Crisis Core: The Female SOLDIER

22

"The number you have dialed is unavailable right now. Please try again later. Thank you."

Sera sighed as the automated voice response answered once again. She hung up when she heard the automated voice repeated itself and pocketed her phone, looking at the sky through the window from the bedroom in her apartment. It's been a week since the last Genesis attack. For some reason, Sephiroth had yet to answer whenever she tried to call him about what Hojo had meant. Surely he would know something right?

"I wonder... what would he do if he learned the truth?"

"What truth?"

"About his origins."

"His origins?"

Hojo's words kept circling in her head, causing more questions to pop up and it was driving her mad. Just what was the truth about his origins? Surely Sephiroth himself would know where he came from right? He had a mother and a father who had raised him and they were...

Sera realized then that she didn't know much about her mentor's past. She could remember the times he used to tell her stories about his experiences when he was just an infantryman, together with Angeal and Genesis, how they met and how the three of them got accepted into SOLDIER and grew to become the best that Shinra has ever known. But not once did he mentioned about his past before he was in Shinra, about his mother and father and the place he was born. Surely, he would have spoken about his hometown before, right? But Sephiroth had not mentioned anything about them.

'Unless...' Sera's eyes widened with realization. Unless he was just like her. An orphan with no memories of his past except for his name before he was found and taken into Shinra. Where he was raised his whole life before he joined the military. Where he met and found friends in both Genesis and Angeal before the three of them became the best of Shinra's SOLDIER.

'Could Sephiroth be... the same as me?' Sera wondered to herself.

Before she could think further on this, she heard her phone ringing and she snatched it up and brought it to her ear, thinking it was her mentor who was calling.

"Se-"

"Hey, Sera?" A younger, but also familiar, man's voice spoke from the other end instead. "It's me, Zack."

"Oh," Sera's shoulders slumped in disappointment before she shook it off. "What is it, Zack?"

"Uh... this sounds really stupid, but I got a favor to ask."

"What is it?"

"Couldyouhelpmebuildawagon?"

'Huh?' Sera couldn't catch any of the fast-paced words."...What?"

She heard a sigh from the other end, possibly Zack trying to calm his nerves if his jumbled words just now were any indication, and he spoke a bit more slowly, a lot more nervous too. "I said... could you help me... Build a wagon?"

A moment of awkward silence ensued, and Sera pinched the bridge of her nose. "Zack," Sera started out slowly. "Why do you want to build a wagon?"

Silence was heard from the other end, and Sera got her answer. "It's for Aerith, isn't it?"

There was a sheepish "yes."

"Why on Gaia does she want a wagon?"

"She was growing flowers at the church where I woke up at," Zack referred to the time when he had fallen into the slums. "I suggested she should sell them since flowers are pretty rare in Midgar and offered to build a wagon for her-"

"Only to realize you can't build a wagon, is that it?" Sera finished, cutting him off.

"No, I can build a wagon. I learned from my dad back home. It's just," Zack tried to phrase his words properly. "I don't know how to make one that would suit her, since she'll be using it to sell flowers. Can you help me out? Please?"