I do not own ff7 and never will it belongs to Square Enix and all characters are property of said company.

Chapter 2: Regrets

They had all changed into civilian clothes that they’d brought in the last town, supplies and food were in backpacks that each person held, for money they had quite a bit considering turks were well paid and Shotgun and Nunchaku were from rich backgrounds. Shotgun wore a red sleeveless top and blue jeans, all their clothes were similar as there wasn’t much option, they had chosen to wear practical clothing consisting of simple tops and either 3 quarter pants or pants. The males weren’t too bothered and just wore shirts over a pair of pants or their uniforms in some cases for the more stubborn males who actually liked their uniforms.

“It’s too hot...” Samatha complained as they walked across the almost never ending tracks of the railway that headed towards Nibelheim, the tracks were still solid but raised so high in the air that if you fell it’d be a long way down. In front of her were several other disgruntled people, she pouted at them and Daisuke who had been chatting to Danny and another man who went by the name Rafe about something and turned to her and paused.

“Would you quit complaining already, we know it’s hot but unless we move we’ll be out here all night so shut your trap!”Daisuke yelled having lost his cool in the blazing heat.

Rafe sighed and chucked a bottle of water at her “what Daisuke said so shut up already”

Samatha glared and stalked past the three males, nudging Daisuke and Rafe on the way, Daisuke looked at Rafe who rolled his eyes “hey don’t encourage her man, girls are like that sometimes”

Danny raised an eyebrow “let me guess you’d know”

Rafe smirked “heck yeah worked for the Don once, hope that bastard got what he deserved”.

Danny and Daisuke looked at each other and sighed , ahead of them was a woman with long black hair, it was flying in the wind, another man beside her with neat short brown hair, who looked to in his 30’s, they were quiet and not speaking. Another man not far from them with slicked black hair and glasses frowned at the ones who were behind him, he glanced at them then walked ahead.

“Would you three hurry up” a short blond haired woman said not far from the male that had glared at them, beside her was another female with neatly trimmed short black hair that flicked outwards, two bangs beside her ears she looked at them “Rosalind let them lag besides no one said walking these tracks would be easy, its best to save your energy for what’s ahead”

Daisuke heard them and chuckled at Samathas expression “there’s more!”

Cissnei who was near Samatha chuckled “yeah haven’t you been to Nibelheim before, there’s still Mt Nibel to cross “

“Isn’t there a condola?”Shotgun asked.

“That broke years ago besides walking never hurt anyone” the long haired turk in the front said everyone pointed their glares at her, the brown haired male sighed “come on we’re almost there I know it’s hot but just try and get along for now”

The woman beside him nodded “Mathew’s right so move it!”

Mathew tryed to respond but flinched from a death glare by said speaker “whoa I feel sorry for him” Danny commented, Rod nodded “glad I’m not her partner”

“Idiots...” the one with glasses murmured.

“What did katana just say?” Rod asked.

Cissnei smirked “oh nothing important just stating what we already knew”

Rod looked confused but Rosalind soon spoke “he said you were idiots”.

Rafe laughed then went up to join the three females, they all rolled their eyes “So ladies can a guy get a drink out here” he said in Knifes ear, in response he got water but not how he intended, he got soaked in it from Rosalind pouring in over his head.

“What was that for?” he blurted, Rosalind and knife stared at him “don’t flirt Rafe it won’t end well Katana learnt that last time he walked in on us in the shower”

He raised an eye “really Mr cold and unfriendly oh... who knew he had such a dirty mind”

Cissnei glared “it’s not something to be proud of”

“Really Nei you doubt me?”

A corresponding ‘yes’ was heard and Rafe looked on pouting, Rod laughed “now who’s an idiot...”

“Finally civilisation” Samatha blurted happy to see the small town, Natasha looked on and sighed “I’m surrounded by idiots...”

Mathew smiled at her “no they’re just human we’re all like that sometimes” he whispered walking off.

“Actually they’re actors” Cissnei responded looking around the town, Rosalind put her hand on her shoulder “Try not to think of him okay” she whispered letting her friend know she was there.

Cissnei nodded smiling sadly then responding to Samathas question again “though I dare say they’re become the people they replaced now”

Knife nodded “that’s true hey Nei don’t look so down we won’t be in here too long”

Rod sighed stretching his arms “I hope they have some decent food here I’m starved”

Danial smirked “I agree let’s get food first we all need it”

Katana nodded “I’ll book the hotel, we’ll need a place to stay anyone want to come?”

Rosalind looked around and noticed half of them had disbanded in favour of food or something else, letting out a groan she followed katana “I’ll help you out since everyone’s too focussed on themselves right now Cissnei can you do me a favour?”

Cissnei looked up “yeah sure what do you need?”

Rosalind heard Katanas stomach grumble “get us some food while you’re at it, he may not be complaining but his stomach says otherwise” Rosalind said pointing at Katana who scowled.

Cissnei smiled “sure I’ll bring everyone back to the hotel we need a plan on how to deal with this”

Rod who had come back with some food looked at them and nodded solemnly “your right we need a plan, we could start here this ‘WRO’ might answer some questions”.

Rosalind raised an eyebrow “wow Daisuke that’s not a bad idea”.

Rod growled and stalked off after Katana into the hotel, Rosalind chuckled enjoying herself “wheres Elfe and Legend by the way weren’t they with us?”

Blank looks greeted her as Knife and Rafe had returned “oh uh I don’t know they were with us, anyway Legends a big boy he’ll show up sometime and Elfe well I thought she was following us come to think of it wheres Veld he was with Elfe at the battle”

Said person pinched him hard, Rafe yelped as Elfe emerched twitching “I hate you all, your all so considerate you forgot about us entirely” she muttered into his ear making him look at her, beside her were a disgruntled Veld and Legend who was sipping a can of soda.

Cissnei sweat dropped and excused herself “uh well I’ll go now I think...have fun”

“How’d you get here if we uh...accidently left you behind” Rod blurted sipping a can of drink almost spitting it out at the sight of their former bosses expression.

Veld groaned at the young Turks statement “If you had been patient you could have got a lift here, my daughter had a friend there and she gave us a lift here, there’s quicker ways than the tracks” he scolded.

Rod looked at Rosalind “it was Cassandra’s fault, she insisted on going via the tracks” he quickly retorted shifting the blame, Rosalind sweat dropped and whispered in his ear “she’s going to kill you, you do realise that”.

Rod nodded “yeah but do you want Velds wraith I mean we did leave them behind, if we’re lucky we can leave before they wake tomorrow morning”

Knife stared “you do realise he just heard what you just said right?”

Rod wimpered before staring at Veld “but we’d never do such a thing to you sir, how about I go and get you some food it must have a long trip in that car, Katanas just gone to book us some rooms”.

Veld shook his head “don’t lie to me Daisuke, and we’ll book our own room, Legend can stay with you lot, my daughter stays with me she’s still recovering, anyone got any hints on what year we’re in”

“I do sir, I asked a local I got the whole timeline from the weapons store owner” the black haired female martial artist responded.

Legend looked at her after chucking the can on the street “Cassandra lets discuss this in an hour, from what I’ve been hearing it’s been eventful”.

Later that night

Everyone had gathered, they’d booked 3 hotel rooms, Veld had booked his own for him and his daughter as she was in need of rest, a strange marking had started appearing on her hand, the local had taken them as soon as he’d seen it.

Elfe herself was resting in the hotel room as she wasn’t feeling too well, Legend was watching over her just for safety’s sake.

“So tell me exactly what occurred from the mysterious locals words” Knife asked from her position on the bed, they were in the room the girls had claimed, the TV was still blearing some news about some kidnappings and the WRO investigating it.

Cassandra sighed “it wouldn’t hurt for you guys to look around yourselves, but oh well...apparently about 3 years ago a rebel group called Avalance emerched, and they bombed some reactors, it didn’t last long till apparently as Sector 7 collapsed, Shinra blamed it on Avalanche”.

Anyway apparently they invaded the Shinra building, he didn’t say why but they escaped after the president was supposedly killed by Sephiroth, and apparently Shinra was after them as they were trying to save the planet” she said taking a break.

“So basically they did what the original one failed to do” Rod remarked, Cissnei nodded “I heard a rumour like that apparently there’s only a few of them too”.

Veld listened quietly grateful that felicity was asleep, he was surprised how he cared so much for his rebellious daughter “do continue Cassandra”

She nodded “yes sir, well he then told me that they’d fought Shinra, they were caught once but escaped and then all havoc took place as Sephiroth awoke and unleashed something called weapon. It destroyed the base at Junan, and apparently Shinra fought this by attaching the sister ray to Midgar and shooting at it with huge materia, the world was almost destroyed as it failed.”

Fortunely Avalance got hold of the white materia and summoned holy which fought weapon, and the planet supposedly saved itself, no one knows what happed to Rufus, or the Turks or the higher ups at Shinra”.

Everyone was silent as they processed the information, Cassandra wasn’t finished “however there are rumours that he’s in hiding and there’s a disease they call the stigma that’s been spreading around”.

Nunchaku spoke first “so who’s in this Avalance group, they must be pretty strong to beat Shinra”.

Cissnei spoke up “Oh the guy I asked said there were 8 people, a guy called Cloud Strife he was the one who defeated Sephiroth, a woman from this town called Tifa Lockhart, Someone called Red 13, Barret Wallace, Cid Highwind you should know who that is Rod. As well as Cait sith so obviously Reeves helped, a ninja called Yuffie, there was another but she died and Vincent Valentine”

Rod stared “ok that’s creepy I recognized 3 names there”

Veld frowned in deep thought “Vincent...”

Cissnei was about to raise a question but decided against it “yeah anyway anyone figured a way to get back?”

Rosalind sighed “who said we’re going back, the Underground didn’t sound too enjoyable to me, and if Rufus is in charge there’s an off chance we may get our jobs back, besides I’m worried about my sister”

Rod looked at his partner “you mean Elena, the one who swore in front of all of us how much she hated us”

Rosalind glared at him “I tried ringing home, I still had my family’s number, and I know it was an unlikely but I got though to my Mother...”she said eyes downward.

Knife put a hand on her shoulder “what’s wrong?”

Rosalind sighed “She said that Father died during meteorfall and Elena’s not been home for 3 years, she left the academy shortly after I supposedly died, what disturbed me was why...Elena joined the Turks apparently”

Rod looked at his partner “well that mucks things up doesn’t it, I mean she probably hates your guts and your actually worried about her, man it’s times like this I’m glad I don’t have family”.

“She’s properly dead, no one could have survived something that huge hitting the shinra building” Katana pointed out.

Shotgun glared at them both “stop it, she’s upset if you want we could try and find out if she’s alive though I doubt she’d appreciate it, after all we’re going to look for Tseng anyway so he’ll know”.

Rosalind noticed most of them had left only Rod, Knife, Cissnei and Shotgun remained, Cissnei broke the silence “we should get some sleep, Rosalind how’d your mother respond I mean she thought you were dead?”

Rosalind smiled briefly “she was shocked but understood apparently Shinra told her that I had died by a ‘accident’ and Elena didn’t take it well, I never realised that I was to blame for Elena’s coldness towards me” she reflected.

Rod left the room to secure a bed before he got the floor as there weren’t enough beds, Cissnei looked out the window “I can’t wait to get out of here it’s bringing out all our regrets being here”.

Knife agreed “yeah let’s just focus on the future, what’s happened is in the past, let’s take this chance to move on, I’m sure shotgun would agree if she wasn’t already asleep”.

Cissnei chuckled “that or say we’re being too emotional”.