Final Fantasy VII 1. Chapter 1

_It was a grey day—one much like any other spring day in Midgar's Edge. It bordered just on the edge of rain; the clouds hanging densely over the broken skyline that had once been the great city of Midgar. Most of the inhabitants of Edge wrapped their coats just a little closer and kept their heads down as they trudged to work, aside from the occasional peak at the sky to see if it had decided to spit its chilling showers again._

_Through the streets of Edge, there wandered a woman. She was bundled up in as many layers at the other denizens of the city and more yet she still shook terribly. Her legs, clothed in heavy black pants, looked spindly between her chunky black work boots and the puffy result of coat layered on jacket layered on sweater. Her hands, covered in black gloves, fumbled to rearrange her scarf even as she shook. On her head, a black knit cap was pulled down low to cover her ears. Between the scarf and the hat, a pair of black, black glasses covered her eyes. What little skin showed between the clothes was bone white._

_The woman bumbled her way down the street, managing not to run into anybody. Her steps were slow and her head was turned down even more than the others. She never once glanced to the heavens to check for rain._

_Eventually, trembling badly, she had to stop. She leaned for support on a wall near a door. Sensing the hot air coming from the edges of the door, she turned her face to it and breathed deeply through her scarf. A gust of cold wind came dancing down the street and the woman convulsed. She ran her gloved fingers along the door until she found its handle. Tentatively, she tugged at the handle. It gave a little, so she tugged harder. To her surprise, the door swung open. She hesitated for maybe a second, then slipped inside and pulled the door shut behind her._

_Yuffie Kisaragi was surprised to see the woman, dressed all in black, slip into the 7th Heaven Bar. She'd thought she'd heard something, so she'd been watching the door. She'd expected it to be the wind, maybe an animal of some sort at best. She'd actually been hoping for an animal, so she could chase it away and claim to have rescued the bar from wild animals._

_Even expecting something, the woman had been surprise enough to nearly knock Yuffie off her stool. It didn't take long, however, for Yuffie to take in the woman's forlorn appearance. She might once have been a tall, strong woman but now she was so stooped and bent that her original height couldn't be calculated. Her shivers were almost convulsions and she had to wait for them to subside a little to be able to move out of the entrance way. When she finally did take her first few shuffling steps toward the interior of the bar, it was too painful for Yuffie to watch._

_Yuffie bolted from her seat crying, "Woah, woah, woah!" She grabbed the woman's arm, dragging her across the bar almost faster than the poor woman's stumbling steps could take her, even with Yuffie's assistance. Yuffie plopped the woman down in a seat. "What do you think you're doing, Grandma?"_

_The woman carefully readjusted her scarf, lest too much of her face be uncovered. She tilted her head to the left, then slid her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She said nothing._

_"I SAID, GRANDMA WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Yuffie repeated louder. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, wondering if the woman hadn't heard her the first time and feeling vaguely proud that she was helping a woman who, in her estimation, would have been completely helpless if not for her._

_"Yes, yes, I heard you, child," the woman answered. The words sounded old to Yuffie, but the woman's voice did not. It did not sound harsh or rough like and over worked mother who finally wore down into a tired grandmother. It sounded tired and bitter and completely out of hope, like someone who had looked for too long to learn that they would never find what they sought. Strangely, too, she sounded softly like a young woman on the last edge of heartbreak, not wanting to let it go but so tired of the pain. She rubbed her eyes behind her glasses, then shook her head. "There's no reason to shout."_

_"Oh," Yuffie said, rather put out, her shoulders beginning to sag. "So... What did you think you were doing?"_

_"Going to get a drink." The woman cocked her head up at an angle that would have been jaunty, if Yuffie had been two inches taller than she was. "I may be dying, but that's no reason to deny me that, now is it?"_

_Yuffie swallowed hard. "Well, uhm, no. I guess... But the bar isn't open yet."_

_"Oh?" The woman turned her head away from Yuffie. "I suppose not. I'm sorry for bothering you." She rose to leave._

_"Don't go, Grandma!" Yuffie jumped in the woman's path to stop her._

_"Why not?" The woman tilted her head, eerily expressionless behind scarf and dark glasses._

_"Well..." Yuffie stalled. "You don't look so well! Are you sure you'll be all right?"_

_"You want me to stay so you won't feel guilty about sending me out to die?" The woman shook her head slowly._

_"That sounds awful!" Yuffie cried, but the woman merely shrugged._

_"There are many things in the word which are awful. Still, we live with them for many years before anything is done to right those things. I'm not offended if I was right." She returned to her seat and shucked her hands of their gloves. She rubbed her long, bony fingers together, working heat into the pallid skin that was crossed with webs of white scars._

_"Wow, what happened to you?" Yuffie asked in quiet surprise as she took a seat of her own._

_"It's a long story, involving many bad things," the woman answered._

_"It's a long time 'til the 7th Heaven opens," Yuffie countered, not really sure where the retort had come from, but thankful for it all the same._

_"Which reminds me," the woman said, "why was the door unlocked if the bar isn't open?"_

_"Don't answer her question," an astute voice from behind said. "She's trying to misdirect you."_

_"Hello," the woman said, unsurprised as Shelke Rui stepped around the corner._

_"I'd like to hear your story as well," Shelke said, pulling up a chair of her own._

_The woman was silent for a long moment and Yuffie almost thought she wasn't going to tell the story after all, but then she sighed. "Very well, but you'll have to be patient with a tired old woman like me."_


	2. Chapter 2

The city in which I was born had a history that stretched back into antiquity. It survived countless centuries. Today, unfortunately, it no longer exists. You will find it on no modern map. Surprisingly, though, it was included on every map only thirty years ago.

The city's name was Iscalis, but I doubt either of you are old enough for that to mean anything to you. It was located in a valley deep in the mountains of the western continent. It remained isolated until the 1938, when the Shinra came. Back then the company was still ShinRa Manufacturing.

There is no record of how the Shinra found out about our little city—they were very vague about that when they came. They showed the people their wares and told of how much easier life would be if only they allowed the Shinra to set up shop in their city. The people were entirely convinced but the officials governing the city were much more wary. They politely declined the Shinra's offer and asked them to be on their way. The move wasn't popular with the people and, two years later, the Shinra were invited back.

At first, things went incredibly well. It was during that time when my mother and her best friend both fell in love with and married men who worked for the Shinra. It worked out better for my mother than for her friend, but that's another story.

Things began to go sour for the Shinra in Iscalis in late 1948. Local businesses, businesses that had been around for generations began failing because they couldn't keep up. People became angry that their friends and neighbours were going out of business. Honestly, it was a bit foolish because the people failed to see that they were the ones running the businesses into the ground by buying ShinRa goods.

Things started to go poorly for my family because my father worked for the Shinra. Luckily, they offered to transfer my father to another division because of his good work for the company. My mother didn't want to leave her home town, though. They fought over it for months. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that my mother, pregnant with me at the time, was in no condition to move. The offer was too good, however, to pass up. My father would accept the offer and go live where he worked. He would come back for holidays. When my mother felt that she was up for the move, we would move to live with him.

It sounded like a good plan, but my mother never did feel up to the move, not even years after I was born. Somehow, though, it worked out for us. My two elder brothers and I, we never saw much of our father but we never doubted him. He always came back for the holidays like her promised, and he wrote to us often in between. He was a good father and we never wanted for anything.

Our mother was good to us, too. Unfortunately, everyone thought she was crazy. She dabbled in science, perhaps dabbled is putting it lightly, at a time when women weren't encouraged to have jobs at all. She had a laboratory in our basement and the results of her experiments often ended up as our abnormal pets. There were rumours that she used my brothers and I for experiments, but that was a blatant lie.

Next door to us was the house where our mother's best friend had lived with her husband. She had always been a sickly girl and she had died in childbirth. Her husband had left with their son shortly thereafter, but he'd never sold the house. When I was five, the poor widower sent his new wife and his son back to the house. He, himself, rarely returned. I remember my mother telling my brothers and I to play with the boy, but we almost never did because he almost never let us. He was a strange, quiet boy and I didn't get to know him well until I was much older.

As for the Shinra, they abandoned manufacturing for electricity by the time I was ten and ceased to be a danger to the local businesses. The people of Iscalis were less than forgiving, however, and when the Shinra turned their base into an airport to be a way-station, the area around their airport was almost instantly abandoned by the "good" people. By the time I left Iscalis, the entire southern border of the city was a massive slum, and the airport was situated at the centre of it.


	3. Chapter 3

I mentioned the boy who lived next door to me. The shy and quiet one. His name was Vincent and he was the same age as me. We went to the same school and were in the same class every year. Still, I knew almost nothing about him.

What I did know about him were simple facts that almost anyone else who lived near him could know. His mother had died giving birth to him. His father was never around and he lived with his step-mother, who quickly earned herself a title that did not please most of the housewives in the area. As for his appearance... He rarely went outdoors, so his skin was quite fair. In fact, his skin was fair enough to make the girls in our class jealous. His hair was thick and dark and cut into the typical style for schoolboys in those days. His eyes were probably his most striking feature and also the feature most easily made fun of. The only other person I've ever seen to have eyes like Vincent's was his father. You see, his eyes were brilliantly red.

By the time we were fifteen, Vincent was probably the most awkward person in our school. He was naturally shy, which led for him to be mistaken as cold. He kept his eyes lowered so as to not attract the attention of the bullies, but it often led to him tripping or running into things because he wasn't looking where he was going. That fuelled a misconception that he was clumsy, when he actually wasn't. On top of that, he had recently had a growth spurt that had left him both taller than everyone in our class and too skinny and lanky for his height.

I found myself feeling sorry for Vincent when I thought about him. Sadly, I didn't think about him much. I wasn't planning on making friends with the friendless boy, either. I wasn't popular enough to get away with befriending the least popular kid in school. The only reason I wasn't mocked, myself, was because my two older brothers were intimidation enough to keep the bullies away. I wasn't sure that it would stay that way if I chose "bad" friends and I wasn't eager to find out.

Of course, I would find out in the end. I wouldn't waste my time telling you about Vincent if he didn't play a major part in my tale.

It happened on a Wednesday night. I'd left school with the full intention of putting off my homework. There wasn't much of it and I wasn't in the mood to do it. I'd been in the bathroom and overheard some girls talking jealously about how my rich daddy from the Shinra gave me everything I wanted and how I was a spoiled brat. It wasn't true and, usually, I wouldn't let it get to me but for some reason it made me feel miserable and I couldn't stop.

I didn't want to go home. I loved my family but we had nothing in common. Well... I had nothing in common with my family. My eldest brother, Tommin, took after my mother with an intense affinity for science. My second brother, Victoire, took after my father with shrewd business skills and the personality to match. I, personally, didn't know what I liked but it certainly wasn't biology like my mother and Tom or business like my father and Vic. Usually, I put up with their interests with good humour but, again, I wasn't in my usual mood.

I trudged on down the street, ignoring where I had to turn to get to my house. I was still dressed for school and I was still carrying my books, but I didn't care. I kept on walking until the houses didn't look familiar any more and I didn't recognize any of the street names. I kept walking even then then.

When I was too tired to walk any more, I found myself in a park. This park was nothing like the park near my house where the grass was neatly trimmed and pretty young mothers played with their neatly dressed children. Actually, I didn't see any children playing in this park. There were only dirty people milling around. The more I looked, the more I noticed that the buildings around me were in shambles, everything was in shambles. At some point I'd crossed over into the slums of the city. Suddenly, I was very frightened.

I'd walked for a very long time. The sun was starting to go down. I didn't know my way back home. Everyone around me suddenly looked very menacing. I turned around several times, trying to remember where I'd come from, but only succeeded in getting myself more lost.

Uncertain of what to do, I collapsed to my knees in the grass and then sat down. I hugged my books to my chest and I began to cry. I was certain something terrible was going to happen to me.

Through my tears and my fear, I then heard somebody say my name. Surprised, I rubbed wildly at my eyes and looked around for the person who had spoken. He wasn't far off, pushing himself away from the tree that he leaned on. At first, he looked like any other scruffy young man in the park but then I recognized Vincent.

"What are you doing here?" he asked me. By the time I had my wits about me enough to answer, he was kneeling beside me and neatly re-stacking my school books for me. He helped me to my feet and handed my books back to me. "This isn't a good part of town. You really should be going back home."

"B-b-but I don't know how to get home," I said, humiliated that my voice shook.

"Of course not," Vincent sighed and took the books back from me.

"What'cha doin', Vince?" called one of the other young men standing around the tree from where Vincent had come.

"Nothing," Vincent called back. "I'm gonna go home early tonight."

"Goin' with the girly?" called another of the young men. None of those standing around the tree could have been much older than Vincent and I but they were nothing like the people I knew at school. They frightened me and the fact that Vincent knew them frightened me, too.

"Shut up!" Vincent called to them, to me he said, "Ignore them. They talk tougher than they are. They won't follow us. I'll walk you home."

Despite my new-found inhibitions about Vincent, I had no choice. He knew the way home and I didn't. I had to walk with him whether I wanted to or not.

We walked in silence for a ways, then Vincent said, "Please don't tell anyone about me going to the slums. It isn't that I care what they think, but they might tell my step-mother and she will tell my father. I don't want him to know. I don't care what he thinks, either, but he might make us move and...I like it here."

It was more words than I'd ever heard Vincent put together before and the sentiment shocked me so much that I stopped walking. "You _like _it here?" I asked. "But at school... I mean, I didn't think you'd like it here."

"It's better than living in Shinra living quarters," Vincent answered. "My father has to be near his laboratory at all times or he thinks he does, at least. That means he has to live in the living quarters near where he works. I was very young when we still lived there but I remember that I didn't like it."

"Oh," I answered, not really knowing what to say. My father lived in Shinra provided living quarters to keep costs low so that he could send as much of his money home to us as possible. I didn't know much about the living quarters, but my father always said that he liked them well enough. He could have been lying so we didn't worry or the living quarters just weren't a good place for children. "But... If you like it here so much, why jeopardize it by making such dangerous friends?"

"They aren't bad people," Vincent answered. "They just like to act tough. They're the children of the people who work at the Shinra's airport and such. Besides, they don't tease me because I'm different." I watched Vincent in silence. I'd stopped under a street light, but he'd walked a few steps further before stopping and was cloaked in the shadows of the buildings that lined the street. Dusk had set in and full dark wasn't far behind. "And I know what you're thinking, that my eyes aren't that bad. They aren't, really, but add to that what their parents must say about my family... My dead mother, my father who works for the Shinra, my step-mother... But I didn't mean to say all this to you. You and your brothers have been kind to me."

"Oh, it wasn't anything," I murmured. I meant it. We hadn't done anything. We didn't tease him like others did, but we didn't help him either. I felt guilty about that now, for the first time. It was the first time I'd stopped to think about it. I started to walk so I wouldn't have to think about it any longer.

"You're going the wrong way," Vincent said as I walked past him and crossed the street. I quickly turned around and followed him down a corner I couldn't remember turning on my way to the park the first time.

We walked in silence for most of the rest of the way home. When we were almost there, though, I said, "You're a good person, Vincent. I can see that, now. But if you continue spending time with the wrong people, nobody else will." Then I scurried down the street and up the path to my house.


	4. Chapter 4

It is possible that if I hadn't met Vincent that night, I would still be living in Iscalis. Iscalis would still be on the map, perhaps. It's even possible that Sephiroth would never have existed. But that's all conjecture and it isn't what happened.

Of course, I was in trouble for staying out so late and I was worried about the effects my words might have had on Vincent. I was worried he'd be angry with me and that he and his scary friends would come hunt me down.

If he was angry, though, he didn't show it the next morning when he returned the books I'd left with him. After that, it seemed that things had gone back to normal. He kept to himself, I kept to myself, the rest of the world turned around without either of us. After school, though, everything changed.

When class was dismissed, Vincent was usually the first person out of the classroom. Nobody knew how he got to the door so quickly, but it was an accepted fact that no one would be out the door before Vincent. I was usually the last one to leave the classroom. I waited for the crowds to clear, then calmly collected my things and left.

That day, Vincent waited for me.

"I thought I'd walk you home so that you wouldn't get lost again," he said, the strangest little grin playing across his face. Vincent was never one to smile much, and he never would be even later on, but I maintain to this day that his smiles were the most beautiful and refreshing smiles I've ever seen.

It would be years before I realized that Vincent had probably developed a crush for me the night he'd walked me home from the park but it would only be a few months before I succumbed to his quiet charm and came to love him back.

"_Hang on, Grandma," Yuffie said, crossing her arms. "That's not the end of the story. You're only, what, fifteen or sixteen there? You can't tell me everything turned out all happy for you. If it did, then why's you city gone? Why are you sitting in this bar, dying? Where's Vincent? And I'm pretty sure you said something about Sephiroth in there, so 'fess up!" _

"_I never said it was the end of the story," the woman replied. "I was just letting my voice rest. I haven't spoken this much in a long, long time."_

"_Something bad is about to happen, isn't it?" Shelke asked. _

_The woman laughed humourlessly. "Something bad always happens when everything is good. It seems to be the law of life. The good die young, right? And, you're right, I did say something about Sephiroth but patience is a virtue. All things come with time."_

"_And what about Vincent?" Yuffie demanded._

"_What about Vincent?" the woman responded._

"_We know a Vincent who is about the right age with red eyes-" Shelke began._

"_It's not him," the woman answered, cutting her off. "The Vincent I knew died many years ago. No matter how unlikely it is that your Vincent is the right age and has the right eye colour, it's the only explanation."_

"_Oh... I'm sorry," Yuffie said, regretting that she'd even began to ask about the Vincent from the story. _

"_It's quite all right. It has been many years." The woman rubbed her scarred hands together for warmth. "Now, where was I?" _

"_You'd just fallen in love with...Vincent," Yuffie answered, tentative about saying Vincent's name after the discussion they'd just had._

"_If it really was love," the woman said wistfully. "There are many who believe there's no such thing as love between teenagers."_


	5. Chapter 5

In the spring of 1969, Vincent and I graduated from school. It was time to start thinking about our futures. For me, there wasn't much to think about. I could go to some university in a city far away, but what for? Unless I had an undying passion for something, it would be hard for me to become anything other than a secretary. I didn't have an undying passion for anything and I didn't want to be a secretary. I'd ruled out higher education quite quickly. It was said that women were getting ahead in the world, but that was in big cities, supported by the Shinra. The Shinra supported any movement that helped them gain power. In my city, there wasn't any of that new sort of thinking. My plan was simple. I would get married young and be a housewife.

As for Vincent's plan... I didn't know what it was. It made me rather sad because my own plan wasn't so hard to guess and everyone knew Vincent was part of the plan. We'd been going steady for three years by then and we got along so well that everyone assumed we'd get married. Since Vincent played such a major role in my plan for the future, it made me feel a bit lonely that I didn't know about his.

When I finally did learn his plan, I wished I'd never wanted to hear it in the first place or, rather, I wished he'd never made it in the first place.

"I want to work for the Shinra," he told me. If I'd thought Vincent was joking I would have laughed, but I could tell that he was dead serious.

"Are you going to move?" I asked because it was my first thought. Rather, it was my reaction to my first thought. I was thinking about how much everyone hated the Shinra and how much we'd suffered because of it.

"I don't know," he said, looking everywhere but into my eyes. "I don't...want to." He looked at me briefly, then down at his hands. "There are things here that I don't want to leave."

I couldn't quite flatter myself by thinking I was one of those things. Maybe I didn't trust him enough. Maybe I felt guilty about not trusting him. Either way, all I could say was, "You don't...seem like much of a businessman, Vincent."

Vincent's eyes flicked up to me for a moment in surprise. "Business? No. I couldn't..." He shook his head. We both knew he didn't have enough tact to make it far as a businessman. "There's a group, maybe you heard of them... The Turks."

I had heard of them from my father. The Turks. It was the nickname for the Investigation Sector from the General Affairs Department. It was the name that was more popular than their real title even then. The only positive thing I'd ever heard about the Turks was their dedication to work. Which wasn't positive when their work was what it was.

"You're mad," I breathed, unable to give any force to my voice.

"I might not make it as a Turk," Vincent assured me. "I'll have to join the military first and if they see promise, they'll recruit me. But... The Turks are my ultimate goal."

"But even if you don't make it, you'll still be stuck a soldier," I pointed out. "What then?"

"It's what I want to do with my life," was all Vincent said.

Who knows where the argument would have gone if I'd been able to retort. But I wasn't.

Even as we'd been arguing, the air in the room had been heating up more than it should have, even if I was angry. When I opened my mouth, I was stifled, I couldn't breathe. My stomach was weak. There was bile at the back of my throat. I bolted for the nearest bathroom.

It would be terribly embarrassing to have to say that I got sick because of what Vincent told me. Thankfully, I'll never have to say that. I was genuinely ill and that is the truth. I felt as though I were hanging on the edge of life and death for the next week. I was repeatedly assured that this was not the case and looking back I believe it _was_ a bit of an exaggeration.

I was well in time to see Vincent off. It wasn't a terribly emotional goodbye. There were no tears. Almost no words passed between us. We didn't have anything to say to each other. Maybe we kissed goodbye, I don't know. If we did, it wasn't spectacular enough for me to remember.

Once Vincent was gone, I collapsed. I fell to my knees right in the middle of the airport. I didn't cry—I just didn't have the strength to stand up any longer. Almost immediately, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up hesitantly and saw the panicked expression on a young airsailor's face.

"Are you all right?" he asked me, speaking very well for a sailor. I only nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I was afraid I might start crying if I explained everything that had happened. "Let's get you inside," was his answer to my silence. He helped me up and walked me to a nearby diner where we sat down and he bought me some of that wretched coffee that all airsailors seem to drink.

He talked to me for hours, distracting me, and succeeding until he was missed and summoned back to the work he'd abandoned. He called himself Audrey (to this day, I'm not sure if that's his first name or his last) and he was very young indeed, only two years older than I. He wasn't anything like Vincent and I liked that about him.


	6. Chapter 6

"_And she never saw Vincent again..." Yuffie supplied, almost dreamily. She was more of a romantic than she would have liked to admit._

"_What?" the woman asked. "Of course, I saw Vincent again after that. Many times in fact."_

"_But he died..." Yuffie protested weakly._

"_Ten years later," the woman replied. _

"_But it sounds better..."_

"_So it does," the woman said. "It would have made for a much cleaner ending, too. But life isn't clean or nice. It doesn't sound good. But that's what _all_ the tragedies say..."_

As much fun as I may have had talking to that airsailor the day that Vincent left, I couldn't tell you that everything went back to being normal and say the truth. I was angry with Vincent, to be sure. I was outraged that he'd gone and made a decision that crushed my dreams without consulting me. Not that I'd been overly vocal about said dreams. But that wasn't everything. I was lonely, too. I was lonelier than I'd been in a long time.

At first, I locked myself in my room. I stayed in bed all day and brooded over my anger and my loneliness. I'd sleep during the day and wake up at night. I was alone with my thoughts and the darkness lent itself to my melancholy.

One night, and I remember this clearly, one night I woke up and I was angry. I wasn't angry at Vincent. I was angry at myself. That night something in my personality came to life and it's refused to die down since.

I was angry at myself for being weak. I was angry at myself for being upset. Vincent had left me without a care so why should I care so much as to mope for so long? Why did I have to stop living just because he wasn't there? We weren't tied together, two parts of one whole. That was all too apparently clear. I could live my own life. I could do whatever I pleased.

I thought then of the red-haired airsailor, Audrey. He was so care-free and happy. He was also funny and good-looking. I wanted very badly to see him again. I wanted to learn from him how to take control of my life, a life that had generally been very clearly laid out for me, despite occasional bouts of rebellion.

The next morning I was awake and out of the house long before anyone else. It was too early for how late I'd stayed up but I was energized by my new perspective on life. I marched right down to the slums of the city, less afraid of its denizens than I'd ever been before. I searched for the diner and it didn't take me long to find it, close as it was to the airport. I plopped down in one of the booths, ordered some coffee and waited.

Audrey didn't come.

Of course, Audrey didn't come. He was an airsailor. He flew from one side of the world to the other every week. He never slept in the same town twice. He was an adventurer. I came up with all sorts of romantic ideas about Audrey's life while I waited for his airship to return.

About three weeks into my wait, a woman in the uniform of the diner's waitresses approached me. She was off duty. I could tell because of the way she accessorized her uniform to make it look less like a uniform and more like something she'd actually wear. She was probably on her way home.

"You're a pretty girl," she told me. "Are you waiting for your boyfriend?"

I laughed. "Oh no."

"You come here every day," she continued. "I know it's not really any of my business, but...why?"

"I'm waiting for a teacher," I answered.

"Do you want to earn some money while you wait?"

"What?" The question honestly took me by surprise.

"My sister owns this place with her husband," the waitress explained. "They were a little shorthanded, so I offered to work here for a while. Now, I can't keep working here. I'm moving to Midgar in the spring and I need someone to take my place. Nobody seems to want to be down here except...you. I was wondering if you might be interested. You're already here every day, after all."

At first, I was sceptical. I didn't particularly want to work and, in those days, a woman didn't have to work. Then, I decided that she was right. I was there every day and earning money was better than spending money. I determined that it would be my first step in living my own life.

It really was my first step in creating my own life, it turned out. The moment my father learned where I was working, probably through Vic, he ordered me to either quit the job or cut contact with the family. It was a form of scare tactics that didn't work well because he was almost never home and my mother refused to enforce his decree. That meant, though, that if I didn't want to lie about my place of employment, I had to leave the house whenever my father was in town.

One month after beginning work at the diner, Audrey's ship returned. He sauntered into the diner as I was bringing food to an older airman. I recognized him at once. How could I not? His hair alone was like a beacon and his carefree attitude was what had drawn me back to the diner in the first place. He must have seen and recognized me as well because he froze for a moment before turning and taking a seat at the counter where he wouldn't be served by me.

"Well," he said loudly as I passed by on my way to the kitchen, "I see you've hired my little Bird."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Why you-!" I choked—turning and raising my tray as if I would hit him over the head with it. Who knows, maybe I would have.

"No disrespect meant, Missy!" he laughed as he ducked, not really afraid of my blow.

I was admonished immediately and I knew why. I ducked my head, shoved my tray under my arm, and shuffled into the kitchen to rethink my manner of responding to guests when they were inappropriate. I was satisfied to hear Audrey also being chided for his behaviour on the other side of the wall.

"I wasn't tryin' to flirt with 'er, honest," I could hear Audrey try to defend himself on the other side. Boss could hear him from the grill and chuckled quietly to himself.

"You be careful, now Miss Claudie," Boss's wife, Mama, told me. We called her Mama because she treated all of the employees like her children, even when she wasn't old enough to be our mother. "Them boys, they like you and them boys is wolves."

I didn't really take Mama's warning to heart. I wasn't looking for a relationship at the moment, not with what had happened with Vincent. I wasn't even sure what to do about Vincent. I hadn't had contact with him for more than two months already. I considered the relationship over but I didn't know if he felt the same way.

I should have been more concerned when I found that Audrey had waited for my shift to end. He hopped off his stool as I was leaving and followed me out of the diner.

"I didn't actually think I'd get to see you again, Bird," he said once we were outside.

"Don't call me that!" I complained.

"What? I think it's a nice name," he said defensively. "It's better than Claudie, at any rate."

"It's short for Claudia," I protested.

Audrey made a face. "Even worse."

"Hey!" I smacked him hard on the shoulder.

"Oi!" he cried, ducking. "An' I was gonna show you the airships an' everything."

I had been intending on hitting him again but, when he said that, I lowered my hand. "Really?"

"Yeah," he answered. "You said how much you liked them, I figured why not? Jus'," he looked at me warily, "Jus' don't get too excited, okay?"

I promised that I wouldn't get too excited or touch anything or make a nuisance out of myself and Audrey decided to trust me. He took me back to the part of the airport where normal civilians almost never got to go. It was greasy and dirty but, somehow, I loved it.

Audrey still had work to do, so I promised not to get in trouble or stray too far from where he was working, and I went exploring a little. When I came back, Audrey was working on some little device I knew almost nothing about. I leaned close over his shoulder and started at the device.

"Shouldn't that go there?" I asked and pointed to a bolt that was attached in what I thought looked like the wrong place. Audrey, absorbed in his work, only grunted. The more I stared at it, the more I became convinced that the bolt was in the wrong place. "Audrey, shouldn't you at least look at it?" I asked. Audrey's reaction was delayed, but he did eventually look at the bolt.

"You're right," he said in amazement after a short assessment of the bolt. He switched the bolt's position and went back to work.

After I'd done similar feats several times, Audrey was amazed but also a little annoyed.

"How do you do that?" he asked, eyebrows pulled together just enough to crease his forehead.

"I don't know," I answered with a shrug. "It just doesn't look right to me. I don't know much about mechanics. Am I doing something wrong?"

Audrey only shook his head.


	7. Chapter 7

"_Your name's Claudie?" Yuffie asked, just then realizing that she'd never asked about the woman's name._

"_Yes," the woman replied. "It's short for Claudia. I was Claudia Thorne."_

"_Was?" Shelke asked._

"_I haven't gone by that name for many years. I am now known as Roselyn Krayne. I'd prefer it if you used that name."_

"_I'll call you Grandma Rose, then," Yuffie decided._

_The woman laughed sadly and shook her head. "If that's what pleases you. Now shall I return to my tale?"_

A year after I'd begun working at the diner, I was already six months into another part-time job. It wasn't a real job and I didn't actually have a position on the airport staff but I was the local "consulting mechanic". During the six months when I helped the airsailors, I learned a lot about mechanics and gained the ability to explain why I was right. I was popular enough that I maintained a steady income from that job even though I was always paid under the table.

I'm not sure whether Audrey found this annoying or endearing. I'm not sure whether I cared even though I'd become quite attached to the young airsailor. He'd moved to a different airship, one that was often in our area. He'd show up every couple of weeks and hang around the diner as long as he could without shirking his duties. When I was done with my shift at the diner, I'd go find him down at the airport and we'd chat when neither of us was too busy for conversation. He still called me Bird, but I'd long since stopped caring.

I would have liked it if things could have stayed that way. Maybe one day, I would have quit the diner. Maybe one day, I would have married Audrey. I would have been a sailor's wife and all of our children would have had bright red hair. It wouldn't have been a passionate romance but we could have been happy. Everything's clearer in hindsight. When you've lived a life like mine; the past becomes a long string of what-ifs and maybes.

I never got a chance to dream like that at the time. I didn't think of Audrey like that then and, before I could begin, events shifted to make marriage the last thing on my mind for a very long time.

I remember it beginning on an average day. Perhaps I'm remembering it like that because it's a neat little cliché. Perhaps it really was just an average day.

The vast majority of patrons at the diner were airsailors. They were dirty and greasy and boisterous but they were really a good lot. Still, they scared off a lot of the average people who might otherwise have frequented the place. Still, a few brave citizens still came by because Boss's food was just that good. The remaining portion of patrons was made up of travellers. They were the airships' passengers and most of them were tired or grumpy, only wanting to reach their destination.

That was why I noticed the two Turks when they came in but didn't really pay them much mind. I sighed tiredly when they sat down at one of my tables. Of course they'd pick my table.

"Do I have to, Mama?" I whined quietly as I reached to take the coffee pot off its warmer from behind Mama.

"Chin up, dear," was all she replied.

The Turks were in the middle of a discussion as I approached. They sounded like they were arguing but I refused to allow myself to listen to what they were saying. I didn't want to care, even a little.

"Can I get you boys something to drink?" I asked, stretching a fake smile across my face. "Coffee maybe?"

The darker of the two Turks turned to me and he looked annoyed. He was young, about my age. It made me think briefly of Vincent before turning my attention back to the Turk before me. Turks were generally the least friendly patrons and I hated having to serve them more than any other task at the diner. I struggled to keep the smile plastered on my face.

"I'll come back? Menus are on the table if you need them." I then made a hasty retreat, but not before hearing my name.

"Claudie?"

I stopped, frozen where I was halfway to safety behind the counter. Nobody called me that at the diner, not by then at least. After Audrey had begun calling me "Bird" it hadn't taken long for the rest of the airsailors to follow suit. With the sailors making up such a large part of the patrons, I simply began going by Bird. At some point, even my nametag had been changed to Bird. So, how did a Turk know my real name? I was afraid to turn around and find out.

Turn around, I did, though. I didn't have much of a choice. If I refused, it would cause a scene. Getting out of his seat was Vincent in the standard, dark blue Turk uniform. I couldn't be blamed for not recognizing him. He'd changed in the last year. His hair was longer and he'd grown taller…or maybe his posture had just improved. Also, he'd kept his distinctive eyes lowered while I stood at the table.

Neither of us knew what to say. The silence stretched out between us for a moment. Finally, I said, "It's been a while Vincent. I'd love to catch up but I'm working right now. If you have time and want to come back when my shift's done, we can talk then." I flashed my practised waitress smile and scurried back into the kitchen.

I begged Mama to take over the Turks' table and she agreed, but only this once. I couldn't simply go avoiding an entire group of patrons simply because I didn't like their career choice. (I didn't tell her that my reason for wanting to switch tables was related to a very specific Turk, not the group in general.) Mercifully, the table she traded with me was the one in the corner where a single, red-haired airsailor sat.

I checked to make sure that the rest of my tables were not in need of immediate assistance and collapsed across from Audrey. It wasn't exactly the best protocol, but the diner was fairly relaxed as long as no one complained about the informality.

"Was that Turk botherin' you, Bird?" Audrey asked as I sat.

"No," I replied. When I saw the spark in his eye that meant he wanted to go looking for a fight, I repeated more firmly, "No."

"You looked kinda upset when he was talkin' to ya," my airsailor friend pointed out.

"He's just…" I trailed off, in search of an appropriate term for Vincent. "…an old friend. I wasn't expecting to see him. I was surprised, that's all." Audrey grunted, unconvinced.

"So, she's friends with the Turkey." He tried to make his tone humorous, but I just sunk lower in my seat. There was a profound dislike among airsailors of Turks, hence Audrey's reference to them as ugly birds used for food. It probably had something to do with the airsailors being some of the least loyal of the Shinra's employees and the Turks being the most. Regardless, my affiliation with the airsailors made my connection to Vincent an embarrassment.

Audrey prudently decided to change the subject. "So, you comin' to work on the ships tonight?" he asked.

"As always," I replied, gamely attempting a grin.


	8. Chapter 8

Vincent waited for my shift to end. Part of me was surprised. The rest of me had known this would be inevitable. I didn't want to hurt Vincent, despite everything. He'd been there for me when I'd needed him, but things had begun to change. It had hurt for things to change but it was necessary. I had yet to see how very necessary it was.

"Let's walk and talk," I said, eyeing the curious glances of the airmen in the diner. They all knew and recognized me, and they didn't like seeing me approached by a Turk. Discreetly, I took Vincent's arm and dragged him out onto the street. "Walk and talk," I repeated.

We walked in silence a ways down the road, each of us reorganizing what we wanted to say. I didn't hold hands with Vincent or stand particularly close to him and he didn't try to make me.

"You've changed," Vincent said at last, nodding to my grease covered overalls and battered old boots. It was true, the old me never would have dared to look so boyish.

"So have you." I looked briefly at his Turk uniform. "You're a Turk now."

"Yes," Vincent agreed, just a little bit of awe creeping into voice, like he hadn't been quite sure himself until I'd stated it. It wasn't a very Turk-like reaction, but it was very Vincent. It was one aspect of Vincent that was killed during his years as a Turk, or at least so far as I could tell from our sparse contact over the next decade or so.

"Is it all that you dreamed it would be?" I couldn't help but be a little bitter. I couldn't help but want his success to be tainted by something or other.

Perhaps Vincent knew this because he hesitated before he answered again, "Yes."

"I'm glad." It wasn't exactly a false statement. I didn't want to take everything Vincent had. I actually didn't want to take anything from Vincent but I couldn't stay with him, not anymore.

"I'm not here for vacation right now; this is just a layover, but…" Vincent looked at me suddenly and I couldn't meet his gaze, so I looked at my scuffed up work shoes. "It won't be long before I will have some off so I can come back and-"

"And what?" I snapped. I didn't mean to snap but the longer I held back from telling Vincent what I really needed to tell him, the more frustrated I became with both myself and him. "You don't expect to come back after more than a year and find that everything's the same?"

"I don't understand you, Claudie," Vincent said. He really did look very confused when I glanced up at him.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I shouldn't have said that. But, Vincent, a year is a long time. It's a long time even if you don't want it to be. During that time, I've realised that I don't love you, Vincent. Maybe I did at one point; I certainly never loved anyone before you so I have no comparison. All I know is that what I feel right now isn't love. I can't stay in a relationship like this with you. It isn't fair to either of us, I think. You go back to Midgar and I'll wish you the best. If you come back, just make sure that it isn't for me. Goodbye, Vincent."

Having said what I wanted to, I began to hurry in the direction of the airport garage. Every step became more urgent and by the time I reached my work station, I was sprinting and out of breath. I didn't look back once.

I don't know what Vincent did after I left him, but he probably got back on his airship and went where he needed to go because, the next time I saw him, he was still a Turk.


	9. Chapter 9

"All right, Bird," Audrey said, pushing a coffee at me as I slouched into the seat across from him—the coffee I'd just poured for him. "Tell me what's wrong."

"There's nothing wrong," I said. It wasn't true but I was going to repeat it until it was.

"I don't believe you." Audrey fixed me with a level gaze and I looked down at the coffee.

"Believe what you want, but I believe this coffee was for you," I said, pushing the coffee back to Audrey and getting up, "and I am working."

"You're about to take a break," Audrey replied, and then looked over at the counter where Mama was serving some patrons. "Ain't that right, Mama?"

"She's all yours," Mama called back.

"Now sit back down and tell me what's wrong," Audrey ordered.

"There is nothing wrong," I insisted, but I sat.

"Don't tell me there's nothin' wrong," Audrey said. "Last night, you took a look at an engine for two hours before sayin' you couldn't fix it. That's not like you. If you had to use paper clips and chewing gum, you could get an airship in the air again in less than an hour. Now tell me what's wrong."

"I don't know what's wrong!" I yelled. Every patron in the diner turned to stare at me. I sank in my seat. "Sorry…"

"So there is somethin' wrong," Audrey said.

"No," I said. "I mean… No…"

"Bird," Audrey sighed. "I've never seen you more happy than when you're workin' on an airship. Recently, even that hasn't been able to lift your spirits. It's been ever since that Turk came around. If 'e did somethin', jus' tell me and I'll take care of it."

"It isn't Vincent. He didn't do anything," I immediately said. Audrey was looking for a fight and I didn't want either of them to get hurt. "If you want to know the truth, it's this place. I'm sick of this city. I'm sick of those judgmental idiots. I'm sick of my father and I'm tired of lying to him. I'm sick of my mother and her stupid ideals. I'm sick of my brothers—Vic, who panders to everyone around him, and Tom, whose head is perpetually in the clouds. I'm just sick of it all. I want to get away, but I can't. So, I apologize if I'm a little out of sorts." I wasn't sure if it was true or not. It sounded good, though, and it wasn't completely a lie.

"I was hopin' you'd say that," Audrey told me.

"What?"

"You wanna get away, right? Well, I have a vacation planned for you and it's certainly away." He grinned. "Don't ask too many questions, right now. Jus' go home and pack your stuff and meet me at the airport where you normally do. Don't worry; I already talked to Mama about gettin' you some time off."

I looked to Mama and she nodded her agreement with what Audrey had said. I looked back down at the coffee before me and sat, frozen.

"I can take that coffee off your hands, if you want me to," Audrey said, pulling the coffee that I hadn't touched back towards him. "Now, shoo."

I didn't need to be told twice. I shot out of my seat and gathered my things to leave more quickly than I ever had before. Mama gave her usual warnings about being careful but I wasn't listening. I ran nearly the entire way home.

It was harder to move quickly once I got home. I had to first find a suitcase. I then had to lug it out of the attic, which nearly earned me a sprained ankle. By the time I got it back to my room, the delay had made me panicked. I didn't bother to pack neatly, instead throwing my clothes into the suitcase like a runaway.

"What are you doing?" Tommin asked, stopping by my open door.

"Packing," I said. "I'm going on vacation." I held up a shirt as an example. Tommin smiled sceptically. I was packing practically because I had a feeling that Audrey wasn't taking me to the famous beaches of Costa del Sol. The shirt I held up was a grease-stained tee-shirt, one of the first to have fallen to my mechanical hobby. "Really," I said, feeling the need to convince my brother, "I am." I looked at the clock. "I'm actually running late." I tossed the shirt in the suitcase and sat on it to shut it.

"Where are you going?" Tommin asked.

"I don't know," I answered and laughed. "It's kind of thrilling."

"What will I tell Ma?"

"I don't know," I repeated. "Something clever? I'm sure you can think of something." I took the suitcase and pushed past Tommin, who was too shocked to try to stop me. I didn't stop until I reached the airport.

I wasn't late. Audrey and his captain were discussing something still when I arrived. I thought that it might be the topic of my flying with them to wherever Audrey wanted me to go and my shoulders sank. If Audrey hadn't known he could get me a flight, he shouldn't have promised me a vacation.

"Oh, here she is!" Audrey said, grinning and waving me closer. "This is Bird Thorne."

"Hello, captain," I said.

"Well, in't she a little slip o' a thing?" the captain said, amazed. "This is your gen'us mechanic?"

"She is."

"Genius what?" I asked.

"Audrey, 'ere, says that you know th' inside o' an airship like th' back o' yer 'and," the captain said.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, sir," I said. "I've never had to take apart the back of my hand before and I'm not sure I could put it back together."

The captain bellowed a laugh. "She's got a sense o' humour, too! I like 'er. All right, Audrey, you've got yerself a deal."

I looked to Audrey for answers but he only mouthed that he would tell me later.

The captain took my hand in his large, grizzled one and shook it firmly. "Welcome to th' Blackbird, Miz Thorne."


	10. Chapter 10

I had expected only to fly as far as whatever destination Audrey wanted to take me to. I learned very quickly that the Blackbird had been the destination, herself. I was going to fly with them until they returned to Iscalis.

I wasn't sure whether I should be excited or afraid at the prospect of spending nearly a month on a crowded airship with a crew made entirely up of men. They were coarse, dirty men as most sailors were, but they were of a lower sort, nearly pirates in my eyes. Audrey turned out to be no different. He had been acting like a gentleman before.

The thought makes me laugh less now than I did then. He has mellowed a good deal with age and is now much more gentlemanly than he ever was in his youth. At the time, however, his most gentlemanly behavior could not even match Vincent's ungentlemanly behavior. I didn't like to think that, though, because I'd decided that there was no point in thinking about Vincent anymore. I was determined to forget him entirely and I hoped he would forget me.

The time I spend on the Blackbird was some of the most interesting of my life. It was also the happiest month of my life so far. I learned to be comfortable around the men and their coarse manners. I began to joke with them just as much as they joked with me. I was on pleasant terms with the captain. Most of all, I learned so much about airships and airsailors.

Apart from the mechanics of the airships, which I learned in finer detail and just as adeptly as I had learned everything else in that area, I learned the mechanics of their society. There was a hierarchy of importance among the Shinra's airships. There were the fancy, streamlined ships reserved for carrying passengers. After the passenger ships were the strongly built cargo ships. Beneath them were the privateers.

When I'd thought that the crew of the Blackbird was nearly pirate, I was right. They were on the lower end of the cargo scale and took commissions for privateer work to supplement their wages. That meant that they hunted down the pirates who bothered ShinRa ships for money. They didn't take any of these commissions while I was on board but the crew was not disappointed. The luck of having a lady on board was more warming to them than the loss of the money was painful.

I was sad to go when we arrived back in Iscalis. While I really didn't know any of the true dangers of being an airsailor, I thought that I knew everything about that sort of life. I'd decided that it suited me. I wasn't sure that I could happily go back to being a waitress when I'd seen so much more of the world than I'd ever hoped to see before.

I was both surprised and delighted, then, when the captain pulled me aside before I left and said, "You may be a wee slip o' a thing and you may not know yer business quite so well as you think you do, but I wouldn' be sorry to ha' you on board for longer, Miz Thorne. Th' Shinra didn' know that you was onboard but they ain' against havin' a woman or two on their ships. Them who show promise, that is. An' I ain' seen more promise than in you, Miz Thorne."

I had been determined, after seeing what happened to my father, never to work for the Shinra. I'd thought the only job there for me was a secretary's post anyway. The draw of working on an airship was stronger than my resolution. The only thing that kept me from crying my joy out loud was the thought of how my family would react to my becoming an airsailor. I would certainly be irredeemable in my father's eyes. The support of my mother would almost certainly be lost as well. Victoire could never agree with something our parents disapproved of and Tommin… Well, Tommin probably wouldn't mind much, the ideas of social norms never really touched his wandering mind. He wasn't strong enough to stand against the rest of the family. If I took the job, I would likely never be welcome among them again.

I told the captain very solemnly, my spirits dampened, that it was a generous offer but I would have to think it over.

"You do that, lass," he answered, "but don' take too long. We're leavin' Iscalis again in three days and won' be back for another six weeks."

I promised that I would not wait too long to make my decision and returned home for what could have been one of the last times.


	11. Chapter 11

I debated for hours over whether I should take the job or not. The debate was useless, however, because I'd known in my heart from the moment the captain had suggested it that I would. After that, it was just a matter of packing up the things I wanted to take with me before I left my parents' house for good.

I was surprised to discover how little I actually had that I wanted to bring with me. Some practical clothes, a few books, some photos of my family to remember them by. It all fit nicely into two small suitcases. A part of me wryly suggested that I'd been made to be an airsailor all along.

When it came time for me to leave, I wasn't brave enough to face my family. I couldn't bear to watch the disappointment in their faces when the learned that I was running away to break most social conventions and clamber around on a greasy ship full of coarse men. Instead, I wrote them a note and snuck out. I regret it to this day.

The captain was pleased with my decision and, three days later, we set off towards Midgar. In Midgar, I would be screened and officially hired by the Shinra.

I hadn't been to Midgar before. The grand city wasn't on the Blackbird's last route. I'd heard much about Midgar from many places and it left me with an expectation that I would be disappointed because no city could possibly be as amazing as I'd heard Midgar was. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself not disappointed.

These days, you'd probably be disappointed with the Midgar that awed me so. The city became so much more in the decades since my first visit, it would hardly be recognizable to you if you could see what it had been like then. There was no Plate, no ShinRa Building. There were still the eight sectors, of course. There were the reactors, too, but much smaller than what they became. The sky was clear and bright, not dark at all…except at night, of course.

There was a bustle in the city like I'd never seen before, not even in the heart of Iscalis. I was so distracted by all these wonders and the crowd that I was soon lost on my way to find the ShinRa offices. I hadn't even realised that I'd become lost until I'd been lost for some time. My first instinct was to panic and I walked in circles around a couple of blocks for a while. Once I'd worn out my panic, I began to think more clearly.

I asked a passer-by if they could direct me to the ShinRa offices. They kindly instructed me and I discovered that I was in the entirely wrong sector to begin with. Determined to find my way, I only got lost once more on my way to the correct sector. I fought the urge to panic again because I was wasting time.

I turned around to go back the way I'd come when I ran, quite literally, into a blue-suited Turk. If you were hoping it was Vincent, I'll have to disappoint you in saying that it was not. It was the Turk who had been with him when he'd gone into the diner on the day that I'd dumped him. I was proud of my good memory in remembering him, but I didn't have time to waste on him, either. Unfortunately, the Turk's memory was just as good as mine.

"Aren't you Vincent's friend?" he asked me.

"I'm in a bit of a hurry," I said, choosing not to answered, "so if you'd excuse me…"

"The waitress one?" the Turk pressed, not about to let me go so easily.

"Yes, I'm the waitress," I said impatiently, "but I'm really running quite late."

"What are you doing in Midgar?" The Turk was purposefully ignoring my excuses to leave.

"I'm here for a job interview and I'm running late because I got lost!" I spat.

"At the ShinRa offices?" the Turk guessed.

"Yes!" I answered, not really caring at this point how he knew that was where I was heading.

"You're going the wrong way," he said.

"Thank you." I turned around and began walking the other way.

"Still the wrong way," the Turk said. "Listen, I'm going there too, so why don't we just walk together?"

I had no choice but to agree.

"I'm Veld, by the way," he said. "What's your name?"

"Claudie," I answered, trying to keep my end of the conversation as close to monosyllabic as possible.

Veld decided to take pity on me, I guess, because he didn't say anything else until we reached the building.

"Well it was nice meeting you, Claudie," he said. "Vincent is in town, should I tell him you're around?"

"No," I answered quickly and, checking the map for my floor, raced up the stairs even though there was a perfectly good elevator.


	12. Chapter 12

I got the job, of course. There wouldn't be much of a story here if I didn't.

There was a bigger difference between being on the Blackbird's crew and my previous journey than I had anticipated.

Most of my clothes were deemed unsuitable for working on an airship and I was forced to buy new. I had a uniform but that was, as the rest of the crew said, just a hanger decoration. Uniforms were only worn when the ship was being inspected.

My hair also had to be changed. Long hair was not permitted on an airship because it was too dangerous. It could get caught in something, especially when one was a mechanic like I was, and cause injury. It hadn't been a problem at the airport because it was possible to power-down any section we were working on. That wasn't possible when the ship was in the air. When I went to get my hair cut off I didn't think that it would upset me as much as it did.

I stood miserably in front of the mirror in my cabin with my new clothes and my new hair thinking that I didn't look like a girl anymore. When I went to supper, Audrey had grinned and slapped me on the back, saying, "Lookin' good, Bird!" I wanted to hit him because I most certainly did not think I was, "lookin' good".

I would come to look much worse during my first few months on the Blackbird than I would have ever thought possible.

I had to learn how to fight, you see, because the Blackbird needed her privateer commissions in order to survive. I thought that it would be easy, like it had been when I'd learned about the mechanics of an airship. It was not.

I spent every free hour I had training to fight with the best fighters on the ship who happened to be off at the same time as I was. None of them went easy on me. I became very closely acquainted with the medical staff on board.

Eventually, I was proficient enough that I was allowed to go on the privateer missions. I was always relegated to the safest roles, however, which made me miserable about my ability to fight. I was convinced that I would never have any skill in it, no matter how often I was told that I was doing well. It wasn't until many years later that I learned I was among the top ten fighters on the ship by the time I left it.

Once I was proficient enough in hand-to-hand fighting (even if I didn't believe I was) I was told that I would move on to weapons training. My teachers were so confident (in my ability to learn, I later found out, not their ability to teach) that they said I could pick any weapon I wanted and they could teach me to use it. I was told to use my time on land at Nibelheim to buy myself a weapon I liked.

In hindsight, it wasn't the best plan they'd ever had. I knew nothing about weapons and I was likely to get scammed. More immediately, however, I got lost.

I've learned that I have an amazing ability to tell directions. I can fly a ship around the world blind and not get lost. The moment I set foot on land, however, I can't tell left from right. I've since learned tricks to help me find places but, back then, I wasn't aware that I lost my way so easily.

It once again took me a long time to actually realize I was lost. I was standing at the path to the ShinRa Mansion before I came to the conclusion that I must have passed the weapons shop somewhere or taken a wrong turn.

As I stood there, two people came along the path and one of them stopped to ask me, "Are you lost, sir?" She was a beautiful woman, more beautiful that I'd ever been. She had long chestnut hair tied up in a yellow ribbon and her big, brown doe eyes stared at me in concern.

"I'm a woman," I answered on reflex. "My name is Claudia Thorne, and yes I am lost."

"Claudia Thorne?" the man who was with her repeated. "Claudia Thorne. It's been a very long time."

I nodded uncertainly, wondering if I'd ever seen this man before in my life. "Yes…" It slowly dawned on me that he had red eyes, the same shade of red what I'd only seen on one other person in my life and I realized who this man must be. I smiled politely as soon as I knew. "It's been a very, very long time, Dr. Valentine."

The man was Dr. Grimoire Valentine, Vincent's father. Once I realized who it was, I noticed how much Vincent looked like his father. The eyes were really just the start of the similarities. They were both tall with the same thick black hair, though Grimoire's was peppered with grey. Their noses were identical and their lips had the same shape, even if Vincent's were a little fuller.

I hated that I could remember Vincent's face well enough to compare it to his father's without him even being there. I silently seethed at myself as Dr. Valentine chuckled.

"You remember me, eh?" he asked. I had a feeling that he knew full well that I didn't.

"You haven't changed a bit," I joked in answer, not sure if it was true or not, but assuming that it wasn't since I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen him.

Grimoire laughed a little more, seeming much more pleasant that I ever would have suspected based on Vincent's descriptions of him. He then turned to the woman who had mistaken me for a man. "This is Claudia Thorne, Lucrecia," he said. "She was my neighbor in Iscalis."

"It's nice to meet you," Lucrecia said softly; embarrassed, no doubt, at having called me "sir".

"Claudia," Grimoire said, continuing the introductions. "This is Lucrecia Crescent. She is my assistant. She's still a student right now, but she's brilliant. We expect great things from her."

Lucrecia flushed and looked up at Dr. Valentine with sparkling eyes. The expression on her face was so full of adoration that I could help but wonder if she had a crush on him.

Between Lucrecia's crush and Grimoire crowing on about her like a proud father, I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the situation. Instead of trying to decipher it, I coughed awkwardly and said, "It was nice seeing you again, Dr. Valentine, and meeting you Miss Crescent, but I should get back to looking for the weapons shop…"

"Lucrecia can show you the way," Grimoire said, volunteering a very unwilling Lucrecia.

"But what about your experiment, Doctor?" she asked. "Don't you need help with that?"

"Ah, it's fine," Grimoire told her. "I don't need any more help today. You should spend more time with people your age. It's good for you."

Lucrecia clearly didn't agree as she smiled at me with trepidation. "Well…then…" she said slowly. "The…weapons shop is…this way…"


	13. Chapter 13

Lucrecia Crescent walked beside me in silence on our way to the weapons shop. I envied her in silence. I loved my life on the airship but I missed being pretty. I knew I would never be as pretty as Lucrecia even if I wore dresses, had long and silky hair, spoke softly and walked daintily.

"How old are you?" I blurted unthinkingly, wondering what it took to become a scientist's assistant.

"Haven't you ever heard that it's rude to ask a lady's age?" Lucrecia asked back.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I wasn't thinking. I was just curious."

"I'm twenty-one," Lucrecia told me.

"I thought you didn't want to say," I said, bewildered.

"I was joking," Lucrecia replied.

"Oh… You need to work on your delivery a little." I was amazed that Lucrecia would joke with me. She was so different from me that I'd thought it was obvious that she would dislike me.

"What about you, Claudia?" Lucrecia asked.

"I'll be twenty-one in two months," I answered. "Please don't call me Claudia, though. I usually go by one of my nicknames."

"May I call you Rosie, then?" Lucrecia asked.

"Rosie?" I asked. "Why?"

"I don't know—it suits you," she answered.

"All right," I said. "But then I'll call you Lu." I didn't really think I'd see Lucrecia again once I left Nibelheim so the nicknames wouldn't really be useful anyway. Still, it was nice to call her Lu because the name, which didn't really suit her, made her seem less perfect and more human to me.

We entered the weapons shop acting much chummier than we had been when we left Dr. Valentine. Lucrecia faltered when she actually saw the weapons, though.

"You're going to actually use those?" she asked me hesitantly as I picked up a knife to look at it more closely.

"That is the plan," I answered.

The owner of the weapons shop was very helpful. He got a lot of good custom from the airsailors and, knowing what a tightly knit group we were, he didn't want to risk that by scamming me. I left the shop with a sturdy little gun, a dagger and a knife.

"_The gun and the dagger, I lost over time," Claudie said. "I still have the knife, though, and it has served me well." She reached down and removed a knife from her belt. It had been so well concealed that neither Yuffie nor Shelke had noticed it until Claudie reached for it. She carefully handed the weapon over to them._

_The knife was old and it had clearly seen a lot of action as scratches that scarred its gleaming surface demonstrated. The leather which wrapped around its handle had been recently replaced because it looked new. The blade itself was sharp enough to draw blood when Yuffie wasn't careful in handing it over to Shelke. Shocked, the ninja stuck her finger in her mouth._

"_Do you still use this?" she asked._

"_Absolutely," Claudie replied._

"_But you're old and dying," Yuffie said. "Don't you want to go home and be safe or something?"_

"_No," Claudie answered. "I want to live and since I want to live for as long as possible, I don't let that little knife leave my side. Anyway…"_

Lucrecia couldn't stop expressing her shock at my needing to use weapons, even after we'd left the weapons shop and gone to lunch…which was my treat as thanks for helping me find the shop. She couldn't imagine having a dangerous career herself her imagination couldn't stretch enough to think that someone else might actually enjoy action. I certainly couldn't say I hated it.

Lucrecia was determined that we should become friends. She asked how she could keep in contact with me. She wanted to know how she could contact "her protector". I knew why I was her protector just as little as I knew why she needed protecting. All I knew was that I'd just made my first female friend since joining the Blackbird.


End file.

Final Fantasy VII, Suspense, Tragedy