"Why do you follow these humans?"

"Don't have much of a choice. Lightning is holding us hostage."

"Don't be afraid of her, she's as much a part of the family as you."

"What family?"

"You will see, my child."

"Hope?" Vanille asked to get his attention, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? W-what?" Hope stuttered confusedly.

"We were talkin' about going into Nautilus, then you just zoned out," Sazh replied.

"Oh. Um... Could work to our advantage. Huge crowds, lots of noise, most likely a very small military presence, and I doubt they would expect us to even go near the theme park," Hope explained, his tone reflecting the fact that he was deeply analyzing the possible outcomes.

"You seem to have a talent for tactics," Claire commented "Unusual for an average university student."

"Just a talent," Hope shrugged. He would never even dream of admitting the truth to the others, especially not Claire. Besides, how else could he explain that he felt compelled to do certain things and his intelligent tactical choices felt as if they were being spoken to him.

"So it's settled," Fang said with a smile, her hands on her hips "We're gonna have a fun day."

The group made their way towards the city sized amusement park of Cocoon, careful to avoid using the main road to it. When they arrived at the main gate to the park, they were stopped by a local Guardian Corps Officer. A false explanation and a flash of the badge given to her by Shinra, Claire was able to get the group inside the city with their weapons. Almost immediately upon seeing a map of the park, Vanille was dragging Fang and Sazh off towards the petting zoo, where a large stable of chocobos was present, leaving Claire and Hope in an awkward silence.

They aimlessly wandered down the wide road lined with miscellaneous booths and carnival games. Claire made sure to keep Hope within her field of vision, even if it was just the edge. It came as no surprise to the pinkette that Hope continued to remind her so strongly of Sephiroth but she also constantly noted the drastic differences between the two silver haired men. His demeanor was far more relaxed and even his walk was more natural. Claire thought that if Sephiroth had not been a part of Shinra, Hope is exactly what he would have become.

"So what does Shinra want with me?" Hope asked, making Claire realize she did not notice him approach her.

"What do you mean?" Claire reply without emotion.

"Well you're a SOLDIER First and I'm the only one you won't let out of your sight," Hope had a very slight smirk on his face as he spoke "Oh, and please don't lie, you're not very good at it."

"What?" Claire asked, taken aback.

"You have a few little ticks that give you away, it's mostly your hands," Claire was stunned that he had discovered that. Only Sephiroth had ever known about her tells and had repeatedly tried to teach her how to hide them.

"You were born from the Sanctum's own Jenova Project S. You are basically Sephiroth's brother," Hope dropped his gaze to the ground and brought his hand up to his mouth in a sign of deep thought. He started walking away from Claire, slowly making his way further up the road.

"How does that work?" Hope finally asked after several minutes.

"What?"

"How can I be Sephiroth's brother if I was born thousands of miles away and from different parents? And wouldn't the Sanctum have had eyes on me my whole life?"

"I don't know how the Jenova Project works and it's more than likely they had been watching you, which is why they were all over us when we left Palumpolum."

"That makes sense."

The duo continued aimlessly wandering down the road in silence, Hope mulling over the facts, Claire keeping Hope in sight and scanning the area for any suspicious activity. When they stopped to take a rest, Hope bought a bottle of water for them both. Claire asked why he would act with such kindness to her and Hope gave a simple reply of pointing out she had not done anything bad to him yet.

"So Shinra have any places like this?" Hope asked after they had sat in silence for several minutes.

"The Gold Saucer."

"Oh. What do they have there?"

"No idea, never been there," Hope sigh in defeat at Claire's words.

"Any family?" Claire remained silent for a long moment, breaking eye contact with Hope, making him curious.

"A sister. She's with Avalanche," She answered calmly, Hope didn't make any comments and Claire was thankful for that.

"Light!" They both heard Fang shout. Following the sound, Claire and Hope saw the blue wearing woman with Vanille and Sazh on her heels. Instinct told Claire she was about to hear some very bad news.

"What is it?" Claire asked calmly.

"PSICOM is swarming in from all sides," Sazh told her.

"How do you know that?" Hope asked as he stood up, disbelieving they had been able to scout all the park's entrances.

"We heard one guy talking about other groups in all directions," Vanille spoke up.

"So we're trapped," Claire spat "Wonderful," she remembered Angeal and Genesis talking about how SOLDIER's always end up in the worst situations, somehow. She was starting to believe in the SOLDIER First Class curse.

"Maybe not," Sazh said thoughtfully while pointing upwards "That's a Cavalry ship," The group followed Sazh's gaze, and finger, and in unison spotted the small gunship with blue decals descending relatively nearby.

"Isn't that convenient," Hope mused before the group started moving towards the landing area.

The group of five moved at a casual pace as to not draw attention from the oblivious local Guardian Corps soldiers. As they passed by a map of the city, Claire gave it a quick look over and saw that they were still a lengthy distance away from the landing area and the Cavalry ship had undoubtedly long since touched down. As they passed through the gate of a large castle themed area of the amusement park Vanille turned to look at the signs over the gate and noticed the large doors starting to close.

"Uh, guys?" Vanille said loud enough to get the attention of the others in the group. The other four turned and saw the gate closing and a large squad of PSICOM troops making their way through the crowd.

"Run!" Claire barked at the others, she hated having to run from PSICOM of all things but she was not about to risk having her target injured or even killed.

Without question, the five started to sprint away from the squad of PSICOM troops, the action immediately had them identified by the PSICOM squad, which was in pursuit a moment after calling it in. Weaving through the crowd was easy enough for the group of five fugitives but it was making them stand out far too much. Mid stride, Claire pulled one of Sazh's pistols free and fired three shots into the ground and as expected, panic exploded through the crowd. The civilians started to run every direction, yelling, screaming, and ultimately, concealing the five's movements. Using the panicked crowd as cover, the five continued towards the eastern gate, to get to the landing area, but saw that the gate was sliding closed and just made it through.

When the gate slammed closed behind them, they heard several guns being cocked and were treated to the unpleasant surprise of a thirty-two member firing squad. Claire knew she could escape the situation but was unsure as to what kind of abilities Hope possessed. Even though he is supposed to be identical to Sephiroth, Claire had yet to see if similarities went beyond appearance. As for the other three in the group, Lightning did not particularly care one way or the other.

"Surrender and you won't be hurt!" One PSICOM soldier shouted to the group.

Seeing the perfect opportunity, Claire dropped her weapon and took four steps forwards, her hands slightly in front of her in a sign of forfeit. Sazh and Fang followed suit and surrendered their weapons as well, intuition telling them the pink haired SOLDIER operative had a plan. Most of the PSICOM troops lowered their weapons and moved up to arrest the group and once Claire and the others were surrounded, she acted.

A lightning fast punch delivered from Claire to the throat of the soldier in front of her set her plan in motion. She grabbed two other soldiers and threw them into the groups that still had their guns ready, causing them all to be knocked down in the confusion. With a swift spin kick, her hair trailing behind her as a silky pink streamer, Claire launched another soldier several feet away, his ribs had shattered when Claire's boot contacted them. A soldier rushed Claire as she recovered from her spin kick. Almost losing her balance, she grabbed his shoulders, flipped over him, and used her momentum to throw him at one of the groups of gunners that had recovered. Looking to the other group of gunners, that were just beginning to retrain their guns on the group of fugitives, the world went into slow-motion for the pinkette.

She cartwheeled over her weapon, picking it up midway, and placed one shot into each soldier, most shots being fatal. Just as she was taking aim at the other group of soldiers that had stayed back, flames erupted from the ground knocking them all up and away from that position. Claire looked to her group for an answer and for the first time, saw the green materia orbs in Fang's spear.

With the PSICOM soldiers dead, injured, or fleeing, the fugitive group continued running towards the landing area. Upon reaching the other gate of the area, they saw that it was actually a drawbridge, to fit with the castle theme of the area. Claire hit the lever to lower the bridge and after waiting several moments, shot the chains holding the bridge. It crashed down and very nearly shattered, the bridge and the ground where it landed. Quickly and carefully crossing the now extremely structurally unstable drawbridge, they encountered more PSICOM soldiers and machines.

The seemingly endless fighting was starting to weigh heavily on Fang and Claire. Their arms and legs ached, their minds were fatigued, their lungs and hearts were begging for a moments rest, but the adrenaline flowing through their veins refused to let them slow. Unsurprisingly, there was another large group of PSICOM soldiers but it had one additional member. A tall soldier with white and blue armor, a long sword on his back, and just like the other soldiers, a helmet hid his face.

"Surrender and you won't be harmed," the tall blue and white armor wearing soldier said, his voice was young, deadly serious, and warped by the helmet but Claire could not help but think it sounded vaguely familiar.

"Never!" Fang shouted, a high amount of rage and amusement in her voice. The two dozen guns pointed at them cocked in unison.

"Don't be stupid. I'm giving you the option to leave here alive, I suggest you take that into consideration. Now drop your weapons," the tall soldier commanded. Claire and the others hesitantly and unwillingly complied but Claire had a plan "At ease," he said to the other soldiers and they stood calmly, their guns pointed to the ground but ready to fire at a moments notice. The tall soldier walked forward and started to cuff each of the group with their hands behind their backs "Men,"

"Sir!" The soldiers reply in unison.

"Dismissed, report back to Commander Rosch," Claire almost laughed at how easy the tall soldier was making it for her. He collected their weapons and ordered the group of fugitives to start walking. He guided them into the service tunnels of Nautilus and made sure to seal the entrance behind them. With his back turned, Claire struck.

She jumped, pulled her knees up to her chest and slipped her hands under her feet, bringing them back in front of her, and landed without a sound. Claire swung her arms over the soldier's head, aiming to strangle him with her cuffs but he swiftly ducked out of the way. Performing a spin kick in hopes of knocking him out, Claire hit nothing but air as the soldier had already maneuvered behind her. Lacing her fingers together, Claire swung her arms once again in hopes of knocking him out but her hands slammed into a pipe, denting and almost breaking it. Launching several more kicks, the soldier deftly dodged back out of the way. He was starting to greatly annoy Claire as he was far too fast to be a regular soldier for Cocoon but would not attack back, even when Claire baited him with a false opening. He was toying with her, he was under the illusion he was better than Claire and she knew only one fighter was better than her and that was her mentor. She her relentless assault for a moment to analyze the soldier. He stood with his hands on his hips and waited for her.

"Finished?" he asked after waiting a few seconds. His tone was far less serious than before and it made him even more familiar to Claire but she still did not entirely recognize the voice. He reached up, grabbed the helmet and pulled it off, making Claire's breath hitch in her throat.

"Zack?" Claire whispered, unable to draw enough air to say it louder.

"The one and only," Zack said with his trademark smile.

"Hey, back up love birds," Fang said loudly, making Claire glare at her "You two know each other?"

"Former First Class SOLDIER Operative, current Cavalry Lieutenant, Zack Fair," Zack formally introduced himself "Sorry about the cuffs and the show but it was the only way to keep Rosch's men from mulching you."

"You're from SOLDIER too?" Sazh asked "How are you a Lieutenant for the Cavalry?"

"Long story," Zack chuckled "What's important is, I'm getting you out of this city. Sadly, it's not on an airship."

"What about that Cavalry one in the landing area?" Hope asked as Zack started removing the handcuffs.

"Long story short, the entire Cavalry and PSICOM Commander Nabaat is on our side but they can't outright help us yet," Zack explained.

"What!? Really!?" Sazh shouted from surprise.

"Yes, but most of PSICOM, including Rosch, is loyal to the Sanctum, not Nabaat. Anyways, the best Raines or Nabaat can do right now is mislead the Sanctum about our location. So, lets get out of Nautilus," Zack dropped his helmet behind a large crate then turned and started running down the corridor, the others on his tail.

It took Claire several seconds to start running after them because she was still stunned to see Zack was alive, She had been told that she was the last living First Class SOLDIER, it made her wonder what else Shinra had lied about. As she started running to catch up, pain, anger, and sadness suddenly welled up in her. A part of her mind knew it had something to do with Zack but she had no memory of what was causing the feelings. It was strange to say the least and completely out of place so Claire shoved the feelings out of her mind and ignored whatever missing memory was trying to make itself known.

Yes, it's short. Yes, it's not the greatest, but the only thing I knew while writing this was Zack joins Lightning's group. The Serah part of this chapter would have been at the Gold Saucer but I decided to outright skip the events of the Gold Saucer because I have no ideas for how to make it different from what happens in FF7.

Like I said last chapter, I have almost no ideas for between now and the Northern Cave, exceptions being Oerba, Nibelheim, and The Forgotten City.

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