(Disclaimer: Plata-Azul Firebird does not own Final Fantasy 7, only her OCs… Otherwise, we might end up having a not-so-epic battle with the lawsuits.)

Altering Rhythm

Wandering Note

Silver: And now for the action and their job class.

DATE: Aug 5 2014 (REVISED)

Wandering Note

Two young women looks at each other for a moment before they both pulls each others faces.

"OW!" the both yelp, they quickly let go and rub their sore cheeks.

"Okay... We're not dreaming." Mira whine a bit, rubbing the sting off her cheeks.

"Aye." Riley replied, looking at the grey structure at the distance and the rain is still going. "I can't believe..."

"I still can't believe it." as she rubs her temple and place a hand on her waist, before looking at Riley. "Are we in a practical joke show?"

"I have no idea... but we have a way to find out, starting with this rock!"

"What does the rock have to do with it?"

"In typical candid camera shows, most of the stuffs are props." the brunette points it out as she walks to the stone wall of the ledge they took shelter in. "Which means, despite they are made to be accurately real, they are hollow or made out of Styrofoam." With that, she gives the stone wall a good kick with the heels of her foot. To their surprise, the stone neither budge nor is torn a hole in it.

The rock is completely solid with a few crumbling mineral falling to the ground.

"... The rock is real." the brunette stated out, as her best friend just stared at the rock and silently agreed. But when the pieces falls into place, something clicks in the brunette's mind. "Wait, if the rock is real and that's Midgar from Final Fantasy 7, then the scream we heard earlier..." and it quickly clicks into both in their mind of the situation they landed in.

"CLOUD AND ZACK!" the two exclaim and on cue, a pair of Devil Ride appears and it sneers at them. "Oh snap!" they yelp in unison and not liking the looks on them, they turns heels and run like a bat out of hell. But they couldn't run far since their pursuers are on wheels and the monsters quickly rounded them up like a pair of sheep which strayed from the herd. The two went back to back as Riley takes out her dagger on her leg.

"Back! I got a friggin' fighting knife and I'm not afraid to poke it on you!" the brunette threatens the wheeled creatures but the sound of the bike's engine suddenly roars. "Crap! Move!"

The two quickly moves to different directions as the thing attacks them with Drift Turn. She rolls away as Mira fell flat on her front, she swore as the same monster tries to hit her with a Wheelie. Groaning and mentally swearing she should've taken gym more seriously, Mira gets up on her hands and knees in time to see the other monster is about to make a road kill out of her. Quickly getting out of the way and scrambling up, she turns to face her attacker with a keytar as a makeshift club or a shield.

Meanwhile...

"For a bunch of mutated biker rejects, you guys are really annoying." Riley quips as she avoids another charge from the monster and turns to face it again. Then it charges again and this time, she manages to hit the arm of the creature. "YES!" she whoops but she didn't expect it to strike back with a Drift Turn and is hit by the side. She fell and groaned in pain as her mind replays how the move, Drift Turn, goes. Getting up, she quickly rolls away from being flatten by a Wheelie and rise her knife in defense.

Once more the creature charges again, then a certain idea came to her mind. Mentally thanking that she's a gamer, she quickly aims for the head and throws the knife to it's face. It manages to hit it but is stuck on the helmet, leaving her weaponless. "Okay... the Leon-Kennedy-knife-throw is a bad idea." she utters as she rolls out of the way.

"Riley! Help me!" Her best friend shouts as she seems to use the keytar more of a shield than a club and avoids most attacks. On the looks of it, she's getting really tired and there are times the keytar almost slip out of her hands.

"Just hold on!" the brunette shouts and avoids another charge. 'Come on, think!' she mentally swore as she notices Mira barely avoided the Drift Turn. And then, suddenly, something clicks in her. As her own foe charges at her, she imagine herself sitting on a motorcycle and doing the Drift Turn back at the fiend.

The next thing is she heard a thud and saw the Devil Ride fell on it's side, with Mira staring at her in surprise and shock. "What...?" she asked, looking confuse on why her best friend look at her like that.

"Did you just do a Drift Turn on your own?" the ravenette asked, as she avoids the Wheelie from her foe.

The brunette stares at her for a moment before looking at the fact that she is sitting on a very transparent motorcycle, similar to the monsters, before vanishing. Her mouth drops open as she manages to catch her balance, as she looks at her hands and then at the monster which she knock out. "What the heck was that?"

Meanwhile, Mira just yelp on getting hit and fell roughly on her back. She manages to scramble out of the way, despite the additional weight and wondering why she is stilling lugging it around, as the fiend charges at her. On getting up, she winces on her newly acquired bruises on her sides and arms as she haul the instrument off the ground. Again she wonder why she got a musical instrument instead of a weapon like Riley does, at lease she got a dagger. Once more the monsters charges again at her, too hurt to move she just grips tightly on the instrument, raising it up as a shield and presses the keys making noise.

And suddenly, a sudden pulse came out and knock the wheeled creature back. She just stared and wonders what happen, as the fiend gets up and it's engine roars in annoyance. Charging at her again, Riley who just snapped back from her shock and attempts to save her friend. Only to find it is not needed as she once more presses the keys out of fear and a shockwave hits the monster squarely.

"Whoa!" the brunette yelped as the monster falls knockout and rushes to her best friend's side. "You okay there, spoony bard?" she asked.

"Spoony bard?" her friend asked and looks at her.

"Hey if I didn't know better, you've just attacked the Devil Ride with a sound wave from your new gig." pointing it out and the ravenette just stares at her instrument. Then the rain stops and slowly the sun is peeking out, realizing how much time pass. "Shit! We got to go if we're going to save Cloud and Zack!"

Quickly looting the goods and Riley retrieving her dagger, the two quickly hikes to where the said heroes are.

:::^*^:::

There was a faint tug...

But it paid no heed.

Still... there is something different yet familiar about it.

:::^*^:::

As they head to the cliff, they began wondering about the stuffs that happened today. Mira just looked at her friend who accepted the whole situation seriously, while her mind is still on debate.

"I did a Drift Turn of my own..." Riley stated with glee, as she and Mira continues walking and discuss about the copied attack she did on the Devil Ride.

"You copied the move." her friend points out. "But that's really impossible... unless you have Bartz's ability from Dissidia."

"Then my Job Class is a Mime... Cool!" Then she looks at her friend, who just stare back at her with a surprise look on her face. "And you're a Songstress like Yuna and Lenne."

"I doubt I have bluffing or ailment inflicting abilities like in FFX-2... Ow..." the ravenette is still in pain after that fight.

"You okay?" and only to receive a glare from her best friend. "Right, stupid question. Here, give this a try." she takes out a long tube from her jacket's pocket. It looks like a huge pill with two metal ends, and they recognize the design since they played Crisis Core.

"That's a Shinra Potion, where did you get that?"

"The monsters." and Mira stares at her. "Hey I just drank one and it's really effective, it will make you better. Plus it tastes like those potions 'AKA sodas' your sister bought from Japan."

Although doubting, she takes the potion and downs it. Immediately, she feels a cooling sensation washes all over her body and looks to see the bruises are gone, but there's a bit of sting left. "Wow, it works... and it does tastes like those sodas my sister got from Japan." the ravenette stated, only to hears her best friend gasp and darts toward a body from the distance. Recognizes who it is, she too hightails after her.

Arriving, Riley kneels down and shakes the body. "Zack!" she tries to wake him up but no response, she checks his pulse by leaning on his chest... only to find none. "Crap." she then turns to her, who just arrive by her side. "We're too late... Zack's gone."

"Well skrits..." Mira swore, as the two are crestfallen.

"And I thought we could save him."

"Yeah... wait, where's Cloud?" looking around the wasteland but she couldn't find the blonde anywhere.

"He couldn't be too far off." the brunette stated as she stands and then the body begins dissolving into the Lifestream. Seeing this, finally made the two realize that they are really in the ga- no, this world. "This is really sad." as she turns away to cry on a corner. "If the video is bad enough, real life is worse!" as she continues to weep.

Mira couldn't help but to agree, her eyes leaks tears and sniffs as Zack slowly dissolves. 'He didn't even get to meet Aerith.' she thought and it suddenly clicks to her. Reaching to her back, she unlocks her choker and looks at the flower on it. 'It's a crystal lily… good.' she thought and snaps the crystal off the choker, then kneels and places the flower on the fallen SOLDIER's chest. "I'm sorry if it's not the real flower, but this is the kind Aerith plants, right?" she then smiles gently with hints of sadness in it. "Don't worry, we'll watch over Aerith and Cloud... so don't worry that much." she then stands and steps back as she wears her choker again. "A hero should have a bit of a happy ending, after all."

She then turns to Riley and gently drags her best friend away, the two heads to Midgar with heavy hearts that they couldn't be there sooner for Zack.

:::^*^:::

Monster encounters are not very thrilling, even in real life, but if there is any consolation is that they earned enough gil and got a few potions. It took half a day for the girls arrive on Midgar... and once they are there. "Whoa, wait, isn't the entrance for Midgar in Sector 5 lock in the game...?" Riley asked and Mira looks at her. "I mean, we don't have a key card."

"Crap... wait, how did Cloud get in there anyway?" the ravenette asked, she too is baffled on how the blonde got in the slums.

"No clue."

They looks around the fence and soon they find a lucky break, not far they saw a Kalm Fang digging a hole on the fence and slips in. They waited till the said dog come back out with a loot and walks back into the wasteland. Taking the chance, they make a beeline on the hole and digs it to make it a bit bigger so they can get in a bit easier. The girls crawl their way in with a little difficulty since the keytar strap or scarf got snag a bit. Once they got in, they quickly run into the slums and they stop on a particular building.

"Aerith's Church..." the brunette said in awe, staring at it and looks at Mira. "Should we go in and check if Aerith is there."

"... Yeah, just to make sure she's okay, considering she could sense the Lifestream and her boyfriend's death." the ravenette said as she looks down on the ground. Breathing in and gathering enough confidence, they push the doors open… only Aerith is not there. "Odd... If I remember correctly, in Crisis Core, she was here tending the flowers till she somewhat sense Zack died." Mira stated as they look around

To their credit, the whole building, despite being old, is warm, whimsical and welcoming. And there on the front are the flowers that the flower girl cares, swaying and absorbing the sunlight to grow more vibrant and healthy. There are no weeds or pests that eats plant, the small patch of garden is thoroughly cared for. Looking up, there's the ever not-so fixed roof which Zack made when he fell and crash lands on the flowers.

'I bet the flowers will not be thrilled on the next person who will crash on them again.' the ravenette smiled at that thought as Riley releases her breathe.

"I guess she left to find comfort... you know, he died." the brunette pointed out. "She might headed back home to her mom."

Looking at the flowers, she sighs and turns to leave...

"Hello."

She froze for a moment there and looks back to find no one aside from Riley.

"Something wrong?" Riley asked.

Looking at her best friend and shaking her head, the two heads out and makes their way to Sector 7.

Unknown to them, the flowers are leaning towards the door as they left before standing upright.

:::^*^:::

They trekked thru Sector 6 and to their surprise, the area is empty except with a few houses and metal scraps/trash. Although puzzled, there are still a few monsters roaming around and both girls are not amuse on facing the horror house. Thankfully, they learned to flee at the right time as Mira unwittingly dance in front of the monster and causing it to become blind.

"Oh come on! Like you can dance! You're a house!" the ravenette protested till Riley yanks her away and escapes.

However, the gate is still close and the two decided to stick around in the playground as they wait.

"So... after we find Cloud, we'll stick with him, right?" Riley asked as they sit on the swings.

"Yeah, we did promise to Zack after all." her best friend stated, as she adjust the weight of the keytar to her front and leans on one of the poles of the swing.

Then they stop speaking for a moment as they try to process what happened earlier... A storm and earthquake happened, they guessed that the building broke down and nearly buried them alive. But the unexplainable happened and they woke up in Midgar Wasteland, with their outfit changed and were given items that are unexpectedly useful. When they found out that they are in Gaia and the monsters attacked them, they learned what their job class are. After that, they recognized the scream earlier and made their way to the source... Only that they are too late and Zack Fair died. Both girls are crestfallen that Zack's fate remains the same, but they promised to take care of both Aerith and Cloud.

Which leads them back here, waiting for the Sector 7 gate to open and to look for Cloud.

"Hey, do you think our parents are worrying about us?" Mira asked as she shifts the weight of her keytar a bit.

"Possible... after all, a heavy rain and an earthquake happening at the same time? That is scary like heck."

"I bet they set the bloodhounds on us." and her best friend laughs, then they heard an earth shaking sound and turns to see the gate opening. "Come on, we got a promise to keep." as she push herself of the pole.

"You know, I get a feeling that we might break this game at some point." the mime points out with a smile and the songstress just smiles a bit. They then head into Sector 7 and make their way to the train station. And right there, they found who they are looking for.

Staggering and limping his way to the station, using the huge blade as a clutch...

'Cloud...' they both thought.

Silver: Sorry, couldn't save the dude, but they found the other. YAY! Read and Review.