a smile clear in her words. I nodded, rubbing the back of my head and feeling my cheeks heat up a little.

"Alright then tell me your name."

"Alex" I replied, giving her my real name.

"I'm Nonoah- but everyone around here calls me 'Noa', sweetheart. I imagine you'll catch on too" she added, an easy, if somewhat seductive, smile coming to her mouth.

"So. What can you do?"

I bit my lip thinking for a second "I can fight, guard, I'm not too bad at math..." I listed, trying to think of any relevant skills "and I can play the violin."

"Pretty boy are you?" Noa smirked, over pronouncing the word as if she was insinuating something.

I felt myself blush again.

"You know how to keep a business ledger?" she asked, taking me somewhat by surprise, I nodded.

"Well how about you come in tomorrow around same time" she glanced over to a clock on the wall that said it was 11AM "and we'll talk potential employers."

I nodded again "sounds good."

"So what's 'Alex' short for?" Noa asked just as I was about to leave.

I turned around to look at her somewhat suspiciously.

"Oh don't give me that look sweetheart" she smiled "I do own a TV you know."

"That, and you didn't ogle my breasts for a full five minutes" I couldn't help but snort.

Seeing that the bar was completely deserted, I allowed myself to slip up- I don't know what it was, but this woman had gained my trust.

"It's short for Alexandra" and with that, I left the Drunken Duchess feeling all the more confused.

A/N: So I have a BETA (Yay!), all hail Milley02.

So I've decided I'll update this story at least once weeks, probably on thursdays or fridays- not sure when that is for you as I'm in Australian time- so far the story's only just kicking off so for any thoughts to plot or character devlopment PM or review as I'm in need of ideas; after all the devil is in the detail.

Reviews are LOVE 3