Crisis Core: The Female SOLDIER

7

A month has passed since the incident, since the mission at Fort Tamblin and Angeal's possible defection. Zack still refused to accept it, the possibility that Angeal had betrayed them and to be honest, Sera found it hard to believe that as well. But she had to accept it at some point, and so had Zack. Even if Angeal did not defect of his own free will, his month of disappearance had broken protocol and would be known as desertion on his clean record.

She could only pray that she or Zack would not be sent on a mission to search and eliminate the defected SOLDIER's.

On another note, Zack had taken on an annoying habit of following her around like some lost puppy. Always coming over to say hi when she was seen at the base and chatting with her, though it mostly consisted of him talking while Sera just listened. She had yet to respond to his invitation to hang out with him from that time and she reckoned he forgot about it altogether as she noted he had a rather short attention span. She assumed he must be occupied with thoughts of Angeal's disappearance and needed a distraction.

If not, he would always offer to train together with him. An offer she would occasionally accept when she was not on missions.

Once he had found out that she was the sole student of Shinra's SOLDIER hero, she was frequently approached by Zack, asking questions on what being Sephiroth's student was like and if he was as standoffish towards his own student as he was to the others. She reckoned he did not like Sephiroth very much after his comment on Angeal defecting together with Genesis. If not, he would often ask her about herself, how long she had been a SOLDIER, the kind of missions she went on and the things she had seen outside Midgar.

It was... kind of strange when she thought about it.

She never had anyone asked her about herself. Most of the time she was asked about Sephiroth himself and what he was like, and if she could put a good word on them to her mentor. When she was asked about herself, it was more along the lines of how she got to be Sephiroth's student and if he would take them in as well. Some of the more hostile people she encountered wanted to see if they could beat her down, saying a girl like her should never be a part of SOLDIER and if she was taken down, the SOLDIER hero might just drop her and take them as his student instead.

Needless to say, none had succeeded thus far and the others avoided her from then on.

Zack was such a strange guy sometimes.

A phone ring snapped her out from her thoughts and she flipped it out bringing it to her ear. "SOLDIER 2nd class, Sera?" An unknown male's voice spoke from the other end of the line.

"This is her speaking. Who is this?"

The person at the other end did not answer and instead spoke monotonously. "Director Lazard wants to see you. Go to the briefing room."

Then the line ended before she could repeat her question and she sighed before pocketing back her phone.

'Maybe I can find out who it was when I head over there,' Sera thought, walking in the direction of the briefing room and ignoring the whispers when a familiar voice called out towards her.

"Sera, wait up a minute!"

Sera stopped in her tracks and turned to the side to see Zack jogging towards her. "You going to the briefing room too?" Zack asked once he reached her and she nodded, the both of them walking in step together in the direction of the briefing room.

"I assumed you got the call as well." Zack nodded. "Yeah, I wonder who that was anyway? It wasn't a voice I heard before. Got any ideas?" Sera shook her head.

Then someone spoke up as they were walking, "Hey Zack, trying to smooth talk the SOLDIER bitch to get into 1st Class? Hah, good luck with that!" A round of laughter was heard.

"What did you just say?" In a blink of an eye, the one who spoke out was suddenly pinned to the wall with an arm to the throat and the laughter stopped immediately. Zack glared furiously at the speaker, his muscular arm's pressed firmly against the man's throat nearly choking him and Zack growled. "What gives you the right to call Sera that? She never even did anything to you!"

"Isn't that what she is?" The one pinned to the wall choked out defiantly. "The SOLDIER program is freakishly tough to get in and even tougher to rise up in ranks, and this girl just showed up out of nowhere and already a SOLDIER 2nd class. She even got to be the hero's only student. She's probably not even that skilled and bedded her way in to achieve that rank!"

"You take that back right now! Sera's nothing like that and I bet she's even more skilled than all of you put together! I've seen her in action myself! Heck, she could probably wipe the damn floor with you-!"

"That's enough, Zack," Sera cut him off, placing a gloved hand on his shoulder to pull him back before things could escalate any further. "Fighting here would only earn you a penalty for your actions and we don't want to keep the director waiting."

Zack paused, still pissed about the words that were spoken about Sera but debated for a moment in his mind and with a click of his tongue, he shoved the offender away, glaring at him. "You're lucky Sera was nice enough to let you go or I would've pummeled you to the ground. People like you don't deserve to get into SOLDIER if you're gonna disrespect your comrades, no matter who he or she is!"

With that, the two SOLDIER 2nd class walked away from the group, ignoring the mutters behind them as they continued on towards, turning at a corner and Zack mumbled angrily.

"Those assholes!" Zack glared in front of him. "They have no right to diss you just because you're a girl!"

"Just ignore them, Zack," Sera spoke calmly. "They're only like this because they couldn't get into SOLDIER quickly and are simply trying to feel better about themselves."

"How the hell are you so calm about this?" Zack turned to her, angry and confused about her emotionless attitude towards what just transpired. "Aren't you pissed off at that those idiots talking about you like that? Why didn't you say anything back?"

"It would accomplish nothing, and I'm already used to it," Sera told him, as though it was just a daily occurrence. "I've been going through this my whole life on almost a daily basis. Ever since I was a child in Shinra."

"What?!" Zack abruptly halted in his tracks, looking at Sera dumbfoundedly as she just continued forward. Only stopping when Zack was not walking beside her. "Are you serious? Why didn't you say anything? Heck, why didn't you tell someone?"

"And what would that accomplish?" Zack couldn't say anything back. "Exactly. Nothing. Telling about it would only show that I couldn't even take on something as trivial as this. By getting into a fight I will only be proving them right in saying that I am unskilled. But I know who I am and I know that it was my skills and teachings that got me this far, not what you just heard. I don't need anyone telling me otherwise."

Then Sera walked towards Zack and placed a hand on his shoulder. "But, thank you," Sera gave him a small smile in gratitude, "for defending me. You're the first person to outwardly defend me against those idiots just now and so thank you for that." With that, she removed her hand from his shoulders and turned to continue forward. "Let's go. The director may be wondering where we are and he may have some new information about your mentor."

Zack stood still for a moment, his anger lost at her words and the small smile shown to him before a wide grin appeared on his face and he jogged to catch up with her.