Crisis Core: The Female SOLDIER

24

"Phew..." Zack and Cloud glanced behind them when they reached Modeoheim. "Let's wait a bit."

As the two of them watched the others continue on their way, with Sera looking to be the first to reach the two, Cloud turned to Zack. "Hey, Zack, uh..."

"Hm?" Zack turned to look at Cloud.

"Um...what's it like to be SOLDIER...?" Cloud asked.

Zack crossed his arms. "I don't quite get the question."

"Um..." Cloud tried to phrase the question properly but couldn't find the words.

"Well, once you join, you'll know what it's like," Zack told him.

Cloud slumped his shoulders. "If I can join, that is..."

"Don't sweat it! If I and Sera can do it, you can, too."

"Sera?"

"She's that girl over there. The one with blue hair," Zack pointed out to the approaching blue-haired girl. "She's a SOLDIER as well, the only female one at that, and Sephiroth's student."

"Sephiroth's her mentor?" Cloud looked surprised, and a bit jealous at his words. "Must be nice..."

"What must be nice?"

The two of them looked to see Sera standing across from them, having been the one to reach first as she casually approached them.

Zack gestured to Cloud. "I was just telling Cloud here about you. I said you were the only female to become a SOLDIER so far, and Sephiroth's student."

Sera turned to stare at Cloud, who fidgeted at the gaze as he blushed lightly, though it was hard to tell whether it was because they were talking about her or the freezing temperature at Modeoheim. She could see a look of admiration, as well as jealousy in those sky blue eyes, and her gaze hardened slightly.

'So he's just like the rest,' Sera thought as she moved past them. "I see..."

Zack shot a look at Sera's back as she walked away from them, confused and surprised at her cold tone, and he saw Cloud slumped his shoulders. "Hey, Cloud, don't take it so hard. Sera's always like this to everyone she meets at first. Even me. But she's not so bad once you become friends with her. She just hates it when people find out she's Sephiroth's student."

"Oh..." Cloud found it hard to believe Zack's optimistic words. He saw the look in Sera's eyes when she stared at him.

They were so cold... so emotionless.

"Zack, Cloud, get over here and take a look at this."

They both turned at Sera's voice to see her crouching by the edge of the cliff, looking ahead of her. The two of them moved to join her, kneeling by the edge as well and they followed her gaze to see Genesis copies all around the facility, this time wielding guns instead of trench knives.

Tseng came forward to stand behind them. "That's the Mako excavation test site."

Zack stood up. "We'll go check it out," Tseng nodded as Cloud stood up and offered a hand to Sera. She stared at in surprise before she took it, letting Cloud help her up and she nodded in thanks before the three of them turned to Tseng for orders. "Our primary objective is to investigate Modeoheim. We can't afford to lose people here. At the same time, we can't ignore the activities of the Genesis Army. Therefore..."

"We are to infiltrate while avoiding combat, right?" Tseng nodded at Sera.

"Exactly. There's an entrance at the back of that warehouse. Once you're inside the facility, you can do as you like."

"You got it. I'll prove that SOLDIER isn't muscle and brawn." Zack said.

"You haven't really shown much of your brain so far though, Zack," Sera commented and Zack gave her a fake hurt look as Cloud snickered behind them.

"You watch carefully too, Cloud," Zack told the blond infantryman.

" Uh-huh. Be careful," Cloud said and Sera and Zack, who nodded, Zack with a grin as he did so as the two SOLDIERs leaped over the cliff and moved towards the facility.

Sera and Zack moved quickly, looking out for Genesis copies patrolling the area as they made their way to the entrance, hurrying inside and out of the cold and they skulked silently through the building as they made their way to the elevator.

"You don't have to be so cold to Cloud, you know," Zack commented as they got inside the elevator. "He just wanted to know what it's like to be in SOLDIER."

"And how is telling him that I was Sephiroth's student supposed to help with that?" Sera refuted.

"What's wrong with telling him that?"

"Do you know what it feels like, Zack?" Sera asked, turning to face him as the grill doors closed behind them and the elevator began to move upwards. "To have people find out that you're the student of Shinra's poster hero, and eye you like a piece of meat? Or an exotic creature? To have whispers and rumors surround you for years as they wondered how you get to be in SOLDIER and Sephiroth's student when you're from the opposite, stereotypically weaker, sex? To have people try to befriend you or be nice to you just because you're Sephiroth's student? Or to have them try to constantly put you down just because a girl has no place being in SOLDIER and as his student? To have them see you as nothing more but a stepping stone, a doorway so that they can get into your mentor's good graces? To not have them see you as just another person? A person with feelings just like everyone else? Do you, Zack? Do you??"

"Sera," Zack started, guilt taking over his features as he could hear pain and loneliness leaking into her words. He didn't know. "I-"

"Enough," Sera turned away from him as she cut him off, her voice turning cold and professional like the first day they met, making Zack feel even more like an ass. "We've got a mission to do. I suggest we focus on that."

Zack tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. Instead, he just nodded silently, looking at Sera's blue hair, the longer tresses at the back of her head tied into a ponytail. Guilt filled him at her words, at what she had experienced in her years of being in the military. He didn't know it was that bad, that she was like this because the army didn't believe her fit to join them despite years of fighting with them and her skills. That she needed to act this way to protect herself. 

He needed to apologize to her. To make things right.

But he could only do that after the mission