"You exceeded my expectations," Claire heard Director Lazard say to Zack as she regained her senses "Keep up the good work, and perhaps the day you make First will not be far off."
"Don't forget that I helped him," Claire said as she stood up, causing the three men to look over to her.
"Do not worry Cla – er – Lightning," Lazard said to the girl "Anyways, Angeal, you were right when you said Zack had promise," Zack began doing squats and Claire walked over to the trio.
"This is just the beginning," Angeal commented to the director.
"I'll be honest, when you first came to me with the recommendation, I was hesitant," Zack stopped doing squats and gave the director a hurt look "I thought for sure that all he was good for was doing squats," Zack looked to Angeal for some defense.
"When I first met him, so did I," Angeal said in an off-handed tone, Zack's hurt look grew a bit worse.
"Sometimes its all he's good for," Claire stated with a half smile. Angeal, Director Lazard and Claire began to laugh at their jokes.
"Why am I always at the center of theses things?" Zack asked no in particular, so none of the other three answered.
"Okay, enough of this joking," Angeal said to cut off the laughter "We have to hurry, Sephiroth is waiting."
"Sephiroth!" Zack shouted excitedly "The SOLDIER hero?" The other three just ignored Zack and walked away. Zack snapped out of his excitement and ran to catch up.
As the group of four walked through the forest a series of rustling caught their attention. The three SOLDIER operatives fell into battle stance and formed a triangle around Lazard, Angeal at the front with Zack and Claire watching the back. Two mysterious assassin looking people jumped out of the bushes.
"Take the director to a safe place," Angeal said calmly to Zack and Claire "Go, now!"
"Follow us, Director," Claire said to Lazard. The three retreated from the area and continued to run through the forest while Lazard kept an eye on the beacon. After breaking through a tree line, the trio panicked two Shinra infantry.
"Thank goodness you're safe, Director Lazard," One of the two said after holstering his pistol.
"I should be fine now, you two. Go and assist Angeal."
Zack and Claire left the director with the soldiers and ran back through the forest. They almost had trouble finding their way back to the area, but Claire had excelled at the tracking part of the training. When they arrived back at the ambush area, all they had found was the two dead assassins.
"Wait a sec, Theses guys aren't Wutai troops . . ." Zack said as Claire examined the area for any sign of Angeal "Gah!" Zack shouted as a levitating red orb appeared in front of him, also grabbing Claires attention.
The red orb exploded into an immense amount of flames that twisted and contorted into the shape of a creature. The shape formed skin, teeth, claws, horns, and hooves. It was the creature Ifrit, one of many materia creatures that existed in the world. The hopelessness of the situation was blatantly obvious, all materia creatures were very powerful and almost always killed what they were aimed at.
"A summon!" Zack shouted out of surprise "Who called it!"
"Doesn't matter," Claire tried to say calmly "We have to destroy it if we want to be more than ash."
Ifrit's feet left the ground and he raised his right hand until it was facing Zack and Claire. Fire began to spread around Ifrit as if he were a stationary meteor aimed at the two young SOLDIER members. Zack and Claire exchanged worried looks sharing the knowledge that even combined, they were not strong enough to take down Ifrit.
When their last shred of hope dissipated and the aura of fire around Ifrit stopped glowing, something unexpected happened. A long streak of light appeared for only an instant in front of Ifrit, it went from Ifrit's left shoulder to his right hip. The large fire beast curled up as tightly as its muscular limbs allowed it, then it exploded into a large cloud of flame. Zack and Claire were confident that it had been a friend that destroyed the summon, so they put away their weapons.
As the smoke from the explosion began to clear someone broke through the cloud. It was not Angeal as they had been expecting, and slightly hoping for, it was Sephiroth. The General with outrageously long silver hair walked towards the two dead bodies that Zack and Claire were standing over. It seemed like Sephiroth did not even notice the presence of the younger SOLDIER members.
"Holy . . ." Zack said out of awe as he watched Sephiroth approach the bodies and go to one knee to examine them. Sephiroth grabbed the helmet of one of the dead assassins and pushed it off.
"Genesis," Sephiroth said in a calm tone. Claire felt her eyes go wide.
"The missing SOLDIER first class?" Zack said, completely confused, Claire shared the feeling. Sephiroth pushed off the other helmet and the confusion doubled "They're identical!"
"Genesis copies," Sephiroth stated without any movement towards Zack.
"Copy? A human copy?" Claire almost shouted out of skepticism. Sephiroth sharply moved his gaze to the two young soldiers.
"Where is Angeal?" Sephiroth said in his commanding tone.
"I thought he was fighting around here," Zack said trailing off at the end.
"Humph," Sephiroth grunted "So he's gone too," Sephiroth said quietly before standing.
"What?" Zack and Claire said in unison "What does that mean?" Zack said to Sephiroth's back as Claire simply watched.
"It means that Angeal has betrayed us as well," Claire could hear Sephiroth's glare through his heated tone. Sephiroth began walking away.
"No way!" Zack nearly shouted to defend his mentor "I know what kind of guy Angeal is. And he'd never do that!" Sephiroth stopped to face Zack.
When Claire saw Sephiroth's glare, she thought Zack was about to have a broken jaw. Zack took two steps back, even though he was already ten feet away from Sephiroth. Claire could read her adoptive fathers thoughts at the moment. He was thinking about how Zack claimed to know Angeal better than he.
"Angeal wouln't betray us! Never!" It was obvious how devastated Zack was. Claire saw Sephiroth's expression soften a small amount after he realized how Zack was feeling.
Sephiroth looked directly at Claire and held her gaze for a moment. The look was friendly and it said 'I'm glad to see that your safe.'
"Our chopper is waiting," Sephiroth said to break the silence that had formed.
Sorry about the length of this chapter. Next chapter will be the usual length. Thanks to all those that follow this story, and please don't forget to leave a review.
By the way, I recommend going to my profile and reading my story The Labyrinth. Please forgive my self advertising but I believe everyone will enjoy that story.
