A floor above where Hein stood, Teri watched on from her own window with disgust. When SOLDIER was the most powerful force on the planet, battles were fought on the ground, face to face. She prided herself in being part of a program that would minimize civilian casualties during times of war, shedding excess blood only when there was no other alternative. Now...now that the most powerful Firsts have gone, SOLDIER is still powerful, but Shinra felt the need to resort to drastic measures to quash their enemies. They still had good men in their ranks, though. Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal...<i>there are more of us who can fight for you!</i>Teri punched the glass angrily, leaving a webbed crack where her fist made contact. "Just to destroy a small group of terrorists, you have to snuff out the lives of so many? Why couldn't you have just sent me!" She screamed into the air, her words reaching nobody. Tears fell and, before she knew better, so did her entire body as she slid to the ground. She curled up against the wall below the window, weeping silently in the empty hallway just outside the Training Room.<br/><br/>She pictured her mentor staring at her with disappointment, but also with empathy. If he was here, if any of them were here, none of this would have happened. Guilt filled her, wishing she had done something, said something, volunteered herself, anything.<i>Any one of them would have if they were me right now. Why didn't I? They always spoke of SOLDIER honor. Where has that honor gone?</i>A flash of silver flickered across her mind. Immediately attributing it to Sephiroth, she got up from where she lay, and headed into the training room.<i>It's your fault. </i>Starting a program from her flip phone, the room changed to emulate the slums that had just been demolished. Standing at its center was the Silver General himself. "IT'S YOUR FAULT!" She screamed, tears streaking down her cheeks as she rushed the hologram with her katana, unsheathing it from her belt and slicing through nothing. The program flickered as it turned to look at her. She turned to look back at him. A smug smirk was plastered across his face, the very same he would always give her whenever she stumbled or messed up, as if her failures amused him. That's what she thought it was, anyway. Her blood boiling again, she rushed once more, striking the air over and over and over again, screaming at the emptiness that filled her. The hologram flickered with each strike, until the very last one, it shifted slightly as Teri stared with blurred vision, whimpering when the image briefly morphed into somebody else: a similar face, but more youthful, shorter hair, wearing nothing but simple rags.<br/><br/>"What...." She whispered as she tried to blink the tears away to see more clearly, but when her eyes focused again, she saw only the leather-clad general. She sighed again, wiping her nose on her sleeve and flipping open her phone to end the program. The picture of the slums melted away around her in a cloud of blue coding, leaving Sephiroth to be the last one to disappear. She stared into his eyes, whispering, "You were my only friend..." She gripped her katana and threw it at the ground below the silhouette that still remained before everything had shut down completely, and walked out, forcing herself to regain her composure before heading to her room.<br/><br/>-------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>Meanwhile, back at the playground, Rauly and Shio rolled onto the ground with Lucien, dust and dirt billowing around them as they tumbled. Coughing, Shio was the first to stand up, when she felt her phone going off in her pocket. Wiping herself off, she looked to see it was Hein. Still coughing, she answered it, "H-Hey *cough**cough*...what's up?" She tried to say nonchalantly, acting as if everything were cool, but whatever illusion she was hoping to give was immediately broken as she ended her question with one loud hack of a cough. Rauly just stared up at her, not moving from the ground, still trying to figure out how somebody of Lucien's size could not only be able to lift him, but a whole other person as well at the same time.  He glanced over at him, cheek in the dirt, and eyebrows tilted. "No, no, we're fiiiine. It's cooool. I've got Rauly here with me, and some other dude. Strong as hell sort of fucker." She also looked at him with a similar expression as the one Rauly is giving him. She sighed before turning away, "I know...we...I failed." Turning her attention to the hot rubble that now blocked the way into Sector 7, "everybody else is safe. As soon as you gave me the message that Corneo was evacuating his guys, I made sure to do the same for ours. I got as many civilians as possible out as well, but there were few who were....well...stubborn. I couldn't help everybody....." her expression filled with melancholy, she responded, "....thank you." Though it didn't sound quite as sincere as she was hoping as she shut her phone.<br/><br/>Seeing his friend so sad, Rauly finally switched his attention to her. Getting up and dusting himself off, he walked over and rest an arm around her shoulders, whispering, "It's okay, Shiana."<br/><br/>"Don't call me that." Normally she would give Rauly a death glare for using her full name, but she was too depressed. Even her reprimand was quite in volume.<br/><br/>"Sorry...but you did more than I could have ever done. I was a complete idiot. You didn't fail this mission...I did."<br/><br/>Shio shrugged his arm off her shoulders, "you didn't press the button." She walked over to the slide and climbed atop it, sitting on the cat's head and hugged her legs to her chest, leaning her forehead against her knees to hide her face. Rauly just looked at her, unsure of how to move forward from there.