"It is time," a female and male voice said together.

"What?" the young woman replied.

"It is time for you to wake up," the voices said.

"What do you mean wake up? Am I sleeping?" the young woman replied.

"You have been asleep for a long time," the voices said "As have we."

"How long have we been asleep?"

"Almost four years now. We have been sleeping since that day."

"What day? Who are you?" the young woman was starting to feel uneasy.

"Neither answer matters at this time. What does matter is you. You need to get up."

"Okay. Let me try… I can't feel my legs. Why can't I feel my legs? What happened?" the young woman was starting to panic.

"Remain calm, young one," the voices soothed "There. Try again."

"I… I can feel my legs. How did you do that?"

"It matters not. What does matter is you. It is time."

"Why do I matter? Time for what?" the young woman was getting quite irritated and was starting to feel as if she recognized the male voice.

"Reunion."


Claire slowly opened her eyes, thinking that if the voices were right, her eyes would not be accustomed to light. Fortunately, the light from the ceiling did not blind her. Without testing her capabilities, Claire pushed herself up into a sitting position and started pulling all the monitoring wires off of her body. The machines she had been hooked up to started to protest loudly at her intervention but she ignored them and swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

The young pink haired woman stretched her arms above her head and felt a painful stretch in her stomach. She pulled up her shirt slightly and looked at the thin scar. Claire tried to recall what the scar was from but no memory came forward. Two completely different facts jumped forward though. Her hair was nearly down to her waist and her breasts were bigger. The former SOLDIER decided she had no time for these petty matters, she had to report back to Shinra and contact Serah.

Two nurses burst through the door and froze. To Claire, they looked as if they had seen a ghost, then again, if the voices were right, she had been asleep for nearly four years. One nurse was blond and had blue eyes while the other had brown hair and brown eyes.

"Y-Your awake!" the blond shouted.

"Obviously," Claire snapped back "Where are my things?" the brunette walked over to the bedside cabinet and pulled out a small stack of clothes and a wallet.

"Your sister made sure these would be available for you," the brunette told Claire. Claire could tell the nurses were still in shock over seeing her awake and perfectly fine.

When they left the room, Claire changed into the clothes Serah had left for her. The clothes were barely big enough for Claire but they were better than wearing hospital regulation sweats into the Shinra building. Flipping through her wallet, she was glad to see her SOLDIER identification card, electronic banking card, and her key card to her room in the SOLDIER barracks. Unfortunately, all the cards had expired while she was asleep. Luckily for Claire, if she wasn't thrown out of the building for impersonating a SOLDIER, Shinra would replace all the cards for her.

It took Claire four hours to convince the receptionist, and several members of security, that she was indeed one of the SOLDIER operatives that was proclaimed missing in action four years ago. Understandable precautions as it would not be the first time a former operative returned with the intention of murdering the President or some other high ranking official. She was finally sent up to the SOLDIER Director's office to be reinstated and have her identification renewed.

When the elevator doors opened the first thing Claire noticed was the massive red diamond logo of the Shinra Electric Power Company. Claire strode into the office with purpose and came face to face with the new SOLDIER Director. The first thing Claire noticed was, the new Director was a woman and the plaque on the desk read Director Q. Trepe. She had long blond hair which was tied back with the exception of her bangs which framed her face, she was wearing an orange zip up vest brown sleeves that were not connected to the vest and dark brown gloves. Since the woman was sitting at the desk, Claire could not see what else she was wearing.

"Hello, I am-" Claire began.

"Lightning Farron," the Director finished "Forgive the lack of formalities but I have already been notified. I am SOLDIER's new Director, Quistis Trepe. It is good to see you looking so healthy," Director Trepe had read over all the medical reports and knew they had stated Lightning would be paralyzed, which was quite false now.

"I figure you will take care of my reinstatement," Claire said.

"Of course. Your room is just as you left it and I will have your weapon and new uniform sent there once you settle in."

"My weapon?" Claire could remember using a prototype sword that she had called Blaze Edge. Director Trepe leaned over to her terminal and worked it for a moment.

"You used the prototype gunblade for a few years and since you've been out of service the project has been completed. The finished product is stronger, lighter, transforms faster, and is less likely to jam," Director Trepe smiled at Claire "Your constant use of the prototype Blazefire Sabre payed off greatly. I look forward to working with you in the future Lightning."

"As do I," Claire said before leaving.

"By the way, I will contact your sister, Serah. This will obviously be quite a shock to her," Claire knew Serah would be over the moon at the news that her big sister was awake after four years.

The first thing the pink haired SOLDIER operative did when she reached her room was take a hot shower. After dressing in the sleepwear that all operatives were supplied with, a muscle shirt and boxer shorts that were colored to match the Classes, Claire stood in front of the tall mirror to brush her hair but something stopped her. She leaned in close and saw that there were faint traces of green in her ice-blue eyes and her pupils were not perfectly round. Deciding she was just seeing things because of being in a coma for four years, Claire started to examine herself.

Claire could only describe herself as immaculate. The only scar she had was the thin one above her naval, not even the scars from Genesis' rapier were present. That was only the tip of the iceberg of changes. Her once well defined muscles were now hidden by flesh but the strength was still there, her hips were far more round then she remembered, her flesh was soft, smooth, and hairless for the most part. She reached and touched her lips which now fuller, softer, and smooth. Claire realized she had become exactly what she had heard many men claim to be perfect.

Stepping back and turning away from the mirror, Claire caught a glimpse of a framed picture of her, Serah, and their adoptive father Sephiroth. She stared at the picture for a long while and felt mental vibrations none too different from the vibrations one feels at the platform of an arriving train. Claire tried to force the train with her memories to arrive but the harder she tried the further away the train seemed. Without warning, her mental vibrations became physical and the entire building was shaking as if an earthquake was shaking the entirety of Midgar. Claire raced to the door and hit the button to make it open. She grabbed one of the Third Class operatives that was running by and made him face her.

"What's going on?" Claire asked quickly.

"Reactor One just exploded!" the Third shouted back, surprised by Claire and by the fact she was wearing the dark clothes of First Class, even though it was only sleepwear "It was Avalanche!"

Claire growled at the mention of the name of the terrorist group. She released the Third Class operative and closed the door to her room. There was nothing she could do without her uniform or weapon. Since she could not take part in pursuing Avalanche, Claire decided to go to the gym reserved for SOLDIER members, just a floor below the barracks. She was glad it was common to see operatives wandering around in sleepwear as it was the exact same style of clothes as gym-wear.

As Claire lay on the cushioned bench and lifted the barbell with nearly three times her own weight on it, she thought about Avalanche. She told herself that Avalanche had made a big mistake in attacking her home city and she would personally take down Avalanche. The next time Avalanche decided to make a move, she would be there to stop them. To kill them.


With their ears still ringing, Snow and Serah stared at what used to be Mako Reactor One. Serah could not believe that Avalanche would destroy a Reactor in Midgar. Undoubtedly, hundreds of people were killed in the initial blast, many more by the smoke and fire inside the reactor, and possibly hundreds more by the debris that was launched into Sectors One and Eight. The pink haired Turk hoped, more than anything right now, that the Mako reservoir had not been ruptured, otherwise it would pour into the Sector One slums and kill many more people. Serah knew it was Avalanche because they were the only group, other than Cocoon but they would not start a war, that still openly opposed Shinra.

"I can't believe it," Snow muttered.

"What?" Serah asked, barely hearing what Snow said because of the ringing in her ears.

"I didn't think they would blow it up," Snow muttered again, seemingly oblivious to Serah.

"Who?" Serah asked.

"Do you have any skills with a weapon?" Snow suddenly asked her.

"Yes, with a compound bow. But why?" Serah was getting more confused by the second.

"Go get it and meet me back at Lebreau's, okay?" Snow was looking right into Serah's eyes and she could see he was trying to look calm but his eyes were filled with both anger and panic.

"Okay," Serah said back to him, thankful he had forgotten about his proposal in the heat of the moment.

Serah was lucky with the train schedule and was able to get to her apartment in under an hour. She sprinted up the stairs, quickly unlocked the door and found her bow. Slinging the quiver onto her back, Serah grabbed the bow and made her way out of her apartment, locking it behind her. Luckily she got back to the platform before the train was finished refueling and was able to get back to Sector Seven in record time for her. Walking into Lebreau's cafe/bar she saw Maqui, Yuj, Gadot, and Lebreau holding assault rifles and remembered that Snow had said he prefers to fight with his hands.

"Hey Serah. What's with the rod and arrows?" Yuj asked genuinely confused about the choice. Serah unfolded the bow to show it off "Oh, that's a bow. Why do you have that?"

"I'm going with you guys," Serah replied.

"Right," Lebreau said skeptically "Snow you can't be serious about bringing this skirt down to the slums," Serah wanted to laugh at at Lebreau.

"She will be fine. If it comes up, I will protect her. Besides that is not the point of this trip," Snow explained "We are wasting time and we are going to miss the train."

The members of NORA and Serah rode the train in silence but Serah could hear the tension in the air. Not one word was passed between the group but every so often, one of them would mutter something about the Reactor explosion or Avalanche. Serah was getting really curious as to what she was going to find out and if it would be the information she had been waiting a very long time to find out.

After getting off the train at the platform adjacent to the train graveyard, NORA purposefully walked through the slums. Serah glanced at the pillar holding Sector Seven in place as they passed by the base of it. Many residents of the slums sent a glare towards the group or spat where they were going to be walking. Almost no resident of the plate was welcome down in the slums even if their reason for being below the plate was noble.

NORA stopped out front of a small bar called 7th Heaven. Snow glanced around at the group before heading up the front steps, the rest of his group on his heels. When they entered the bar Snow walked straight up to the counter, to the woman with long dark brown hair, a white tank top, black miniskirt, gloves with materia slots, and a rather large bust.

"Where's Barret?" Snow all but growled.

Just then the pinball machine, and the floor below it, dropped down then rose soon after. A large dark skinned man with a gun in place of his right hand was standing on the platform and looked confused at the group in 7th Heaven. Serah knew all about this man, Barret Wallace, Shinra has been after him for several years.

"Barret!" Gadot shouted. Snow spun towards the large man with the gun arm.

"You never said anything about a damn bomb that big!" Snow shouted.

"Well if it ain't NORA," Barret said NORA in a mocking tone "The hell did ya think we were gonna do?"

"You said you were going to disable the reactor!" Serah knew Snow was upset about all the possible innocent deaths. It was also upsetting Serah.

"Do you really think jus' turnin' that damn thing off would make Shinra learn anythin'?" Barret was roaring now.

"Do you have any idea how many innocent people were killed by that blast?" Lebreau shouted, joining the argument.

"It was that punk that designed the damn bomb with Jessie!" Barret yelled while motioning towards Maqui.

"Obviously you guys did something to my design because it was not supposed to that kind of damage!" Maqui did not sound nearly as threatening as the others in this shouting match.

The argument faded into background noise as Serah noticed the pinball machine slide down again. She watched it come out of the floor with another passenger. They were a spiky blond haired man with Mako blue eyes, the uniform of a SOLDIER First and a very large sword on his back. Serah recognized the sword from many years ago, when she first met Angeal. Serah wanted to know why this blond haired man was wielding the Buster Sword, the SOLDIER symbol of honor and fortitude. More importantly, Avalanche had a rogue SOLDIER First working with them, this is something Tseng would need to know. Serah just had to learn his name first.

Hmmm… Nope, nothing to say about this chapter. Other than,I hope you enjoyed it.

Let me know if anything needs to be fixed and please leave a review. Reviews make me happy and I write more faster when I'm happy.


Edit: I made many grammar and spelling corrections that I missed. I really need a beta-reader.