Words: 2,323

There was a dark overcast over the city. Foreboding and mysterious. Evelia stared at the difference the city had undergone since the last time being there. Her expression was stony, the pain of the death lingering resolutely. Time had done nothing to sooth the pain, however revenge didn't seem good enough. How do you take revenge on a corporation that powerful?

She had come to the city solely to search for a head of blonde hair. Cloud had disappeared on her; too distracted by her sorrow to notice his disappearance until he was long gone. She wasn't sure how far behind him she was, or if he could even be found. By the time she had found the strength to move from her spot, the sky was cloudless and no resistance from the army could be found.

She had come from under the plate scouring the sectors with bright eyes. She kept her head ducked to promise that no one would recognize the trademark. Her search had proved unsuccessful, and she continued upwards confused by much of what had become Midgar. She eyed the path to the upper plate, baffled by the construction. There had to be a way up without being so obvious.

Once climbing her way to the upper plate, her eyes roamed once more, the sky black with smog. Her heightened senses heaved violently, coughing as the air choked her. Whatever this was, she decided silently, it was disgusting. Moving between sectors was easy enough, all of her abilities coming together despite how terrible at stealth she was. Her eyes scanned heads, never searching too hard.

"Big city, but there's only one Chocobo head,"she murmured moving on to another sector.

She moved fast, he was no where in sight. Anywhere. Something between fear and irritation filled her.

As she came around to Sector One, she noted how a walkway was taped off, her eyes followed the trail to find a reactor. "This one's down," She recognized it, having fought all around Midgar at one time. "But why?" She swiveled towards mulling citizens and walked up to a man questioning him lightly about the reactor.

Despite being wary of her, something she could tell from both body language and his expressions, he told her what she needed to know. There was someone else out for Shinra, people she had never heard of before or so she thought. The name rang bells however. She nodded her thanks to the man, walking off with her fairly new black cloak billowing behind her.

AVALANCHE. She could have sworn she had heard that name before, she knew she had never encountered anyone from the group, but the name... Her thoughts pried at her brain in search of a spark, only to come up empty. She continued her way, sticking to the shadows rather than walking about. She had been famous in this city once. If it had only been about four or five years, there was a high chance that people would recognize her.

Four years in a test tube Nibelheim had kept her from aging to her proper age of 22. She looked barely twenty still, but even before Nibelheim she had reached the height of her growth. She had inched her way towards nearly six feet, her body towering. Her limbs were long, with well defined muscles.

In seven years, her eyes had yet to change from her glowing Mako blue eyes, if nothing else, this feature worried her the most. SOLDIER trademark meant that people recognized the feature. It was probably why the man from before was so wary of her.

Evelia slowed as she neared a set of buildings that seemed to strike her as familiar, she ran a hand through her lengthy black locks, trying to recognize where she was. A deep exhale escaped her, her head swiveling to try and pinpoint the memories.

She stopped momentarily, realizing that no breeze hit her. Before Nibelheim at least the air wasn't so disgusting. The former SOLDIER brushed at her hair, elbow length at this point. She couldn't keep her search on all night. She paused as the thought crossed her mind, she realized then that she wasn't sure what time it was.

There was a lot of things she wasn't sure about, time seemed minor in comparison to them. Cloud was no where to be find still. Roaming around the city more didn't seem appealing, the air was still bothering her lungs but she didn't exactly have an abundance of money with her.

Fortunately for her SOLDIER clothing was made to last a long time. It was something to cover her skin from the elements, even if she hid herself beneath a long black cloak.

Taking to a dark alley, Evie sat silently, enjoying the moment of rest, her eyes flicking across her gloved hands, the weight of sleep pulling at her eyelids. She had become accustomed to sleeping in unorthodox places, this was no different. As sleep pulled at her, she tried to keep her thoughts quiet.

Her brain betrayed her, flickering back to the reminder of her loss. Shaky breaths escaped her as the same heartbreaking pain rose up until she was crying. Wiping viciously at her tears despite their continuous fall, Evie swore under her breath.

She murmured his name and how much she missed him before finally giving up. She tilted her head back, eyeballing the black sky with wonder. Was he with Angeal now? Or Lazard? The tears stopped, loneliness taking its place. Sleep pulled at her body again, thoughts of Zack drifting to her as she fell asleep.

Evie woke to the sound of a helicopter flying overhead, her eyes fluttering open to snap at the Shinra symbol on its side. It was heading to the center of the city, but she wanted to know where it was flying from. An irritating pain shot up her back as she stood to her feet; a result of napping while sitting up. She gave a long stretch, the pain soothing itself with each pull of her muscles. Pulling her cloak close, Evie left the dark alleyway.

She shifted, her body still not accustomed to the missing weight at her back. Harpenger was gone, the sword would be a dead give away in the city. The weapon had been bought with magical properties over seven years ago, a glowing orange materia had been part of the sword. Evie never knew the details behind the purchase, but it had taken the entirety of her time in SOLDIER to figure out how to use the materia. Her proficiency with it was still fairly low, but the point was to stay out of anyone's notice.

At the thought of it, the orange orb glowed softly from her arm, she pulled her black cloak around her arm tightly, sacrificing the view of her outfit to hide the strange glow until it disappeared. The Materia was something between a summon and an actually materialization of her sword. She could only produce it with the materia at hand. Or something of the sort.

The sound of an explosion hit her ears, everyone around her snapping their attention to it. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, moving between the mulling crowd with ease. Is it too much to ask that I see a head of spiky blonde hair, just once? An irritated grumble left her as she rubbed at her eyes. This search was going to be the end of her.

She didn't know where to look. She wasn't even sure Cloud had made it to the city, but without a corpse laying outside the city, it was all she had. Pursing her lips once, Evie continued her trek hoping for a small sign of him.

Luckily for her, Evie was good at one thing, and that was fighting. This left her with the ability to defend herself, defend others and always have something to do. If there was something people were willing to pay to get rid of, it was the creatures that lurked in the slums. Evie found herself doing the same odd jobs she had done before joining SOLDIER. Simple enough and it left her with gil to eat.

With enough gil to make a few small purchases in the slums; just basic things in shops that were built in shacks. It kept her out of sight of ShinRa and the last thing the people down here would do was help anyone from ShinRa. It was safe, more or less. Safe enough for someone like her at least.

She mulled around, keeping herself out of attention by moving with crowds and keeping her eyes down. Evie followed the crowd path along the grassy underside of the plate. Now equipped with a small bag of gil, Evie let her senses guide her to food. Roaming her way in the sixth Sector, Evie noticed the lively manner that was the sector. The Mansion loomed at the far end, lights led her eyes at the opposite end.

Honey bee Inn. Evie roamed her eyes across the bright lights, shaking her head at the men mulling about. She was gone as soon as she could read the sign. She couldn't remember the Slums being this lively, but the area was better off than some of the other slum areas. She wondered why as she made her way to a food shack. No one questioned her entrance, or her attire. She liked this anonymity. It was nice not to have eyes on you at all times.

Finally full with food, the former SOLDIER left, her heart racing at the sight of bright yellow hair. What confused her was the owner. She had been expecting Cloud, but as people walked around her and the person walked past... They had the spike, but she – he – it was wearing a dress with pigtails and make up on.

The woman moved to intercept the person, but a head of brown hair stopped her. She recognized that face. Aerith was walking with the person that... had Cloud's blonde hair spike. Evie felt herself do a triple take, trying to recognize what she was seeing. The features yelled Cloud, but the dress and hair confused her.

She shook her head, different expression crossing her face at once. She returned to hoping that whatever she saw was just her imagination.

In the days that followed, chaos within the city would ensue, killing numerous people. The dropping of Sector 7 didn't seem like something one group of Anti-Shinra people could handle, but Evie knew the president wasn't against killing people for a larger more selfish purpose. The Wutai War being an example of such a time.

While walking along the upper plate, she paused an odd pain filling her head, stinging and pounding as it went, Evie cringed and gasped as it became searing, but just as it started suddenly, it ended suddenly. Evie remained still waiting for it to return, but when nothing happened, she lifted her head searching for the source. She came up empty handed with no real answer to her troubles. An odd feeling filled her but left no explanation. Whatever it was, it was over now.

Evie had started to even wonder if Cloud was in the city, when she noticed that head of blonde hair again, just outside of Midgar. Having jumped between the top plate and the slums for information, food and to continue her search. She noticed others with his head of hair. Two women, a red cat and a large dark skinned man. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously before trying to hone in on the different figures.

Covered in pink, was a woman with long brown hair. A signature bow in her hair. He had told her once that he liked the idea of seeing Aerith in lots of pink. It surprised her how she had changed her wardrobe in hopes of surprising the passed man. Her heart ached at the thought of him, guilt seeping in at her cowardice of even talking to the woman. In her weeks since arriving, she hadn't gathered up the courage nor the heart to seek her out and tell her the truth about him.

Next to her was a large and tall dark skinned man. From far away, it seemed as if her eyes were deceiving her, but there was no doubt that he had a sort of gun on his hand. Confusion filled her features as she wondered how Cloud got mixed up with him.

To Cloud's left was a familiar long legged woman. A woman, Evie was glad to see alive and well. Tifa was donning a short shirt and an even shorter skirt. Both of the SOLDIER's eyebrows raised as she moved closer towards the group, a barrier blocking them even as she hid in the shadows. Tifa had filled out well, she was busty. Evie felt her gaze rolled down to her own chest, bouncing once with curiosity. She promptly shook her head, Tifa had a way of making Evie feel less... everything. Attractive was definitely at the top of the list. Tifa had grown into herself, curves in all of the right places.

Stopping the flow of thoughts, she eyed the red... creature sitting with them. Her eyes widened as she realized it was talking with them. Evie shrunk from view muttering about how much of an idiot Cloud was for mixing himself up with two of the craziest people... creatures she had ever seen. A red talking feline and a dark- skinned hun hand man. Even worse, he dragged Aerith and Tifa along for the ride.

"Leave the bugger alone for a few days and this is what he does," she growled softly. Her worry for him was gone, the Buster sword was safe at his back and he looked healthier than ever. Now she just needed to find out what he was up to.

So I decided to try this in third person point of view, since Evie's nature has gotten more quiet, there's more to describe around her. (I just had to add the bit with Cloud cross-dressing, I couldn't stop myself)

I could just as easily keep you inside her head. I'm debating on which style to have it be for the sequel. Throw me your opinions.

I'm working on the AU, which will be in first person. My favorite times are when my muse keeps me up all night and I have to type or I go nuts. I'll be honest, I'm a stickler when it comes to how canon a story is. Even with an OC, I have stupid high standards. This prompted me to mull around the AU stories and kind of absorb that mindset.

The sequel, as mentioned before is currently in third person, and I'm still deciding on which route to take with it. It kind of picks up in it's own place, a little further in the story line. Partly for anyone who might be new more than anything. Evie is the type of lady who doesn't need a guy in her life for any reason specifically. She still hasn't found her brother. -casually coughs; Eventually she's going to warm up to a new guy, any guesses on who?

However, here's a little edited snippet:

Evelia had known Reeve since her time in SOLDIER. She had been assigned to a few of his missions for his Urban development, met him once or twice because of them. That time seemed like so long ago, and she hadn't been awake for four years of it. She could only imagine what it must feel like for him.

What surprised her was how he had recognized her roaming the streets, dared to approach her, then ask her questions she wasn't willing to answer. Threatening his life did nothing, considering he had called her out on her bluff. She wouldn't kill Reeve, and he had known that.

Now, Reeve helped her more than she could help him. He was an inside source to everything going on in ShinRa and now he had even figure out a way to keep an eye on Cloud without her needing to confront anyone. Reeve insisted that she would be able to help more than he could later on. Sephiroth was back and soon he - Reeve - wouldn't be able to do much, but Evie could. Despite her insisting that she wouldn't be able to.

She remembered his words and even now they rung in her thoughts, The only time you wouldn't be helpful was when the world finally knows peace. World peace isn't on the horizon just yet, not with ShinRa still around. ShinRa owned an entire city, if that wasn't power... then what was.

"Explain to me how this will help," she murmured, her eyes glancing to the device in her hands. Technologically inept was an accurate term for the SOLDIER. Take out a few men? Sure. Jump thirty or more feet into the air? You got it. Destroy the massive summon creature? No problem. Cleave that man in two? Already done. Answer the phone? Okay. Set up this machinery? You wish.

"Have a little faith," he muttered back softly. Evie's eyes darted around cautiously.

"What if-"

Reeve cut her off, "A few simple cords. I added instructions and labels for you." A smile pulled at her lips, despite herself; the thought of Zack swallowing the urge up quickly.