AN1: Sorry about taking so damn long on this chapter. I have one major excuse. Crisis Core. That, that piece of awesome really shook up the ideas I had for this fic. And while Crisis Core, Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus and all and any other pieces of the Final Fantasy VII universe are not and will not be valid in this fic, the game DID manage to shake up what I had wanted to do with and in this fic. So, I then managed to get one of the world’s worst case of writer’s block on this story, and add into that my recurring illness, my busy schedule, my life deciding that now is a good time to fall apart and go to hell, and various other things, well, I haven’t worked on this in quite the while.

AN2: I’ve reworked the last two chapters. Just spelling and grammar stuff mostly, for while I’m changing the direction I will be going in this fic, the small amount of past work I’ve done on this is and was fine, story wise. Spelling and grammar wise, it needed some slight amount of overhaul.

AN3: Ok, I’ve been saying that I’m changing my plans on where I was going in this fic, and I meant it. So, I’m no longer sure that it will be the Female Cloud and Zack pairing I promised, for now my plans do not run that way, and, well, I think I’m going to go a hell of a lot more AU then I was going to go in the first place, because, well just because. Now, I also said before that only the main game of Final Fantasy VII will be used as a point of reference in this fic, all other pieces of the Final Fantasy VII universe will be considered as not existing for the purposes of this fic, but what about Valkyrie Profile? Well, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is the main universe in that serious. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria is and was a time-traveling offshoot of a time line, thus it was a new and separate timeline, and in this fic, I’m using the premise behind Silmeria to make my own time line/Alternate Universe for Valkyrie Profile for the purposes of this story. So yes, I’m going extremely AU in regards to Valkyrie Profile, and as for the Final Fantasy VII portion of this fic, well, you’ll soon see how AU I will be going with that as well.

FINAL FANTASY PROFILE

CHAPTER THREE

MEETING OLD FRIENDS AND NEW ACQUAINTANCES

Outside Midgar: at the entrance to Midgar: about six months ago

Cloud had been slightly relived by the time that she had reached Midgar, for Zack had awoken. Unfortunately for them all, he had been quite confused, to put it mildly. Hey, finding out that you are dead and stuck inside the soul of your best friend and student can do that to you. After much verbal, um, venting, by Zack, he was then told by Hrist just what he could look forward to as an Einherjar to an, well, Independent Valkyrie, for the lack of a better term. Finding out that his soul was pretty much in servitude to Cloud for the rest of his eternity was a at first a major blow, but that she could summon him out of herself for as long as she could stand the mental strain, something that would get less and less with practice as well, mollified that a bit. And even more pacifying to him was the fact that Hrist could and did teach Cloud in her mind, and if she could, well, let us just say that hash training can very therapeutic. And besides, Zack was confident that living in this sort of afterlife was to be much preferred by him then rejoining the life stream, because hey, one, he still wanted revenge on both Hojo individually and Shinra as a group for what they did to him, and two, he liked to fight, and you really can’t do that in the life stream, now can you?

So, Zack had been pacified, and all was well in Cloud mind and soul, well except for the fact that Cloud now had two rather harsh and sadistic trainers teaming up in her soul and planning to unleash a special brand of holy training hell upon her, but she’s live through that… probably. But all of that could be put on hold, for “How the hell can I even get into Midgar anyways?”

Looking around at the main, and just about only real, entrance to Midgar, Cloud saw something and smiled. There, in line to enter Midgar, was a very large semi-truck with not only the Shin-Ra logo on it, it had the Science Department’s seal on it as well.

“No grunt is going to check that truck.” Cloud thought to herself with a small smirk as she prepared for a bit of infiltration.

Midgar: Wall Market: outside of an empty shack: About five months ago

Cloud smirked a small and victorious smile as she looked upon the new building, well shack really, that she had purchased. At Zack’s suggestion, she had started to hire herself out as a mercenary, and within a week she had managed to get herself quite the rep. and then two and a half weeks ago, she had gotten a quite lucrative offer for a job guarding a person from an unnamed threat. Cloud didn’t really care, well, at first that is, because the money was quite good. And even better was the fact that the man wanted at least two more guards, and so she used her ability to summon both Zack and Hrist, with their fervent approval, for, not only were they board by staying inside of Cloud all of the time, but this way, they’d, well Could really, make a shit load of money.

Unfortunately for them, it seemed that the person targeting their client was a high ranking Shin-Ra employee. Fortunately for them though, it seemed that this was an, off the books grudge and that the man was stupid enough to come down to the slums with his hireling to see things through personally. When all was said and done, and the Shin-Ra employee with the grudge, and the money, was dead, the threat to their client was no more. Thus causing the grateful man to give them an nice bonus on top of their already nice pay, letting Cloud do this, open up her own, small though it is, shop in Wall Mart. Her product? Her, and Zack and Hrist’s of course, services for just about anything.

Midgar: Wall Market: outside of a shack: about one month ago

“You sure this is the place?” A large black man with a gun for a right hand and most of his lower forearm asked of the much smaller and extremely attractive woman standing next to him.

“Well, the information that I’ve managed to get says it is Barret.” The woman said with a slightly offended tone to her voice.

The large man named Barret, somehow sensing that he had somehow manage to offend his companion yet again, sighed and said “Sorry Tifa, it’s just that this don’t look like no office for the latest and greatest mercenary in Midgar, ya know?”

“Appearances can be deceiving, you know? Why do you think nobodies found us yet?” Tifa asked of Barret with a small lopsided smirk.

“True, too true. Well, let’s meet with this Merc, and see if she’ll let us hire her, and what she’ll charge if she does.” Barret said in a deep voice laced with regret, and some other, unidentifiable, emotions, while he started to enter the shack.

“Well, I was wondering just when you two would decide to enter.” A woman said with a chuckle as she stood up and walked around a desk set at the back of the front room of the shack. She was physically, well, very imposing, would be a good way to describe it. While she looked very physically fit, she was short. Really short. As in she was five foot nothing short. Hell, the sword that was casually leaning against her desk was bigger than she was. The blade it’s self was exactly her height, but if you added in the guard, hilt, handle and pommel of the sword, it was easily two feet taller than she was standing up. There looked to be no way that she could use that thing.

Chuckling to herself, for she knew exactly just what must be going through her two potential customers’ minds, she then gasped as she recognized one of them. “Tifa?” Cloud asked with surprise, wonder and joy evident in her voice. “I, I thought that you were dead!”

“Cloud!?!” Tifa shrieked out in reply. “Where have you been? I thought that you were dead as well.”

Cloud looked down and grimaced and then replied in a whisper “At times I wished I had.” Then looking up with a small smile “But, I’m all better now!” She chirped. “So, um, what you do you need with a mercenary Tifa? You in some sort of trouble?”

Barret got over his shock at the mercenary woman’s small size, hell Tifa was only a little taller than her and she could kick just about everyone else’s ass in AVALANCHE, so he knew that size doesn’t really matter in some cases, and besides, she had those Mako eyes, then he got over his shock that this woman knew Tifa somehow, and then he said to her “We’ve heard that you don’t mind jobs that put you up against Shin-Ra. We just might have such a job, but we’ll need to talk about it elsewhere. Meet us here at this time if you want to know more.” He said while handing Cloud a slip of paper and then leaving with Tifa.

Cloud narrowed her eyes at the now shut door and then she read the slip of paper.

Sector Seven, The Seventh Heaven Bar, Seven Tonight. Was all that it said.

Wading up the paper and throwing it in the room’s furnace, she thought with silted eyes ‘I think that this is going to be the start of something big.’

‘Yes.’ Came from Zack, while

“I quite agree.’ Was Hrist’s reply.

Midgar: sector seven: outside of the Seventh Heaven bar: about one month ago at about a little before seven at night

Cloud walked into the seventh heaven bar with her sword resting comfortably on her back, ready for a quick draw, and scanned the room for threats. Seeing none, well, none to or for her at the least, she slowly walked over towards bar she saw Tifa standing behind and sat down.

“Want a drink?” Tifa asked of her. She really didn’t, but then why else would she have come to a bar? Nodding slowly, Tifa asked “So, what’s you’re pleasure?”

“Surprise me.” Cloud slowly replied.

Tifa smirked and said “Sure.” With a small grin. And then she was mixing up a small storm with all of her alcoholic drinks, and then she put the dubious looking concoction in front of Cloud on a napkin with a smirk “That there is the pride of the bar, ‘Strait to Heaven’. Because that’s where it’ll send you.” Turning around, Tifa went over to another new costumer, and Cloud then picked up her drink, while noticing a note on the napkin ‘Stay after closing.’ Noticing that this was both a different and neater writer then her last note writer, she took a sip of her drink, and she was then pleasantly surprised at the taste.

‘Hey, you’re going to have to summon me out some time for a taste of that!’ Cloud heard Zack cry out in her head. ‘If just the shadows of it taste that good, I need to experience the real thing!’

‘Zack, you are incorrigible.’ Hrist drawled out. “I mean, being summoned out for the sole purpose of getting drunk? Really now.’

‘Hey…’ Zack started when Cloud interrupted them with

‘Will you two please be quite? I need to be aware of my surroundings right now I’d think.’

‘Sorry.’ Zack muttered while Hrist replied with

‘I apologize.’

Cloud then took small sips from the cocktail she had in her hands while looking around herself in an unobtrusive manner. Five hours, and two more drinks and a small meal latter, and the bar was finally closed and was all alone with Tifa. “Follow me.” Was all Tifa said while heading for one of the bar’s gaming machines.

Midgar: sector seven: underneath the Seventh Heaven bar: about a month ago at midnight

Cloud was, mildly impressed by the obvious base that was underneath the bar and asked of the large black man with the gunarm with a large smirk visible on her face. “So, just who do I have the pleasure of speaking to, and just whom are you representing?”

“My name is Barret, and I’m the leader of a group named AVALANCHE. I trust you’ve heard of us?” The large man now known to Cloud as Barret evenly replied.

“Yes, I’ve heard about you. Not nice things, but then, I’m not in the ‘NICE’ business, now am I?” Cloud replied with a chuckle. “Now what I do you is that you are all known terrorists, and if word gets out I’m helping out you guys, well, that will just about kill all of my other business, and wind up making you my only customers.”

Tifa then interjected with a shout of “After what Shin-Ra did to Nibelheim you’re not going to do anything?”

Cloud looked at Tifa with a cold stare and slowly replied with “You have no idea what happened to me during and after that. Shin-Ra will pay a bloody retribution for what happened there. But, if it becomes known that I am actively on your pay roll, I will lose most if not all of my other customers, thus not only putting me into the poor house, and closing off all of my lines of information, but it will lead to Shin-Ra knowing about my existence. They think that I am dead at this moment, and that is to my supreme advantage at this point. Now, I am not say I will not help your group Barret,” Cloud said while switching to whom she was addressing “But the cost will be very high for you and it will have to be very worth my time.”

Barret grinned a smug grin and said “We plan to blow up the Mako Reactors one by one.”

Cloud then smiled a feral smile and said “Do tell.”

EAN1: ARGH!!! Too short, but then this chapter has broken my writers block, and I want the planning and the ‘Assault on Mako Reactor One!’ in the next chapter, so, oh well. Hopefully the next chapter will be bigger, and soon. Thanks for reading this, bye for now.

EAN2: If anyone is out of character, then I just say, AU people.

EAN3: Thank you to GunnerRyu for looking over this and the two previous chapters for me. He didn’t really beta them, more like he just told me that I wasn’t crackers when I wrote this thing, which I felt that I might have been.