(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

The Masquerade

Silver: With Cloud back to reality... time to get in trouble with AVALANCHE. So why the title is Masquerade? It's pretty simple reason, duh... Mira and Riley came from another world, Cloud created a persona to overcome the trauma and Tifa knows all the truth about the Nibelheim Incident and is clueless on how he knows them.

CHAPTER EDIT: July 24, 2015

The Masquerade

Green and Blue

For a moment, they felt like they are in an intense stare-off. She could see the signs of perplexity and fatigue in his eyes, while trying to see if she could find traces of the boy before the trauma and Jenova's cells reconfigured his memory. He is on alert, looking at her and trying to find out if she's a threat or not.

Eventually, she closes her eyes and then opens them again with a warm smile.

"I'm just a traveler who is just concern on your health." Mira said in a friendly manner. Sensing that she is no threat, he lets her go and he groans a little from the exhaustion. "Are you okay?" she asked, before standing straight and looks at the direction the rude guy went. "Seriously, that man has to apologize to you, considering you're not in the best of health." Then she looks back at the blonde and lends him the towel.

"Ugh... not interested." Cloud stated as he accepted the towel. That line reminded her of the Dissidia ending and she has to hold her laugh on his comment. Once he swipes off the soda, he accepts her help and with the support from her and the sword, he manages to get up. Once he gets his bearing, he stands up straight and twirls the huge sword before putting it on his back where the magnetic holster is.

"Thanks, I'll be fine from here." he stated.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" she asked, looking at him with concern while mentally panicking. 'Damn! Where is Tifa?' she thought.

"Nah, there's no need. I'm fine!" he replied with a cheeky smile which taken her aback.

'The false persona...' the songstress thought. She knew that the real Cloud is a shy and quiet guy, whose maturity seems to be overdeveloped back when he was a kid. Although mature, he's very indecisive and socially awkward, yet he is longing for friendship as it was shown in the game. And right now, what is she seeing is a mash-up personality of himself, Zack and his perceptions on SOLDIER.

"Cloud?"

The two turns to see... none other than Tifa Lockhart. The songstress recognizes her signature white tank top, black miniskirt which is held by suspenders and the leather gloves used for fighting. Mira mentally thank her lucky stars that the martial artist and Cloud's childhood neighbor is finally here. Then she notices something... 'She looks exactly like the Dissidia design… and is she a bit shorter than me?' then looks at Cloud, who's a bit taller than her and then remembers her height. 'Yeah, I nearly forgot that I'm 5'5". And Riley is about an inch taller from Cloud!'

"Tifa?" Cloud said in surprise. Unfortunately, his sense of sight decided to twist the world around him, he loses his balance and stumbles as he approaches her. Thankfully, the songstress is able to keep him from kissing the floor, although the sword manages to slip out of the magnet and fell to the floor with a loud clang.

"Whoa!" the songstress yelps, as it took everything not to make him fall to the hard floor. 'OMG, he's heavy!' she thought, as she heaves the blonde from falling flat to the ground.

"Cloud, are you okay?" Tifa asked worriedly, as she quickly goes to his side and aids the ravenette. She looks at the blonde man with relief and joy. "I never thought to find you here!"

"Yeah, it's been a while." he replied.

"What happen to you? You don't look well."

"... It's nothing, I'm okay."

"How long has it been?" she asked and the songstress immediately knows where this is going, as Cloud becomes silent for a moment with eyes looking distant before he answers.

"It's been 5 years." he stated, as her expression changes for a moment before hiding it. She knew that she did not saw him when he left with Johnny for Midgar to become SOLDIER.

"Cloud... what happen to you after you left Nibelheim?"

But before he could say anything. "Hey Meer, I- whoa, you need help there?" Everyone looks at the newcomer, who is looking at them with slight surprise and confusion.

"Ya think?" she snaps at the brunette.

Riley quickly takes Mira's place on supporting Cloud's weight, as the songstress picks up the sword. They made a quick suggestion of finding a place to seat and Tifa didn't hesitate on leading the three to her bar, Seventh Heaven.

:::^*^:::

Arriving at the bar, the two places Cloud on the stool by the bar, the sword by his side and then take a seat themselves each. As Tifa goes behind the bar and gets them something to drink. "By the way, I didn't catch your names." he said and looks at the two girls, as she picks a bottle and pours the content on three glass

"Sorry bout that, I'm Mira Calliope." the songstress introduce herself.

"And my name is Riley Alex Bautista." the brunette mime says cheerily.

"Nice to meet you two, I'm Tifa Lockhart and this man whom you helped is Cloud Strife. I never seen you two around here, are you new?" Tifa asked as she puts ice in their drinks.

"We came here in Midgar just a week ago... But yeah, we're kinda new here in this area, Miss Lockhart." the mime answered, pretending not to know her. While it's no lie that they came here earlier than them, they decided to pretend that they came here a few days earlier than the group.

"Oh, it's just Tifa." the bar maid said in a friendly manner, and then gives the three their drinks. "But what make you come to Midgar?"

"It's kinda personal, sorry." Mira stated with an apologetic tone, not taking her drink as Riley looks away while taking a careful sip of her drink.

"So got any work available while we're here?" Riley asked, while taking a few more sips of the drink. 'Not half bad.' She thought.

"Looking for work too?" the blonde man asked, looking at them as he set his glass down.

"Yeah, you?"

"I'm a mercenary. I quit SOLDIER and decided to offer my service to those who can pay." and both girls caught Tifa turning quickly to look at him.

"Really? What rank are you?" the songstress asked. There is a slight pause as both Earth girls knew about his faulty memories and the songstress notice the distance look he have, as he looks for the answer. The blonde then answers that he's a 1st Class, the bar maid's eyes widen and stare at him for a moment when...

"Hit the deck!" the mime shouts in alert as gunshots were heard outside and pull her best friend down, as Cloud grabs his sword and place it in front of him in self-defense. Tifa, the other hand, sighs exasperatedly and face-palming since she knew who did that. When it stops, a dark man enters the bar and both women recognize who it is.

"Tifa, what are they doing here? And why are they on the floor?" as the huge man points at the two girls, who are laying low on the floor.

"It is common sense to lay low in a shoot out!" the brunette retorted as she and her friend finally meets Barret Wallace. He is a dark skin man and quite muscular like those wrestlers in WWE, the very thing that made them stare on him is his gun-arm. It doesn't look like the lame silver can with nozzles on it, which is shown in the game. Instead, it is an actual gatling gun... which is much more terrifying and both girls never want to be in its line of fire.

As Cloud lower his sword and puts it back on his holster, as the two stands up. "Sorry about him, he... tends to do that when he's frustrated." Tifa apologizes for him and looks at the muscle-bound man. "And Barret, I got an old friend here and I'm just helping him out."

"Well they need to leave... NOW." he stated, emphasizing the last part loudly.

"Then I better head off and find work." Cloud said and is about to head out when Tifa stops him as Riley helps her friend up. She runs toward him, trying to getting him to stay until she blurts out that they could pay him, causing the other man to react and then...

"Hey Barret, about the bomb schematics..." a brown hair, rebel-looking woman walks into the bar and reports to the gun-arm man.

"Bomb?" Mira, Riley and Cloud said in unison and they look at each other with surprise. The woman turns to look at the three with shock of being busted etched on her face, as they look at her.

And there's silence...

"And we're out-"

"Don't move!" Barret yelled at the two women causing them to freeze on the spot with hands raise in the air, seeing the AVALANCHE leader points his gun-arm at them. The only thing that is missing to them is that someone would say 'This is a hold up!'. And Tifa quickly comes to their aid to calm him down, and then begins explaining about her bar being a hide out for AVALANCHE. For the whole time, Cloud merely listens while the two didn't move as the gun-arm is still pointed at them.

Once he understands the situation and their plan. "I see... my service is 2000 gil. No more, no less." he stated coolly, as Barret goes into a fit again and the two Earth girls relax a bit when he turns to the blonde. The dark man doesn't want to pay him that much, due to a fact blonde's fee is outrageous and they need to pay the bills... That is until the bar maid pulls the huge man to a corner for a moment and privately talks about it. Both Mira and Riley just sighs at the blonde's newly formed attitude, as Cloud leans casually on the table.

After a short moment and persuasion from the barmaid, he looks back as the SOLDIER with a slightly irk look. "A 1500! You'll only get your 2000 gil when the job goes smoothly. Fail or report us to Shinra, you'll get leads instead!" the AVALANCHE leader stated with annoyance and waves his gun-arm at him, as the blonde nods in response. Then he looks at the two women, pointing his gun-arm back at them.

"Uh... can't we discuss this for a moment?" Mira asked nervously, as Riley watches him, preparing to mimic the moves just in case he decides to shoot-and-ask-never.

The huge man looks at the two for a moment before asking them a question. "What do you think of Shinra?"

Both women look at one another before looking back at him and answers. "They got the answers we wanted." Riley said.

"Answers?" he asked.

"It's a personal thing for me and Mira but with that pointing at us, I guess it is fine sharing it with you guys. But mind putting that down, please?" The brunette request nervously. With a grunt and a look from Tifa, he lowers his weapon and the girls can breathe easy as they lower their hands down. "Okay. Seven years ago, there is a town called Banora, it is located south and the only neighboring town is Mideel. That was our hometown."

"Was?" Cloud asked, with a brow raise.

"Banora no longer exist..." The songstress speaks out as she looks away. "My father, Riley and I are the only ones who survived due to his work and we were allowed to tag along."

"No longer… exist?" Tifa asked and Barret gets the eerie feeling that their story is similar to his.

"We were shock and horrified on what happen to the town, and we decided to travel around the world after we couldn't find any survivors. That is until a year ago, we met a man in Mideel… at that time, my father was very sick, in need of medication and that's the only town nearby. He mentioned about helicopters bombing our home back then and the only one who had those kinds of arsenal is Shinra itself." And both the bar maid and Jessie gasped at this.

"You mean, Shinra is the one who destroyed your hometown?" Jessie asked and the huge man actually felt sympathy for the two.

"That's what the man said, he also mentions that the company was looking around in our town before they bomb the place off." the mime added and the two caught Tifa's hands balling into fist, sensing her anger towards the company. "Anyway, after her dad pass away, we decided to come here and to get answers on why they destroyed our town."

"Looks like we're on the same boat." Barret stated as he safely locks his gun arm and looks at them. "Tell me, how well can you two fight?"

"I'm pretty good on knife combat, but my best ability is mostly on mimicking enemy skills." Riley stated with a shrug, then points at Mira and her keytar. "And don't let that instrument fool you, it can cast status effect and can attack."

"Really?" he asked and looks skeptically at the instrument. To him and the others, it looks like a portable piano which is hardly a weapon at all… unless someone uses it as a mallet of sorts. "It's kinda hard to believe that can be a weapon, although it looks good for bashing some enemies." After saying that, Mira gives the huge man a sample of her instrument by knocking him off his feet with a pulse wave shot. The group and the blonde SOLDIER are surprise to on what the instrument did to Barret.

"How…?" Jessie asked, as she looks at the instrument in bewilderment.

"You were saying?" the songstress asked as her best friend sports a grin.

"Ugh… I believe you." He groans, as the shot feels like a hard punch on his gut. "Well, you can get your answers you needed as you can help us take Shinra down."

"Do we get paid too?" the brunette asked in a jokingly manner while looking innocent. But it seems he didn't get the humor, as she yelps and runs behind Mira when the huge man attempted to hit her on the head with his gun-arm.

"You both can get a free place to stay, that's all." he stated with an annoyed tone in this voice before heading to the pinball machine.

Both women can breathe easy, now that they are accepted into the group. Both Jessie and Tifa welcome them warmly, and then they give them a short tour of their base. The hidden base looks exactly what the game portrayed, except it's a little bigger and have more space to the Earth girls' surprise. Going back at the bar, they then meet Marlene, Barret's daughter, who most of the time hid behind Tifa or Jessie. While the little girl warms up to the two new female members, she seems to be anxious on the blonde guy and away hides behind Tifa or Jessie. Seeing this, Riley took the chance to make humor and reprimands Cloud that he is scaring the little girl with his 'aloofness'. But that only gave her a deadpan look and ignores her.

After the tour and meeting Biggs and Wedge when they returned from their errant, both Earth girls head out to restock their items.

:::^*^:::

With enough distance from the bar, the songstress sighs in relief as they head to the Item Shop. "That was close... He almost shot first, listen never at all." Mira whispers to the brunette.

"We avoided the bullet, quite literally." Riley replies, as they stop for a moment and looks around the area. Once they make sure that there is no eavesdropper, she smiles a bit. "Yup, picking Banora as our hometown is a good choice."

"Yeah… until those twats goes through the records, that is."

"Well, we can't pick Mideel or Modeoheim."

During their month stay in Sector 1, the two discussed about hometowns. Since they came from Earth and if they asked where they came from, they have to carefully pick the place. Unfortunately, they don't have a lot of choices as most of the towns have history with the Shinra Company. Except for Mideel, remembering that the said town is set in a jungle and possibly out of the company's reach. While it is a good option, the town exists and the company might send a Turk there to do a background check. Another good town is Modeoheim, similar to Banora except it is only abandon instead of being destroyed. However, they have no idea when that town was abandon as there is no date provided in that game, along with the fact that Shinra once attempted to mine Mako there. And so they picked Banora, the ruins of the laboratory along with the underground caves Genesis explored and pieces of broken houses are enough proofs that the town existed once. They knew that the company has records of that town, since to another science project was conducted there. So they decided that when Tseng takes Aerith and the group plans to rescue her, they'll split from the group to destroy any records relating to Banora.

"Seriously, is there any place this company haven't gone to?" the songstress deadpans as the mime shrugs at that, as the two knew that the company is looking for the Promised Land. They then continue heading for the Item shop, when they come across two women gossiping by as they head home.

"Are you serious?!"

"Uh-huh, I heard it from the shopkeeper."

"Oh gods, that's too scary. I mean think if that man used it... Oh! It's too scary to even think about it!"

"I agree, who knew that this place can kill us in one full sweep!"

"Ah! Don't say that!"

The two Earth girls smiles as they reach the shop. "It seems the rumors and gossips are going well." The songstress whispers.

Since they swore to achieve the better future for this world, they have to stop the incoming tragedies. They start in Midgar and it's three major event: the explosion of the Sector 1, to the fall of the Sector 7 Plate and then Meteor. They are neither hackers nor engineers that can stop the plate manually, so they decided to use an alternative method: rumors and gossiping. So they dressed up as any common folks in the slums or the plate and spread the rumor about the pillars that supports the sectors have a self-destruct mechanism. They mentioned that the president can issue the command to drop it anytime, and only Shinra personnel can access it. It somewhat worked...while they could not see the other sectors, a small group of people left from Sector 1 slums and went to Kalm. Most of them are opportunist or dreamers who dreamed of fame and fortune that the company presented, doubt came into their mind on hearing that and then turn away to look for other safe goals elsewhere. But it wasn't enough as a lot still holds to the dream.

Still both women need an effective and faster plan to get a lot of people out. They knew that the rumors won't last. At some point, the company will get the wind of it and squash it, as they'll send a Turk to look for the source of the rumor... only to wind up in a wild goose chase. And even if they did trace it back to them, they'll be long gone from Midgar.

After buying enough potions and ether, they make a quick stop to practice their magic and then head back to Seventh Heaven.

:::^A month later^:::

Barret Wallace, the leader of the AVALANCHE, delivers a punch on the poor bag with his good arm. He stops for a moment to take a drink and swipe the sweat off his face, as he sits down on the beaten couch and looks around.

AVALANCHE has improved a bit.

He made a good choice of allowing the three to join the group, but he's not that keen on hiring an ex-SOLDIER. The cocky and aloof attitude of the blonde pisses him off to no end, but the group needs someone how knew the reactor inside and out. And the fact that he was First Class, they need his strength in case the company sends SOLDIER after them.

Still his price is outrageous... that is enough gil to pay half of the bar's bills!

Fortunately, that problem was solved by the two girls. The brunette, Riley, added a few cocktail drinks in the menu and the customers loved it. The songstress, Mira, added ambiance with her songs and the live performance during the weekends. In turn, the place gains quite a popularity, as there are people from the plate went down to sample the new drinks or to relax in the ambiance.

While it sort-of solved their money problem, they have to relocate their secret base from being discovered. With many people wanting to visit the bar, someone will find out and report to Shinra. Because of that and the girls' suggestion, they expanded the bar and the hidden base by adding a room each. The extra room on the bar is used as storage for the alcohol and goods. That is also where they place the new hidden entrance, which is a fridge, and it leads to the new room of the hidden base. They mostly moved the furniture and items from the old room to the new, and the old room turns into an infirmary/barrack. They sealed the old entrance by patching the floor and building a stage on it, where Mira performs during the weekends.

Still they're a weird bunch... mostly the girls though. The blonde do have a strange habit of spacing out, he's probably distracted or bored due to the lack of action. The songstress and the mime, on the other hand, is a different story...

They befriend the ex-SOLDIER and they didn't mind his past employment. He and the others kept asking why they would befriend a guy who used to work in a company, which destroyed their hometown. They replied that the company itself destroyed their home, while they are not sure if he'll involve in it, he quits working there and is an okay guy for them.

There are times they go off somewhere and came back looking a bit tired, with extra items and gil in their pockets. They admit that they were trying to level their materias up since they just bought them recently. That made some of them confused, especially the blonde who's been using materia like them. The mime answered that they encountered thieves while heading here and they mugged them of their materias and gil. Hearing that unfortunate luck they went through, they let them practice their materias as long it can help them with their mission.

They also asked and looked on the bomb they're making, the mime then suggested lowering the blast power. He once disagree that they needed a bomb that is strong enough to destroy the reactor, and to announce that AVALANCHE is going to save the Planet. But she counters that there's a possibility that the blast will rip and send the outer shell of the reactor to the plate. That will cause a casualty if they don't lower the blast power. He replied that a few sacrifice is necessary to save the Planet, and the people working in Shinra deserve that fate. Then the next thing he knew, both girls are double-team counter-arguing against him. While he points out the huge importance of saving the Planet, the two counters it back with the unwanted major casualty and not all of the people living on the Plate are Shinra employees. They also point out that the explosion will cause mako poisoning for the two Plates above, and a possible minor one to the slums beneath it. He end up losing the arguement when Jessie pales on hearing that, and immediately agrees with the girls to lower the blast power.

It displeased him greatly and a bit of skepticism rears it's head on the two. But when Jessie shows him the revised calculation and schematic of the bomb, he decided to go along with it as long as it can wreck the damn company's prized reactors.

Getting up and heading to the showers, he have to make the final check on their gear, items and equipment.

For tomorrow is the first fight to save the world.

:::^*^:::

"Tomorrow is the big day."

"Yeah."

Mira and Riley are in the bar, they couldn't sleep and they don't want to disturb the others.

"Let's hope that the blast power of the bomb is strong enough to wreck the reactor, and not blow the shell off. After that… the Plate Fall is going to be our next problem."

Two weeks ago, Riley asked Jessie if they have any emergency communication system in the slums. The brunette rebel answered she doesn't know but she told her to ask the some elders about it. Apparently she once heard from the elderly that before the slum and the Plate was built, they were a close-knit group of towns. And it used to have a warning announcement system before the company took over security.

Both girls went looking for the old system during their materia practice. They located the system when they saw an old loudspeaker on a desolate building and followed the cables. However, the system wasn't used for a long time, and some of the machinery and equipment no longer works. The mime have to repair some of the necessary stuff, and she is thankful that Jessie gave her a few engineer lessons when they are revising the bomb.

But the old warning system is not enough. There are only a few loudspeakers sets in the old town area, and they don't know if the loudspeakers are still loud enough to warn the people.

'Better to have something than nothing...' Mira thought, as they are still fixing the old system. Some of the loudspeakers are still functioning but the sound is choppy. Her best friend is currently re-tuning it to make the sound clear and loud.

They eventually went back to bed, for tomorrow is the beginning of storm... with their mind still trying to think of a fast way to get the people out of Sector 7.

Silver: Yeah, I wonder why in some self-inserts chose still existing towns when they can chose the ones that were destroyed back then? Moving on... OMG! FFVII REMAKE! Whoo! Mai love for this game has been revived! Cloud! Genesis! Those baes! XD! Read and review!