Epilogue chapter.

For some, this is the last you'll be reading of Training. Rest assured that you'll not be missing horribly too much if you end your connection to this story right here. I'll do my absolute best to leave questions previously left unanswered, answered. It's short, but I don't think it needs to be any longer than it is. If I missed anything you're still confused about, let me know and I'll send you a pm.

For the rest of you, prepare for yet another bumpy ride. There is going to be a sequel.

Training- Epilogue

A summary would do no justice, because that's basically just what this is, in POV format. Thank you for reading.

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It ain't too hard to see where shit started going wrong. You give people power, and they'll create the fear of their own accord. You give people love, and they'll destroy anything in their way, breeding their own kind of hatred if you dare try and take that from them. Too much power is a death wish though, and when Shinra decided he wanted his fat ass to have everything held in his stubby little fingers, his own people drew the line. SOLDIER numbers are reduced now, to a select few, fighting alongside us under one ruler. The Shinra name reigns once more, but the name ringing around town this time is Rufus, and they offer nothing for him but praise. I suppose the smug little bastard always got what he wanted. He had his father's company, and he held nothing but an undying love from everyone around him. Shinra wasn't known as Shinra anymore though. No, the little blonde bastard decided against it, insisting that arrogance came from naming a company after you. He says that one of the reasons his old man failed was because he demanded his own name grew with his company. The more power and influence Shinra corp. had earned the more that Shinra the person took for himself. It didn't matter too much in the end. After what had become known worldwide as 'The Great Desertion', us and the remaining SOLDIERs pledged allegiance to Rufus Shinra. Lieutenant Charles Kangan had almost immediately been promoted to General, despite damn near all of us knowing that it was him who got the traitors free in the first place.

I don't really need to mention names, do I? They'd made names for themselves, really. The General, his lover, and his Lieutenant. All three had become legends through Shinra, and undoubtedly throughout history. I gotta admit, one of the reasons you didn't mention names around us, was because of what the General had done. All throughout the time I'd known him, he'd been an ass of sorts, but I respected him because he was a human being. I was also friends with the little blonde one, and to see the smiles that the bastard brought to Blondie's face was enough of a reason for me to tolerate him. History changed a bit for the Turks on that day though, and it certainly changed how I'd think of the General from that moment on. He'd done something unforgivable by turning on one of us, one of his closest companions, a brother of his basically. I'd been thrown into Turk commandership that day, and I'd been lost and without a clue of what I was doing for two whole months. I don't think I'd ever get over it, and despite all of Tseng's assurances that it was necessary, I hunted them for those two months until the boss took back the reigns. Once he had, by then, it was too late. Shinra as we knew it had fallen apart. Shinra's disappearance had been sudden, but there was little we could do to prevent it. Karma comes around I guess, and I can still remember the cold look on Shinra junior's face when he found out his dad had disappeared. I wouldn't put it past Rufus to have gotten rid of the old geezer himself, but it was something I guess we'd never really know.

Wutai was a blood soaked barren land for the most part now. The locals had returned to their homes, free from the stronghold that Shinra had placed over them for so long. After my capture, Tseng had come in, all guts and glory, before offering his own brother in exchange for me. He'd explained to the Wutaian General of everything that was about to happen. They started speaking in their own native tongue then, and somehow, Tseng had walked out of there with me over his shoulder and with little more than a scratch on his body. Then, seemingly miraculously, Rufus had managed to bring peace finally, and we often had the young Wutaian princess and the King of Wutai himself coming to headquarters to maintain that relationship. Things weren't always easy where we were now, but they were better than they'd been. Unlikely shit had happened, including the re-emergence of none other than Vincent Valentine. He was a legend amongst Turks, and gradually, had become a legend across the world. Not long after the desertion, there were sightings of Valentine all over the place. More often than not, there would be coinciding reports of none other than the General, within a nearby vicinity of Valentine. We'd figured out by then that Valentine was out to assist the General. When the sightings of Valentine stopped, so too, did sightings of him.

Nobody's all that sure where it is that they went or even if they were still alive. Speculation ran wild across all of the continents, and more often than not, bogus sightings were claimed for an opportunity for locals to get in the paper. They were enemy number one of the world on the official listings, but they would always be heroes. No one ever doubted that. Still, rumors flew that they were having inside help from Shinra. Rufus furiously denied it on any occasion where he was asked, as did Kangan. Both played the dumb card, and the media ate it from their palms willingly. Had anyone bothered to ask Tseng, they would have got the same answer, but perhaps with a barely guarded smirk. Some friendships never died.

With everything that happened, wisely, the science department was disbanded. What they did once they left Shinra, I'd be fucked if I knew, but Rufus was having no mistakes in any potential resurrection of the Jenova project under his name. As far as anyone was concerned, you could look at it in two aspects. Either it was a massive success, creating the world's strongest and undeniably best soldier, or it was a failure of epic proportions, where the loyalty did not lie strong enough and lead to him becoming untamed and out of control. It was always one of Hojo's greatest concerns, and should the bastard have been alive to witness the fall of Shinra at his son's own hands, I dunno whether he'd have been proud or not. Whether or not the General ever knew his lineage was another mystery amongst Shinra. Anyone outside of Shinra wouldn't have known anything better, and all the files regarding the Jenova project were destroyed in Nibelheim's "mystery fire". There were select few who knew what went on that day, and if Rufus could help it, nobody else outside of the Turks would ever know. Truth was, Nibelheim had become subject to years of pent up rage of the General and his little blonde pet. Nobody ever questioned why the entire town was set alight so abruptly, and yet, there were only three casualties. All the other townspeople had conveniently been 'working in the fields' or 'tending to the reactor'. Even the kids.

I still remember the day we went in there to clean shit up. The mansion was completely destroyed, but everything else remained standing. Structural damage was severe, but the only three casualties had been in the mansion itself. Rumor had it that the General had personal grief with them himself, where another suggested a connection to Valentine. We never found out. Either way, they were still pulling strings and fixing all their wrongs whilst remaining under cover. For the most part, anyway. When we'd got there, a lithe guy covered by a hooded cloak in the middle of summer had been engaged in a conversation with the inn owner. Both had looked over, and the inn owner had murmured more words to the figure. The figure had nodded in our direction, before sprinting for the mountains. I made to take after him, but Tseng had grabbed my arm. The only thing I could do was stop and watch as he ran, hood bouncing back and falling to reveal spikey blonde hair. Once he'd reached the path, I'd met bright blue eyes briefly, and a solemn smile was printed across his lips. I've never seen Cloud Strife again. Funnily enough, he wasn't the only citizen of Nibelheim who had disappeared either. Mrs. Strife had disappeared around the chaos of the fire, as had the Lockheart family, consisting of Shane and Marie Lockheart, and their young daughter Tifa. All the locals would say was that they'd packed up and moved for a better life. They wouldn't say any more, and we never pressed any further. Records show they were associates of the Strifes, and that offered no surprises to any of us. Rufus himself gave the order to rebuild Nibelheim exactly how it was, minus a particular mansion.

The Nibelheim reactor was closed, and the contents of it were kept strictly confidential. We'd found unspeakable shit in there, man. As for Jenova, she was gone, leaving nothing behind but a trail of blood leading to the boiling mako pits below. The General had found out his lineage, and we'd figured that may have even been a trigger for his destruction of the mansion and Jenova herself. Tseng was real quiet that day, and I could only imagine why. If I'd have found out what Shinra had done to me, I think I'd have gone bat-shit crazy. From what I gathered, she'd had some kind of toxic hold over the General, but he'd fought his way free. In the end though, we knew she was gone. It was around the time that the sightings of Valentine and the General ceased. I guess they'd finished their business then. Hojo was dead. Tseng had gone to make sure of that, and found his decomposing body being eaten by the wolves. He'd made it out of the building, but help had obviously not come soon enough. Tseng never told us exactly how the bastard died, but every time we'd ask, he'd offer a vague smirk and the line "Let's just say he went out with a 'bang'". Truthfully, nobody asked any more because nobody really cared. He died like he lived his life, and really, how he deserved; isolated, selfishly, and torn to pieces. His little hideout was set alight, and anyone at Icicle or Bone villages who questioned the thick plume of smoke that rose, were told that it was a bushfire cause by lightning. It wasn't entirely too far from the truth. I'd cast the spell myself, after all.

That was around the time that Tuetsi became second in charge, just under Rufus. Heidegger or that slut Scarlet might have been given a decent shot if they hadn't been involved in a rather touchy incident near Bone Village. They'd gone looking for the Promised Land, looking for a way to increase mako supplies to the city. They'd had a negative attitude to where they wanted Shinra going. Rufus never liked it, but then again, he hadn't even realised they'd left. The next we knew, there'd been reports of explosions near Bone Village. With no reactors in the vicinity, we were sent to check it out. We'd found Heidegger and Scarlet in the wreckage of a company car, still smoldering when we got there. Tseng had told everyone to examine the scene, and took me and Rude a little further into the forest. What we found there made little sense to me, but Tseng had simply smiled softly and turned us back. I dunno what he had to get sentimental over. All we found was a concealed entrance to what seemed to be a city, and a long pink ribbon. I'd clicked on a little further in though, when we'd found footprints from SOLDIER first class boots, and carvings on a tree of the initials ZF + CS. If those two were here, so was he, and as for the ribbon? Somewhere along the line, the Cetra girl we'd been keeping an eye on had slipped through the cracks. How she did it without alerting the Turks was something I don't think any of us would know. She was a bright spark, that girl, and seemingly now an associate in one way or another of the General himself. If memory served me right though, the Lieutenant had spent some time with her, and they seemed pretty tight. Maybe, in the end, they got the fairytale ending they'd both been after. Nobody knew.

The thing is, was that it was getting harder to ask anyone questions these days. The whole world seemed to be conspiring against us, knowing too much, yet revealing too little. When it came to Shinra's infamous deserters, Tseng never resorted to forceful interrogation, and this was a choice that Rufus had whole-heartedly supported. Truth be told, if I'd found them myself, I may very well have let them go myself. As much as I hated the General, he'd changed this world, and it was for the better. Tseng was still a fuckwit, but I'd fallen for him even more since all the shit started going down. I wouldn't have him any other way. Without the excess levels of stress he'd been previously going through, he'd gotten even more attractive. It wasn't often that you got to see the bastard smile, but now he was letting them slip through every opportunity he had. Rude was my partner now. We'd both started the Turks at the same time, but needless to say, I'd gone through a fair bit more than the lucky bastard and he knew it. He kept to himself usually, but was taking quite a shining to the Wutai princess. Apparently because she's 'got spunk'. Dunno how she feels about him though, as I'm usually delegated to make sure she doesn't do any crafty work. Tseng says he remembers her from when they were both younger. She had a knack for theft even as a six year old, so he says. She's got the mouth of a trooper too. I guess if I was straight, she might be a pretty kick ass girlfriend, but hey, good luck to Rude.

There are small uprisings now and again from those who are still a little weary of Shinra. Old grudges die hard I suppose, but they need people to run the reactors still. So far, our main threat has been a terrorist group going by the name of Avalanch. We've had run-ins in the past, but they seem to be growing in numbers. As Tseng said, nothing to be overly concerned with right now, but we'll see how shit plays out. Another rumor floating around town is that they've rendezvoused with Strife a few times, and if that's true, maybe we have a little more to be concerned about than we realise. Still, we'll worry about that as it happens. Right now, we're focusing on rebuilding Midgar's slums, knowing all too well that they're way overdue for it, and with Reeve in the second top spot, there's gonna be changes around here. The world's becoming something new, and ya gotta wonder what started it all, ya know? Shinra's thirst for power, the General's unexpected love, or something we're not really ready to learn about just yet? Well, shit happens I suppose, but suddenly, it ain't so bad to tell people you're a Turk.

Something about that makes me feel a whole lot better about the lives we're leading now.

--

"Reno?" Tseng murmured, walking into his office just as the redhead dropped a pen and snapped a book shut, shoving it into his desk drawers.

"Ya?" The Turk asked, placing his hands behind his head and offering a lazy smirk.

"What are you up to? You've been far too quiet for the past hour," The Commander frowned, as Reno allowed his eyes to roam his superior's body freely, seemingly reveling in the slight shift of emotion in Tseng's eyes at the gesture.

"Some book-keeping," The redhead shrugged, "You've lost a little weight, yo."

Tseng looked down at himself, thinking that perhaps he'd lost a little too much weight, but he recovered quickly.

"Must be all the running around after you," The Commander replied with a smirk, prompting a wink from the redhead as Reno stood and approached his lover. He took hold of Tseng's collar and straightened it, before biting lightly on the Commander's neck.

"You love it," Reno practically purred, as Tseng placed a hand on the redhead's lower back and pulled him closer.

"Possibly."

"You wanna go do the dirty on Rufus' desk while he's in Junon?"

"…"

"Aww come on!"

"I've got to stop leaving you on your own, don't I?" Tseng murmured against the redhead's ear.

"Rude went to lunch," Reno shrugged, holding Tseng's gaze defiantly.

"Then let's go to lunch."

The redhead whined, but reluctantly headed for the coat rack to grab his coat and sling it over his shoulder.

"Alright ass face," The Turk nodded, "Let's go hit the town and show them who's boss."

Tseng let out a resigning sigh, before gradually following his Turk.

Things had changed in the world, and Tseng couldn't be more content with which direction they'd taken. He looked out across the city and into the distance, eyes focusing near the Northern Continent, before smiling softly to himself.

…Thank you Sephiroth…

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A/N: I can't tell you how this feels, to have finished this part, and to be leaving some of you behind. I understand that some of you will be happy leaving this right here, and I'll just say I'll miss your company and I'm grateful for every hit, every review, every word of advice, or praise, or constructive criticism you've provided me for this story. I will never ever appreciate you people more than I do right at this very moment. Thank you all so much.

As for the sequel, it's going to take awhile. If you feel like it, keep an eye on what else I post, and hopefully you'll find something else there to keep you busy until the sequel is up.

Much love,

~spopococ