Chapter 14: Return And Progress

The twins shopped for some clothes in Midgar and he saw Alexandra pick up some nice dresses for Tifa and Aerith. While he got some expensive shades, suits, sweaters, pants, and shoes for Cloud.

"Ahhh, a perfect look for a top g. My boy Cloud will be dripping." Ramiel smiled and checked out on the counter. "Nii-san... Why do you even need to make Cloud wear those clothes in Nibelheim? Look at what I got for the girls, some simple and elegant dresses." Alexandra was baffled.

"Tsk, tsk. You will never understand, Alex. That's because you aren't a top g. Clothes make the man, besides. Why are you criticizing me? You wear belts for no reason." Ramiel rebutted and she couldn't retort.

"Well... At least I look cool!" Alexandra huffed and glared at him. "That's right, if you look cool. Then it's alright, don't be too much of a hypocrite alright? Hypocrisy is natural for humans, but too much of it is a bad thing." Ramiel nodded sagely and Alex thought that even if it was because of ridiculous things, he manages to drop some wise words.

"Alright... What's next though? We've got an unlimited card right here, we should bring more presents for them. Nibelheim is out in the sticks after all, they won't see any of these things in like forever if they don't go out of there." Alexandra thought of giving them more gifts.

Ramiel then had an epiphany, remembering his talk with Lazard earlier. "You're a genius, Alex! I'll make Amazon!" He kissed her on the cheek and started thinking of making a shipping company as well. Money is good, more is better.

"Ahhhh, thank you." Alexandra blushed and started fidgeting. "Wait, what idea just popped into your head anyways?"

"Umu, I will tell you one of the best money grabbing services of all time. Online shopping, these suckers will never see it coming. We'll be swimming in money." Ramiel nodded sagely and Alexandra was still confused, but she just shrugged.

They returned back to Shinra and Lazard contacted them. "Hello, I actually need some bit of help. The SOLDIER 2nd class are skeptical of your info and they want to see how capable you guys are..." Lazard has a tired voice and Ramiel snorted.

"So, they think they could bully us huh? Alex, what do you have to say about that?" Ramiel smirked at her sister and her eyes lit up. Turning to slits, as she thought it was unacceptable that they question their skills.

"Hoh? Lazard, tell us where they are lobbying. We need to show some trash how the real world works. That no matter what they do, they will never cross the 1st class threshold." Alex squinted her eyes and cracked her knuckles.

"I thought you'd want that, so I've already sent you a message. They're in the training room for 2nd class. Because honestly, you guys are the only 1st class in Shinra. So we haven't made a training room for your group. And that won't happen in the foreseeable future too. SOLDIER 1st class troops will be countable on one hand." Lazard ended the call and they immediately viewed the message.

"Let's go then, what do you wanna do? Just beat them up by yourself?" Ramiel chuckled and Alexandra grinned. "Good call, nii-san. I guess I'll just beat them half dead so we don't get in trouble." Alex had a malicious smile on her face.

When the twins returned to Shinra HQ, Lazard was already waiting for them with a sheepish smile on his face. "Sorry about this, you know the pride of men that think they're hot stuff." Lazard sighed and the twins just shrugged.

"So, Alex. Do you want to take them on by your lonesome? Just you alone would be overkill anyway." Ramiel looked towards Alex and she snorted.

"Come on, Lazard. Let's show these punks why there are only 2 SOLDIER 1st class in Shinra." Alex put her hand out and Ramiel gave her Masamune.

They quickly arrived at a large training room where the 2nd class train and everybody stared at them. There was already a bit of animosity due to the twins' rising fame in Shinra.

"So they're the rumored 2nd class who will be promoted to 1st class? They don't look like much." One of the soldiers gave a snide remark.

"They are SOLDIER 1st class Ramiel and Alexandra. They are already promoted, these two are your superiors." Lazard's face hardened and decided to give them a wake up call.

The soldiers had a look of surprise and Ramiel waved his hands at them while Alex spit on the ground. "I am Alexandra, SOLDIER 1st class. Who are you pieces of trash?" She brandished Masamune and was in a really bad mood, because she wanted to return to Nibelheim immediately and relax with the kids.

The soldiers went quiet, they had a good number and were a dozen. Considered to be the elite of the SOLDIER organization. That is until Ramiel and Alexandra came into the fray.

The arrogant guy from earlier gritted his teeth and brandished his SOLDIER standard sword from Shinra. "You gonna accept that insult boys? Let's show em... They probably just have connections with Shinra."

Lazard raised a brow at the man's delusions and that was punishable by dismissal. Insubordination is a huge deal in the military after all. It is a trait that can lead to whole wars being lost. Especially if you are on an elite squad.

Alexandra gave a smirk and wasn't amused by their words. They had no time for their crap and stared at Lazard. Her eyes glowing a bright azure. "Lazard, we decided to play this little game with your soldiers... You better work hard later."

Alexandra put her sword in her left hand and swung it with incredible speed at the side. "Discipline and self awareness are important here. You should be ashamed to call yourselves soldiers, punks. You have no honor to your name and profession."

She then gestured for them to come to her all at once. "Hah, Lazard. Are you sure you really want these guys to be 2nd class? This is the best that Shinra can give? You'll take forever to beat Wutai with these as your elites. I can already tell that they're lazy." Ramiel sighed and Lazard stiffened.

"I don't know what to tell you, they're the only ones who passed the tests. Jenova cells and Mako aren't exactly pleasant for people... You guys are just built different." Lazard shrugged and Ramiel raised a brow at him.

"Then begin disciplining them, if I were you. I would've already liquidated these guys. They are arrogant and think they're the best in the whole world. Wutai will definitely kill them and the war will take ages. Though that's fine with me, more time that Shinra focuses on Wutai is better." Ramiel thought that was beneficial for their research.

The soldiers began circling Alexandra and the arrogant guy who was apparently their leader casted thundaga at her. But she just used reflect and it went back to them with even more strength.

"That's like elementary, are you really guys trained to fight?" Alex snorted and just stood there, menacingly.

The soldiers gritted their teeth and roared, lunging at her and swinging their swords with fast, but plain movement.

She just parried everything without moving from her position and the other half of the soldiers casted spells at her. She sighed, looking at Lazard and Ramiel while shaking her head.

"That means she disapproves." Ramiel chuckled and Lazard rolled his eyes. "Of course it means she's disappointed. What makes them think that would work on her? When she can reflect those all back at them or injure the others at the crossfire."

Spells rained down on her position and she decided to just use a magical barrier or they will get maimed for sure if she reflects it back.

"This is getting ridiculous, I want to go home and play with Tifa and Aerith." Alex just sighed and stomped on the ground.

Casting gravity on the soldiers, they immediately kneeled on the ground and was panting for breath. Suddenly losing blood flow to their brain from increased gravity as their organs strained.

She then started kicking them one by one on the face to knock them out, as using her sword on them would be a disgrace to her blade.

"Are we done here?" Alex gave her sword back to Ramiel and Lazard nodded. "I don't know if they would train harder because of that. But I think this will have a negative effect on them." Lazard got thinking and they would surely be petty little bitches.

"That's the point I think, with this. They will have animosity to the top and prolong the war for being stupid. You've also falsely reported our strength to Shinra, right? This will buy us a lot of time. Years, probably." Ramiel nodded in satisfaction and gave a thumbs up at Alex.

"I honestly didn't think of that, but I guess that will be better in the long run. We can just report them as deceased due to traps and stuff when we kill them all later because they would surely try something." Alex sighed.

"Come on then, the kids probably miss us already. We haven't been away long, but you know how they are." Ramiel chuckled and they began their trip, back to Nibelheim.

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They were using a chopper of Shinra as commute and was dropped off in the mountains of Nibel. The twins quickly went to the manor at the outskirts and Ramiel opened the door.

"We're back!" He shouted out and after a few minutes hanging out in the living room, Aerith appeared with Tifa and Ifalna.

"Ramiel-nii! Alex-nee! I thought you would be away for a long time!?" Aerith jumped at them and Ramiel caught her with a smile.

"Oof, woah there tiger. You shouldn't just run at us like that and jump, what if I couldn't catch you?" Ramiel carried her and patted her head, giving her some candy from Midgar.

"Yay! You guys are the best, it's quite lonely without you guys. Cloud and Tifa don't really do anything exciting." Aerith dissed her friends and Tifa puffed her cheeks.

"What!? You have something to say to me? It's not fair that you have powers like Ifalna-san." Tide huffed and Ifalna laughed at their antics.

"Welcome back you two, the children dearly missed you. How was your trip in Midgar?" Ifalna smiled at them. Aerith and Tifa then got excited, wanting to hear more from them.

"Ahhh, let me tell you about a place named Wutai. It looked beautiful, with forests everywhere and a beach." Alex began their child friendly story. Ramiel then took out their gifts.

After a few minutes, Cloud appeared and entered the manor while panting. "I saw a helicopter that had Shinra's logo on it! Are Ramiel-nii and Alex-nee back?" Cloud had an excited look on his face and when he saw them, he gave a smile.

"Perfect timing, Cloud. Now that you three are here, let me give you your gifts." Ramiel took out some suitcases and showed them their gifts.

A training sword for Cloud that was basically indestructible for his strength so he could swing it around without worry. The girls then received some dresses from Alex.

"Woah! Thanks a lot!" Cloud immediately held it and tried feeling for the weight on it. Surprised how unwieldy a real sword was.

Ramiel laughed and ruffled his hair. "It's a bit heavy for you, so you should train with it every day." Ramiel smiled at him and the girls put the dresses on over themselves, immediately asking each other how they look.

"Ifalna, can you cook this for the kids? I think they'll really like this. I'll go and meet up with Gast, alright?" Ramiel gave her a nice slab of beef with tons of marbling and the kids looked at it intently. The pretty piece of meat that was like a ruby shone from the light.

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Ramiel went to the basement and saw Gast there that was focused on his experiments. "Hey, old man. I'm back, anything new?" Ramiel greeted from afar so he won't startle him.

"Ohhh? You're back, brat. Tch, I thought you were participating in the war. Now Aerith will have a bad influence nearby." Gast snorted and Ramiel flipped him off.

"But no, there's no advancement to the project whatsoever... Jenova's cells just mutate everything I try it on. Even your sister's cells, it can resist it a lot. But when the threshold of 50/50 mass gets reached, her cells can't take it and mutates like cancer." Gast frowned and threw a file at him.

"I see... Hey, I wanna test something. I want you test it on Aerith's or the other kids' cells. Have you tried introducing Jenova cells with a special environment? Like say, while they're being bathed in Mako?" Ramiel gave a smirk and Gast raised a brow.

"Two wrongs don't make a right kid, Mako is also detrimental for humans... Wait, you're onto something. What did you discover?" Gast got interested and Ramiel smirked at him.

"When Alex got influenced by her Jenova cells, too far for my own comfort. I was able to reign her in faster with Mako or the lifestream... I got the idea from Ifalna's story on how the Cetra sealed Jenova using the lifestream. With Jenova's high vitality and survival capabilities. It would technically survive Mako poisoning if we get the ratios right. Then we let the person adapt and voila, a superhuman." Ramiel gave his theory and Gast went into deep thought.

"You're on to something, brat. Come on, let's test it. I already tried on Aerith's cells. So I have some samples left." Gast revealed and Ramiel was pretty surprised about that, not expecting it.

"I thought you wouldn't do that for the life of you." Ramiel got curious and Gast shrugged. "I just want to make my daughter stronger, even with your protection. She will be targeted like the plague when we get discovered. And that isn't a 0 probability. When shit goes down, I want her and Ifalna to be capable." Gast's face hardened and Ramiel nodded at him in satisfaction.

"Good choice old man, good choice." Now let's get our experiments started. I don't have much time, Shinra might send us off to Wutai again in a drop of the hat." Ramiel sighed and they began experimenting with their new theory.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.