Mulans of FFVII: Ch 1. Introductions

     Skye bit the inside of her mouth, trying not to show her nervousness and stop herself from wrapping an arm around her abdomen. Her commander was walking with her through the halls of ShinRa's military offices. He glanced back at her.
     "Are you alright?"
     "Yes, sir." He smirked.
     "Just call me Sephiroth. I promise I'm not as stuck up as the rest of the commanders."  He tilted his head to the side. "You look a little pale…" She nodded tiredly.
     "I'm… It's just bad timing right now." He nodded, understanding what she meant.
     "And I assume that those bindings aren't helping much. It can't be very easy to breathe."
     "Yes…"
     "I'll be sure to get you some medicine when you need it; just let me know." He led her into a side room. "Just to be sure that I have everything straight: You said that you were unable to alter your voice to match a male's?" She nodded.
     "Yes. We decided that my best bet for remaining hidden was to keep silent. Our story for it is that I lost my vocal cords to a disease. They had to be removed to keep the disease from spreading." Sephiroth nodded.
     "Would you mind explaining your overall story to me again? I need to make sure that my story matches."
     "Alright. My parents abandoned me as a child in the Wutai district shortly after my surgery; they couldn't pay for my medical bills. I came across the ocean by stowing away on a ferry. A sailor on the ship found me and adopted me. He was the one who told me about ShinRa's SOLDIER program. After that, the rest is history." Sephiroth nodded.
     "Makes sense. But in reality…"
     "In reality, we're working for our country. We made an exchange. A group of us kids enter into the program in exchange for ShinRa helping our country to get out of the energy crisis our country started."  Sephiroth smirked.
     "So you're planning on hiding who you really are until ShinRa makes the big reveal. Hm…You really do care about your country don't you?"
     "Yeah, but… I guess it feels like this place… might be my home too…" He raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I'm getting a bit emotional…" His hand gently rested on her shoulder.
     "It's time… There's a Mako shower in the next room with your name on it." She nodded. "After that, I'll show you to your bunker." Skye nodded and walked into the side room.
     Mako was an… interesting thing to be showered with. Skye stood back to back with her friends, all of them briefly free of their disguises. Even with her eyes closed, she could see the green glow that poured down on them like rainwater. Everywhere that it touched felt strangely warm, like the sun itself was raining liquid light on her skin. Rivulets of it poured through her cropped hair, down her back, and over her face. And inside of her heart, a second pulse beat time, slow and steady, one beat for every five of hers. Only this heart beat was stronger, shaking the very core of her being with its force.
     The Lifestream was merging with her very soul.

     The bunkers weren't exactly real bunkers, more like dorm rooms, as Skye soon discovered. They were placed in levels thirty to fifty of the ShinRa company building. The bottom eight bunker floors were reserved for officers and their choice of lower ranking SOLDIERS. One half of the very bottom floor was the mess hall, the other half was the officers' quarters.
     Sephiroth had arranged for Skye to be assigned the fourth room at that level. There were only four rooms, one of which was his.
     "So, this whole dorm is mine?" she signed.
     "Yes. And since they are your quarters, you may personalize them however you'd like." Suddenly they heard a pair of voices arguing just down the hall. "And those would be the other two on this floor…" Suddenly her door flew open.
     "Hey! Seph, what's up!?" A raven haired boy and one who looked like his blonde hair was styled after a chocobo half fell into the room. Sephiroth sighed.
     "Well, I guess we had to get rid of the introductions eventually. Skye, these two nut cases are Zack and Cloud." He signaled out the black haired one first and then the blonde. She waved shyly. "Zack, Cloud, this is Skye." Zack was the first one to walk over to her.
     "Hey, so you're the new recruit?" She nodded. "Well, if you need any help, I'm a second-class, so I'll do what whatever I can to help."
     "Thank you," she signed. "I really appreciate the offer." Zack blinked in shock for a moment.
     "You can't speak?" asked Cloud. She shook her head.
     "My vocal cords had to be removed when I was a child. They were diseased." Zack raised an eyebrow.
     "That's amazing… Do you have a scar on your neck?" Sephiroth felt his jaw stiffen. Skye hadn't told him if she had a cover for this. Skye managed to relieve his fear though, nodding and tilting her head back to reveal a thin line that crossed her neck from the right corner of her jaw to the left collar bone, miraculously missing most of the vital spots. "Whoa! Cloud, check this out! He's got a wicked mark there!" Cloud crowded closer examining the scar.
     "Dang… it still looks a little red…" Skye lowered her chin and nodded.
     "It didn't heal the way it was supposed to, so it still pulls sometimes."
     "Alright," interjected Sephiroth, "I've got to get him settled in, which means that you two need to go and train for a while or something." Cloud sighed but nodded. Zack also agreed. Once they had left the room, Sephiroth sighed. "Well, Skye. I guess that we can't keep thinking of you as a girl anymore…" He led her around the building, showing her the main areas of the place. Afterwards he left her alone to get settled into her space.
     'This is going to be heck in a hand basket...' Skye finally decided as she unpacked the various elements of her disguise and buried the few girl items that she had, namely a handful of breast bands, cover bands, a few pairs of emergency panties, and pads and tampons. These, she hid under a false bottomed drawer that Sephiroth had shown her, and then hid the whole thing under a few piles of boxers. 'I wonder how the others are doing.' As if in answer to her musings, she heard a knock at the door. The door eased open slightly to reveal Lyss and Shell standing in the hall. Skye waved them in.
     "Hey, Skye. Have you seen Inebar?" Skye shook her head. Lyss ran a hand through her hair.
     "We've been looking for her for the past hour… We can't even get a hold of her commander," Shell supplied. Skye nodded.
     "Listen… we've got to be careful about talking to each other," Skye signed. "In fact, we'd probably be better off if we acted like we didn't even know each other." Lyss sighed.
     "You're right… but we'll have to check in with each other from time to time…" Shell nodded.
     "I'll talk to the Director, we might be able to set up some kind of meeting time." Skye smirked and nodded her assent.
     "I'll see you soon then." They exchanged a quick series of hugs. Suddenly Skye held up a hand. "One last thing: Who's putting bets on when Heath bugs out?"

     Skye woke up the next morning and promptly decided that her mindset was forever changed. She was going to have to get used to others referring to her as a guy. Whenever she thought she would know to think in the female pronouns, but others would always do the opposite. Firmly settling into this thought pattern, she swung her legs out of bed and leaned straight into a stretch, loosening up sides and back as best she could. As she leaned forward to touch her toes, she spotted an envelope with her name on it tucked under the door. She dipped a bit lower into the stretch, enjoying the relief it gave the period strained muscles in her lower back. Slowly, so as not to leave herself light headed, she straightened up and retrieved the letter. It was from Cloud. He was offering to show her around the training grounds. She knocked on her door twice, signaling a yes. From the other side, someone knocked back once to show that they'd heard her.
     "I'll meet you in the mess hall, Skye," he called. From behind the door, she heard him walking down the hall in the direction of the mess hall. She stretched a few more times, loosening up her legs and arms. She withdrew her bindings and quickly donned her disguise. The uniform of a Second-class was surprisingly comfortable, seeing as the sweater was warm and soft over her bindings, and the pants were baggy enough to allow for her wider hips without causing undue attention.
     Skye was mildly surprised to discover that the mess hall served infantry soldiers as well as SOLDIER members. Stepping into the line, Skye picked up a tray and started putting together her breakfast from the buffet.
     "Hey, you one of the newbie's?" Skye turned around to face the purple uniform of a Third-class SOLDIER. She nodded. "Hey, my name's Kunstrel. If you need help figuring things out, just let me know."
     "Thank you," she signed out. He smiled and walked over to a table full of Third-class SOLDIERS. Skye turned around and scanned the mess hall. Cloud spotted her and leapt to his feet, waving at her. She smiled, walking over to them. Their table consisted of Cloud, Zack, two other infantry man, and a pair of other First-classes. Zack and Cloud scooted apart to make room for her.
     "Hey, Skye!" Zack slung an arm over her shoulder. He ruffled her cropped hair.
     "So, this is the one who was promoted straight to Second-class…?" Skye looked up to meet the Mako enhanced gaze of Commander Angeal Hewley. "What's your name, son?" Skye gently signed out her name and respectfully bowed her head. He smiled. "Skye, please don't worry about being so formal. We honestly don't care," he said, gesturing to Commander Genesis Rhapsodos to include him in the 'we.' Genesis clearly didn't care, seeing as his nose was buried into his copy of Loveless . Zack smirked.
     "You got into the program at a great time!" one of the cadets said. "From the sound of things, you and the other new recruits are going to get the chance to go out on missions in three days!" Skye paused mid way through a bite of powdered eggs, her fork hovering over her plate.
     "Three days?" she asked.
     "That's right," said a voice from behind her. Zack jumped to his feet instinctively, followed by Skye and the cadets, all five of them saluting dutifully at General Sephiroth. "Skye, don't worry about it. You and Cloud will be working directly under me, along with Angeal and Zackary." Skye nodded nervously.