Here's another one because I have three in one day for you. I promised three to Rikela-chan. three it is, and I haven't updated in over a month. I wasn't just sitting around getting fat if that means anything.
Words:2954
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all parts of the contemplation go to Square Soft or rather Square Enix. I own Evelia and the things based around her.
A day or two after getting our haircut Sephiroth felt that I was back to normal and could resume tutelage under him again. That first day back with him felt the best. I never realized how much I missed doing what I loved. This was my job and Damn did I love it.
I was running a mission out in sector 3 of Midgar when I got a call. The ringing in my back right pocket made me stop walking and swing my right hand to my back pocket to flip out the phone with acute precision.
"Evie here."
" I've just gotten new leads," I noticed it was Sephiroth on the other and paused.
"New leads on Angeal and Genesis huh?" I didn't get a verbal response but a small 'Hm,' from him made me realize I was right.
"Head to headquarters when you can."
"Right." I closed the phone and returned it to my pocket to start running. A half an hour later I was running up the stairs to the elevator and to Lazard's old office. I could feel him waiting in the room for me as I had entered the Shinra main building. I walked out to see him standing at the center of the room casually. His Silver and black uniform catching my gaze as usual.
"You know Seph you really have to help me make a cool outfit sometime." He glanced at me with a raised eyebrow.
"You are more than capable of making your own outfit."
"Okay, maybe we could sketch out some ideas together for me. That'd be awesome. Yeah we're doing it."I commanded. He said nothing in his defense of the situation.
Zack walked in casually he looked like he was busy though. Possibly with Aerith. I gave him a small smile. But Sephiroth started talking.
"Legions of monsters have spawned near a regional Mako reactor. The workers have all gone missing." I mused this thought and bit my lip in response. This wasn't good. "Local SOLDIER operatives have also vanished. The company is dispatching additional operatives to investigate the matter. The three of us that is." Lost in my own thoughts about the situation I hadn't notice Zack begin to pace about the room.
"Roger that..." I glanced at him with furrowed eyebrows.
"What's wrong?" Sephiroth seemed confused by Zack's response.
"Well, you know... I thought you found something out about... that other matter." I looked away as I listened to them talk about the subject.
"The missing operatives were the ones tracking Lazard. Also they had reported a strange podlike device in the area."
"Is that... Hollander's...?" Zack asked walking towards Sephiroth in surprise and wonder.
"Probably the same device that was stolen in Modeoheim."
"Meaning...?" I asked lightly pushing the subject more.
"Lazard, Hollander..."
"And Genesis?" Zack finished for him questionably.
"We'll have to go see them."
"Mm, let's go..." I nodded in agreement.
"First, go to the SOLDIER floor. We'll depart as soon as you two and the rest of the men are ready to go."
"Understood."
"Our orders are to investigate the reactor. They mention nothing of ... old friends." Zack already halfway out the room stopped to look at Sephiroth. We exchanged glances with one another. "Depending on what happens, I may abandon Shinra." My ears perked up to listen to this.
The two of us gasped lightly as Sephy looked at the wall next to him. "Until then I'll remain loyal to SOLDIER." Zack left after this but I stayed to talk with Sephiroth.
"You absolutely sure about that Sephiroth?" He was silent for a moment and I took that as a yes. I stood straight and to my fullest height. "Alright. I'll back any decision you make, even if it's to leave Shinra." Sephiroth seemed surprised. I saluted him and walked out silently.
Zack was waiting for me on the SOLDIER floor. He seemed antsy.
"You wanna go see Aerith before we leave?" I asked pulling some of my hair behind my ear as I smiled gently. He turned to me and stared for a couple of moments. I waited for what seemed like ten minutes before he blinked and looked away thinking to himself for a moment. I tilted my head in confusion and leaned towards him.
"A bit…" I smiled and walked up to him clapping my hand onto his shoulder pauldron.
"Well go, there's some stuff I wanna do before we head out anyways. Just send a hello for me." He nodded slowly but didn't move.
"You alright Evie?" I jerked my head back in surprise, "You've seemed a little bit weird since your mission with Rufus…" I shook my head a bit, thinking.
"Nothing's wrong if that's what you're asking. I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately. No big deal though." He didn't seem convinced and I shook my head with a small smirk.
"Go see her before Sephiroth comes back. It'll be hard covering for your ass," I said evenly. He returned the smirk and ran back into the elevator. "Just call me when you're on the plate again." I walked off slowly wiggling my fingers in goodbye. I went to the briefing room to check upon something to do that looks productive. I ran through the lists of missions until I hit the SOLDIER 1st Class folder. These were sets of missions that required a SOLDIER 1st Class to do them. These missions weren't as important as the ones higher ups gave us verbally. I accepted an easy looking one that stayed in Midgar.
When I came back things were in the same shape as I had left them, the SOLDIER floor was rather empty but when I went down to the barracks to see the Cadets and the few SOLDIERs left having… fights. A captainwas taking on a 2nd Class and getting his ass beat. I narrowed my eyes and watched quietly. No one noticed me. Things got heated and fists started flying, the cadets outnumbering the SOLDIERs started a gang up beat down. I growled and ran into the center of the fight. The Captain and the 2nd Class. They didn't notice me until the Captain hit me in the face. My face spun away and I didn't move as I realized what he had just done. I turned slowly back around. The two weren't move but I took the wrist of each in one of my hands and threw them on the floor. They groaned in pain.
"STOP!"
Everything froze.
I was seething in my boots. "Get up. All of you. Now." I snarled angrily. They obeyed without questions. "SOLDIER over here, infantry over here." I point in the opposite directions and the even made neat rows.
"Now. Who's going to tell me what happened here before I beat the ever living shit out of somebody?" no one moved or said anything really. I waited. "No?" The2nd Class on the floor moved to look at someone. I turned to see a cadet walk forward. And he spoke, as unbiased as I would have heard had it been anybody else. I nodded and thanked him.
I pulled the Captain up, "Don't pick fights with my SOLDIERs. Say what you want. Don't drag them into it. Remember that you still have to listen to me."
"Yes, Ma'am." He mumbled.
"The rest of you leave, if anyone of the Shinra army has a problem with SOLDIER you can take it up with Sephiroth or me." The infantrymen and the SOLDIER 2nd and 3rd classes walked towards their different barracks. I pulled the 2nd up and Glared at him.
"I can't leave you unpunished, you should have told someone. Come on. You two get to go to Wutai together. I heard they needed help from anyone who was fiery enough for the job, and after that fight and the punch in the face, I think you'll do fine." They were silent as I walked them to the office of Tseng. Who whisked them away. I smiled and looked at Tseng. He stood.
"I have to leave." He was at the door of his office when I spoke.
"I never see you… Turk stuff?" I twirled around to look at him.
"Yeah… Turk stuff." He left. I stared once more time at his pony tail, it was getting longer lately. I hardly ever saw Tseng… especially recently. I was lucky he was in his office, though obviously not for a long time. I wondered a lot, what the hell was he doing all this time?
I took a deep breath and stepped out of his office to see a Turk walk by. I said nothing to the red head, so instead I walked silently past Reno.
Walking to the SOLDIER floor I knew it would be empty. I sigh there were so few of us. A beep came and I looked to my phone, the Evie fan club had gone up in 500 members in at least a day. When I woke up this morning the woman who's child I found was on the news talking about me. I smiled but switched the T.V. off to leave for a new day.
I rounded a corner to see an infantryman standing around. I raised my eyebrow questionably.
"What's the matter?" he looked up at me and a grinned immediately crossed my face.
"I'm having a little troubling rounding up the group," he stated gazing at me a bit red faced.
"We have to get moving before Sephy goes off."
"Yes, sir... erm, ma'am." I walked over to the kid and ruffled his hair roughly.
"No worries little guy." He pulled away with a blush but beamed anyways.
"Thanks, I'll go get everyone." I watched as he left at a run, his hair bouncing as he went. I couldn't help but bit my lip trying not to grin and a hugged myself. He was too darn cute. I snapped from my bubbly moment at the ring of my phone. My face fell casual and I answered as usual.
"Evie here."
"I'm in the Shinra building; are the rest of the guys ready?"
"Yeah and you're in for a bit of a surprise."
"What kind?" I began walking towards where the kid had just disappeared to.
"Only the best kind… you'll see when you're on the SOLIDER floor."
"Hey Wa-" I snapped the phone shut without letting him finish the statement. A surprise isn't a surprise if you tell the person a head of time. I stopped walking when I shut the phone off and I looked over the gentlemen in front of me with a small sigh. Sometimes I wondered what I got myself into surrounding myself with men all the time.
Finally Zack walked in and gazeed at the men until he saw the center one; he grinned when he noticed it was Cloud. I smiled along with him.
"Another one together? Alright!" They bumped arms as a sort of greeting or something. I didn't get it. Cloud stood back in line loosely as Zack and I peered at the three. It was silent and me and Zack just smiled to each other. They suddenly straightened their backs Zack and I turned around to see Sephy walk in casually. I flipped my hair out of my eye with a flip of my neck and watched at how he walked in.
"By the way, where are we going?" Sephiroth turned to answer Zack. Makes me wonder why we hadn't wondered where we were going in the first place.
"To Nibelheim." A quick glance at Cloud's expression behind Sephiroth made me think that he knew something about that town. I thought about it for a time even as we left.
It snapped in my head. I snapped my fingers and pounded a fist on top of my palm. He was from Nibelheim. He said that when we had first met back before Angeal died. Sitting in the truck I glanced over at him. He wasn't wearing a helmet now but he held one in his hands. I turned my head instead to Sephiroth. I moved to sit next to him.
"Hey Seph, you don't happen to have paper and Pencil?" He said nothing when he handed over some. "Awesome think you'll create some outfit designs for when I come back to Midgar. I'm sure I could use some ideas. I put the pencil towards the paper and I froze realizing I didn't know a thing about drawing. So I tried and what was supposed to be Sephiroth looked like a dying cow… almost literally. I blinked and crumpled up the paper before looking up at Sephiroth who hid a grin beneath his long hair. I glared at him irritably. He took to paper and pencil and sketched some outfit out. My eyes grew as big as my fists at least. Sephiroth was amazing at everything.
"I see that you lack creative abilities Evie." I turned my head away glared at the wall. He chuckled from next to me. I swerved my head back to glare at him again this time angrier than before. This only seemed to humor him more. The funnier he thought it was the angrier I got. I tried scooting away from him in the back of the truck but his arm reached out each time to pull me back closer. Which made me even angrier.
The ride to Nibelheim was so long we had to stop halfway there so we could stretch our limbs on the ground. I took full advantage of this time to move as far away from Sephiroth so I could stretch or something like that. It wasn't hard for me to cool down when I walked back to the Truck to see Sephiroth staring off into the distance the sun shining on his face at the most perfect of angles. I smiled to myself and looked to Zack who was disheveled and dirty from a small tussle with Cloud. My face fell and I smashed my gloved hand into my forehead.
I really know how to pick them huh. I smiled to myself as Sephiroth argued with Zack comically about how dirty he was. I walked over and started to pat the dirt off as Sephiroth walked away. "You wouldn't have gotten yelled at if you weren't goofing off. Goof ball." He gave me a small smile and the action made my breathing hard. I stopped after a little and walked inside the Truck casually. Sephiroth beckoned me over and handed me the papers he had been set at work over. There were design ideas. Some Showed more skin than necessary and Seph just smirked at my expressions to those.
I noted how they all had to do with Silver and black design, similar to his. I took a moment out to wonder if there was really something he couldn't do. "Any hair ideas?" he nodded and pull out a paper from the pile in my hand. I neared died right there. He really was amazing at everything. "You sure you don't like little boys or something Seph? I mean, who can do all these things… So… ehgeh." I ended lamely not sure what word I was really looking for, so I ended with a nasty tongue sound effect.
"I am sure Evelia." The tone of voice he spoke in shut my mouth fast, and glued it shut. I sat silently mulling through my favorite outfits. I looked around once in a while, usually to find Zack looking at me. I would smile awkwardly and retreat behind my paper shield. Occasionally I'd stare back for a little wondering if he was really looking at me, but he ended up smirking and looking away fast.
Now that I think about it… me and Zack haven't been all that close… he chatted with Cloud comfortably but as we neared Nibelheim Cloud became more and more anxious about it. Zack was trying to cheer him up. The two weren't as close as me and Zack, but they've been talking more. It made something in my stomach wrench uncontrollably. I still thought Zack as my best friend, but as my feelings have gotten stronger he's been acting stranger. My brain went into overdrive as I thought of the possibility that he would know that I had feelings for him. I felt like I had to puke at the thought of something like that.
I could feel my body slowly stop moving. The group exited the back of the truck easily, and I noticed that for the first time, Cloud had a helmet on. I said nothing as Sephiroth led the way. The two cadets stood in form and Zack walked forward, me a bit behind him. I walked up next to him and we exchanged glances. I did a double take when I notice how our height difference had evaporated. I was nearly his height. I looked back to inspect the town quickly. Something in my body had scanned through the city in a few seconds and I could temporarily locate different people who had high exposure to Mako.
I shook my head and gave a deep breath... Nibelheim. The air here soothed me, and I seemed to be the only one that wasn't tense about what could happen here. The sky was blue like his eyes… At least I had something to stare at when I got bored.
Here we finally got to NIBELHEIM! : D Zack and Evie time people. With some Cloud mixed in. I hope you like the new fun :D