Beyond the Veil

Disclaimer: I only own Ami-kun, the rest of everything is owned by other people, mostly Square-Enix. I'd like to thank everyone who has sent me feedback on this fic- you've all helped me out.

Prologue

Ami sighed in annoyance as she entered her apartment. It was small- it didn't need to be big. It was just a room with a bed and a bathroom. She mostly used it as a place to keep the few belongings she kept and where she could relax. It didn't need a kitchen since it was within the establishment she ran. If she needed food, all she had to do was call down to whoever the cook was that night. She cursed under her breath as she sat down- it had been a grueling day on the job.

First of all, one of her girls had been found dead and she knew why. It was a message to her from yet another gang. The rising gang activity looked like it was heading to a full-scale turf war. But still, she could come out of it richer like she always did. It helped that she had people within all of the gangs in town. Then she could start selling information to both sides and rake in the cash. Of course, if the other side were to find out that she was playing both sides, she would make sure that whichever side knew wouldn't exist anymore. It always was good pay to sell information to the local cops too.

She stretched her back by leaning as far back as she could, noting that even if her back wasn't that great, she still had her flexibility to lean back so her back was parallel to the ground. She felt a few pops coming from her back as she slowly started to lean as far forward as she could, touching the floor as she done so.

She decided that perhaps a nice hot bath would help her nerves and her back a bit. She had a slight limp as she walked into the bathroom, something she had ever since she took a rather nasty fall in her high school years. Since then, she swore she had developed arthritis. And it didn't help that she could feel a storm coming through the healed fracture in her left foot. Oh yeah, it was burning a great deal as did the rest of the fractured bones. It was a sad fact that she had enough titanium in her to be a wonderful human lightning rod if she was ever outside during a thunderstorm. She could feel the rods of metal hum with the static in the air, but knew that she should be fine since the whole building was grounded properly- even if she was covered in water inside, she shouldn't get shocked.

She grabbed her pajamas off of the top of her bed and limped into the bathroom, finally turning on the light, illuminating the apartment. Closing the door behind her, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her face looked back at her, making her look underage when she was an adult. It was still round, her widow's peak making it look more heart-shaped. Twisting on her neck was her dragon tattoo. It curved around her neck, a black and jagged serpent with only two visible arms ending with two claws each. She had a small quartz stud on her right nostril that she reached to remove but decided otherwise.

Her eyes were an empty brown that would be considered decidedly average if they weren't both close and deep set. She frowned, her bottom lip scarred to the point of looking like it was missing a chunk out of it. Her nose was a short and thick stub that drew her hatred almost as much as her skeletal structure. She was built like a Panzer- thick and obviously capable of taking damage and dishing it out. She knew that what she hated about herself made her the most intimidating woman in the area- at her full five-foot-ten, she was taller than most women and clearly more muscular. No one longer wanted to get into a fight with her.

Whether it was because of her intelligence network, her girls, her mean right hook, or them just not wanting to be tackled to the ground and crushed under two hundred pounds of muscle and bone. It didn't matter to her. She knew she had power now and she would keep it as long as she could.

She took off her shirt and pants, revealing herself in her underwear. It was like this that if she turned just right, she could see the wing tattoos on her back- the one on her right was white and the one on her back was as black as the dragon on her neck.

It was also like this that she could see how her waist barely curved into her hips and that she still had the same breasts as she did when she was sixteen except that they were pushed forward due to her muscles. She didn't need anyone to tell her that she looked masculine- she could see it in some of her girl's glances. It didn't bother her much- as long as they didn't assault her, she was fine with the looks.

She heard the door to her apartment open and she stood to the side of her bathroom door as quietly as one could move barefoot on tile flooring. She went on a defensive posture, her hands balled up in fists. 'Either they'll shoot first or they'll open the door first. Either way, they won't know what hit them,' she thought, readying herself to attack whoever dared to violate her apartment.

The sound of the door opening was what sent her into the darkness as she tackled whoever it was. Female laughter rung out before clearly being a gasp of terror. She didn't do more, realizing that the woman was unarmed. Getting up, she walked to flip the switch to turn on the lights of her apartment.

Wearing a two-piece bikini was a girl who looked like she might just be underage but she knew that her birth records showed her to be eighteen. She was rather well endowed with curves that would make any man get a bit arm under the collar. Way under the collar. Long, straight black hair and blue eyes, what many men would call a dark beauty.

Ami could only let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose before giving the girl a glare.

"What were ya doing, walking in like ya owned this place?" she asked, her voice even and showing no emotion whatsoever.

"I just...I just wanted to see you...I...I love you..." the woman said.

'And I told this woman that I didn't like women like that. I just don't roll that way! What is she thinking! Doesn't she ever listen to me!' she thought inwardly, her mental words biting and angry.

"It would mean more to a man," Ami stated, her voice as empty of emotion as her face.

"But it means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me," the woman said, standing up.

"But the thing is, you're just another of my employees who I can just fire an' kick out. Because you've shown me disrespect by violating my privacy, you have an hour to leave and take everything of yours with you," Ami said, "good-bye Elise."

"you don't feel anything, don't you?" Elise said, reaching up to touch Ami's cheek to cup it, getting it slapped away.

"Don't you ever touch me. If you do so again, you will find yourself in a field out in the boonies with a backhoe dropping dirt on you," Ami said, her glare deepening.

Elise looked heartbroken and on the verge of crying as she looked at Ami as if Ami had grown a second head or was a complete monster.

"They are right! You are the 'Ice Queen'!" the woman exclaimed before running off, slamming Ami's door behind her.

"And good riddance," Ami stated with a frown as thunder heard far off, making the rods of metal feel like they were going to cook her alive due to electricity.

"I hate this weather," Ami stated, realizing that a hot bath sounded better by the moment, realizing darkly that the pain was not unlike the time that she had unknowingly chewed a piece of tin foil with her food until it made contact with the filling in a molar.

'Now, if everyone and their dog could just leave me well enough alone, I can finally take my shower,' Ami thought, completely angry as she started to run the water to her bath.

.:.

"Is the Machine ready?" Hojo asked one of his aides who was walking into the lab.

"Yes, Professor. It's going through its warm-up sequence," the aide replied.

"Excellent. Make sure that President Shinra is alerted to the status of the Machine," Hojo stated, grinning.

"You do know that there's a high likelihood that the Machine won't summon anything at all," Professor Gast warned over the radio.

"If anything is summoned, SOLDIER will benefit from it," Hojo stated.

Gast only shook his head, knowing sometimes Hojo had to learn about risks on his own.

.:.

"President, the Machine is going through its warm-up sequence," a scientist stated.

"Excellent."

.:.

"C'mon already!" Zack exclaimed, "how long do they expect us to wait?"

"However long it takes for the Machine to warm-up and do whatever it's supposed to do," Angeal replied, smiling at his young pupil while the SOLDIERs around them were shifting their weight around, trying everything to abate boredom.

However, the small group of SOLDIERs stood at attention when a black-clad man strode into the room. Everyone in the city of Midgar knew who the man was. What's Sephiroth doing here? Zack pondered as Angeal and a red-clad man in the group merely nodded in respect. That alone caused Zack to wonder. Do they know Sephiroth? Behind Sephiroth marched in Hojo and a group of scientists who walked to the controls of the mechanical chimera of a machine. They saw Sephiroth scoff at the x made of blue tape that was placed to signify where they expected any otherworldly guests to show up.

No one really understood why Sephiroth stood five feet to the right of the tape, facing the tape. Some say that he was prepared in case the guest would be hostile. Others say that he was fearless and was proving it to everyone in the room. Whatever the case, he stood there as serene as if made from stone as the machine started to make its ominous growl. Everyone in the room could feel expectations rise as the air became charged and smelled like the wind usually did before a rain storm.

.:.

Ami sat back in the tub overfilling with steaming hot water, feeling all the stress melting away with her lavender bath salts. She let out a sigh as the room was already mostly hidden in the steam from her bath. She settled deeper into the tub, the water rising to her chin as she rested her neck against the back of the tub and closed her eyes.

'This is the life,' Ami thought to herself, feeling everything melting away except the sharp, sizzling pain and the thunder.

What she wasn't aware of was the room becoming more and more clouded by mist before she felt like she was falling before her and her bathwater landed on a cold linoleum floor. Her eyes jolted open as the mist slowly cleared. She looked around the room, seeing that the room was almost full of men and she knew she was naked.

She knew that they all already had an eye full, so any attempt at modesty was long gone. Not that she was ever modest after the age of seventeen. She wasn't an exhibitionist, but knew when modesty was a moot point. Like that very moment. Besides, this just had to be a dream. How else could one explain how she was in her tub one moment and the next, she was there, in some room in only god knows where with all sorts of muscular men eying her like a lion eyes a gazelle.

Her eyes turned to the closest man, one who wore what she would call fetish armor, holding what looked to be a seven foot sword and had hip-length silver hair. She recognized him from a video game series she once played and frowned.

"What the fu-" she trailed off in surprise as she stood up, noticing that the man was blushing.

She quickly looked around, seeing that some of the men were either blushing and diverting their eyes or were blushing and eying her, almost like they were etching her body into their minds. Such reactions made her feel stronger, more powerful. She wondered idly if she shot them a practiced smile if they would just melt into a pile of goo.

Unable to resist, she just had to do her sweet smile at them, seeing that they must have been really starved for action to nearly swoon over her of all people.

"I would appreciate it if you can limit the amount of female wiles you inflict on my men," the white haired man said sternly, his face and voice devoid of emotion.

"It would be harder to do so if they weren't so starved for action," Ami stated in a similar tone, her voice becoming as emotionless as the man who regarded her.

"Here," a studious elder man who wore a lab coat and gave her all sorts of heebie jeebies said, handing her a robe.

She recognized him too and lowered a glare at the man she knew was Dr. Hojo before snatching it from Hojo's grip.

"I assume this is just one crazy dream and I'm not really here," Ami stated, covering her cooling skin with the robe.

"I'm quite sure that this is quite real, miss. It was my machine that brought you here," Hojo said.

"Then won't you be so kind to send me back?" Ami said, her tone pleasant, her eyes showing that her words were a threat.

She could tell how Hojo backed away like a frightened mouse that the man got the hidden message.

"I'm sorry but it doesn't work that way," Hojo said timidly.

"You better make it work that way before I have my way with you," she said, her voice low and emotionless, her eyes narrowing in a near-laser-ish way.

Hojo found himself relieved that she couldn't produce laser eye beams or else he just might be dead. He found himself wondering how this woman could be different from the humans of this world- after all, she looked perfectly human. Well, except that she looked quite masculine except for her obvious womanly parts. He couldn't help but to think that she was the opposite of Sephiroth- where Sephiroth was an almost effeminate male, she was a rather masculine female. But they both seemed to be skilled at controlling their emotions and at the art of the death glare. That led to a train of thought of what would happen if they were to be bred- assuming of course that the woman had something that made her a desirable breeding partner with Sephiroth.

"I can't allow you to harm anyone here," Ami heard right after she threatened Hojo.

She found that her standard reply came jumping out of her mouth fully-formed before realizing that it would be the absolute worst thing to say.

"Yeah. You an' what army?" Ami asked in a tone that those close to her would say belligerent, but it was nearly emotionless.

She cringed inwardly until she saw Sephiroth almost smirking. He was obviously quite amused at her. It was a good thing that he seemed to have a sense of humor as shown by what he then said and did.

"That army, actually," Sephiroth said, his tone and expression amused as he motioned to the crowd of uniformed men.

"Right," Ami said, still shocked at how her usual challenge to authority jumped out of her lips before composing herself, "I still wanna go back."

"I'm sorry but you're stuck here," Hojo said moments before she grabbed him by his lab coat before he could get out of her reach.

"What? You will take me back. Or else," she said, almost losing control of her rage.

"Let him go before I make you," Sephiroth warned, his breath hitting her ear as she could feel cold metal go through the robe to poke her skin.

"You're only so tough because of that sword," Ami stated, her hands letting go of Hojo's lab coat, "without it, I bet you're just a white-haired weakling. After all, only those that are weak rely on weapons-."

Before she knew it, she found herself sliding on the linoleum. Only half a second after she realized that she was on the ground did her shoulder start to erupt in pain. She looked up to see Sephiroth staring at her, one hand holding Masamune, the other was balled into a fist. And all she could do was stare dumbly as he smirked at her.

"Still think I'm weak?" Sephiroth asked, walking towards her.

She couldn't trust her mouth to keep her from getting killed and looked up at Sephiroth. Even she knew that she had to look terrified as Masamune was pointed at her, the tip close enough to her nose that she swore she could feel the cold steel. She couldn't help but to look up the sword's length and straight to him before shaking her head side to side, careful of the sword.

"Well?" Sephiroth verbally prodded, the sword coming closer, making her scrabble backwards.

"No...you're not weak," Ami said, looking down at the sword, not knowing if she was going to be skewered or not.

"I hope you didn't cause irreparable damage to the girl," Hojo stated, coming into her view.

"I've done more damage to myself than he has. It was just enough to knock me 'round," Ami said quietly.

"He could have shattered your shoulder," Hojo stated.

"Can't shatter titanium," Ami said, "dent it, yes. Shatter it, no."

She looked up to see startled looks on both Hojo and Sephiroth's faces.

"It sounds like once we get you to the lab, we're going to have to go over your medical history," Hojo stated, almost gleefully before turning to Sephiroth, "take her to Examination Room Seven. I will be there shortly."

Sephiroth did a curt nod before moving Masamune out of Ami's face.

"Get up or I make you," she heard Sephiroth say, sounding all kinds of stern and taciturn.

Ami almost caught herself getting up before deciding to be difficult since it was clear that Hojo wanted her alive. Which meant she could annoy Sephiroth as much as she wanted and the most he could do was hit her. It gave her an advantage.

"You're not the boss of me," Ami said, looking at Sephiroth, glaring at him.

"I am now. Now stand up."

"Go bite a rock. I've got no reason to listen to ya. Ya can't kill me with your pointy sword, let alone hurt me," Ami said, "not without the good doctor over there having an aneurysm while screaming atcha."

"And my men has their guns loaded with tranquilizer darts. Do you want to walk there or be carried there unconscious?" Sephiroth asked before saying, "and I can't guarantee what they might do to you behind my back."

Ami shot him a venomous glare before standing up. Once she was standing, Ami could feel a hand grab her shoulder solidly and she was forcibly frog-marched out of the room. Of course, due to the fact that she had always had authority issues, she was doing what she could to slow down, stall, or escape. And what bothered her the most was that he obviously knew each and every trick in her book of tricks.

"How the hell d'ya know each trick?" Ami asked as she was led into an elevator.

"I used to try every single trick when I was younger," Sephiroth stated evenly.

"I might just surprise ya," Ami said, feeling the constant presence of Sephiroth's hand on her shoulder.

"If you don't stop with your futile foolishness, I know of ways to make you hurt without causing irreparable damage," he said with clear menace in his voice.

"Why are ya even following that mad scientist's orders? Has he really gotcha that well trained?" Ami asked, finding that he slowly applied pressure to the shoulder he had punched minutes ago, making her let out a small squeal of pain.

"I'm not enjoying the fact that I'm inflicting Hojo on someone who's biggest flaws that I can see is a big mouth and authority issues," Sephiroth said.

"Wow. I wonder if I can have Hojo train my troublesome puppy since he managed to train ya so we-ow!" Ami said before silenced by pressure being applied to her shoulder.

"I'm starting to think a few years in Hojo's care might fix a few of your flaws."

"Why? It hasn't fixed yours," Ami spat back, "personally, I think he might have caused a good many of yours."

"How do you know so much?" Sephiroth asked, curious amusement in his voice.

"Stories of this world. In them, you're seen as either a great swordsman or a psychopath with mother issues and a god complex. Depends on opinion of those who know the story," Ami said with a shrug.

"I know perfectly well that I'm no god," Sephiroth said, "but what was your opinion, I wonder."

"My opinion was that you were only badass because of the Masamune," Ami said.

"And I assume your opinion has changed?" Sephiroth asked.

"I can't say they haven't. Now I'm of the opinion that you're an emotionally unstable psychopath who is enjoying tormenting a poor woman an' practically gift-wrapping her to hand over to Hojo to do god-knows-what to her. From the stories fans of the stories have written, they've portrayed ya as a tough but fair commander who usually teach through the school of making those who screw up scared shitless with a single glare."

"That sounds about right," Sephiroth stated, obviously amused.

"And to think, that's maybe a small fraction of fan-made stories," Ami said as the doors opened and she was marched out of the elevator and down the hall.

"And the others?" Sephiroth asked.

"Usually involves ya doing the dirty with members of either gender. Usually other men, actually," Ami said.

"Hmph. I assure you, I'm not interested in either gender," Sephiroth stated.

"So ya say," Ami said before she felt pain erupt from her shoulder, "not that it doesn't hurt, but I've been through worse."

"Hm?" Sephiroth asked.

"Two words: wisdom teeth."

"Which are?" Sephiroth asked.

"Don't ya guys form a third molar that usually grows so unusual that it needs to be removed usually between the ages of sixteen and twenty?"

"Can't speak for everyone, but no one I've known had ever had what you're explaining."

"Ah. Lucky. The third molars are known as Wisdom Teeth since they appear near the age of eighteen which used to be seen as the age of wisdom. Usually, any patient who gets them removed usually look forward to a liquid diet for two days, Codeine for a week, no drinking from straws for two weeks. My jaw hasn't felt the same since."

"Sounds like quite an interesting experience."

"I was knocked out with somethin' that made me loopy. My dad use'ta say that if he hadn't been there to see me goin' into the dentist's, he'd have thought I was drinkin' again," Ami said before frowning as she was marched into the lab.

She watched as Hollander and Ghast looked at her with a pleasant enough demeanor.

"Hojo sent up word to us to go through your past medical history," Hollander said.

"I assume I'm to make sure that she behaves and doesn't hurt anyone," Sephiroth stated.

"It seems like the best bet," Ghast said, "we're not sure if she's dangerous alone."

"Wimps. I use'ta beat up geeks like ya all for lunch money," Ami stated with a sneer before Sephiroth increased the pressure on her shoulder.

She wouldn't be too surprised if she was found to have a bruised or fractured shoulder. All courtesy of the local troubled bishonen swordmaster who was also all too obviously a psychopath in her mind. She bit back any sound of pain, instead shooting a glare at Sephiroth. Right before she felt him slap her.

"I can and will slap any glares at me off your face," he stated, "don't forget who's your better."

"That would be no one, right?" she bit back after spitting out a bit of blood, seeing one of her teeth on the floor, "an' I liked that tooth."

"You should have thought at that before-" Sephiroth stated right before Hojo walked in and saw the blood and the tooth before looking at the girl with a split lip and an angry Sephiroth.

"What the-! DID I NOT MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" Hojo shrilly screamed at Sephiroth.

"She's alive," Sephiroth stated coolly.

"But look at her! She looks like you just hit her again!" Hojo screamed.

"Hojo, he did just hit her again." Hollander said.

"You!" Hojo started, screaming and pointing at Sephiroth as a vein popped out on his forehead before pointing to the door, screaming, "get out! Stand outside and keep her in!"

Sephiroth squeezed her wounded shoulder one last time, letting go once she let out a cry of pain before letting go and striding outside of the room. He was quite aware of twin glares focusing on his back before he left the room.

.:.

Author's Note: 12/9/10

Well, after having a crap-tastic day and finding out that the college I'm still trying to get into have a group of bureaucratic paperwork ninjas for Financial Aid workers, it looks like my hope of enrolling in January isn't going to happen. I had my hopes up and they came crashing down. So I focused on this.

First of all, I apologize for not working on this for years. It took me this long to lick my wounds and climb out of my rut following my dad's death. Some of the emo-ness may be echoed in my work. Or it might not. Who knows.

I decided that since I haven't worked on this for years but I've continued to write since, I realized that BtV as a whole could use some polish. What really convinced me to rewrite this was that I found a handwritten version of Chapters Two and Three that was originally my inspiration of doing this kind of fic. And what I realized was that the Ami of those chapters is completely different of little rich brat Ami. The Ami of the written chapters was a little punk that was streetwise and had stories that wouldn't have happened to the little rich Ami. So I decided to change Ami back to who I originally imagined her to be.

I figure if enough people flame me for it, I'll just change it back or something.

Also, I felt that the extra props from Earth was really lazy writing on my part and was a really cheap thing to do on my part and I decided that she shouldn't have that much on her person. In fact, I decided she would appear in Gaia without even clothes- nothing to really cement her identity other than her reaction.

I also want to explain a bit behind Sephiroth's action of hurting her one last time. I know it was very sadistic, but if someone treated you like Ami has treated Sephiroth, wouldn't you want to inflict pain on them just to see them in a weaker position? It just sounded like a Sephy-ish thing to do. He'd see her as an upstart who thinks she's better than him and he's just trying to teach her through the school of hard knocks that here on Gaia, she's not better than he is. He seems like a character to have multiple reasons to do something.

And I just realized something- whenever Ami meets Reno, all heck's gonna break loose. At least Sephy already has white hair so when the two of them ever team up to cause havoc (a match made down under and I don't mean Australia), they can't give poor Sephy gray hairs. I just can see them teaming up just to annoy Sephy up until he lowers his death glare of doom.

I've also realized that I've found two songs that would fit as her theme song- Post-Apocalypse Punk and Victorian Vigilante both by Abney Park (a steampunk band). It kinda fits cause FF7 is pretty close to steampunk as far as technology goes.

Laters!

~Gregora

Next time on BtV: Sephiroth gets a call to the labs and finds out more about the mysterious woman. What secrets might he discover about the woman?